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History repeats itself.
THE following I find in a
Sandwich Island paper which
some friend has sent me from
that tranquil far-off retreat. The
coincidence between my own experience
and that here set down
by the late Mr. Benton is so remarkable
that I cannot forbear
publishing and commenting upon
the paragraph. The Sandwich
Island paper says:—
“How touching is this tribute of the late
Hon. T. H. Benton to his mother's influence:—`My
mother asked me never to
use tobacco; I have never touched it from
that time to the present day. She asked
me not to gamble, and I have never gambled.
I cannot tell who is losing in games
that are being played. She admonished
me, too, against liquor-drinking, and whatever
capacity for endurance I have at
present, and whatever usefulness I may
have attained through life, I attribute to
having complied with her pious and correct
wishes. When I was seven years of
age she asked me not to drink, and then
I made a resolution of total abstinence;
and that I have adhered to it through all
time I owe to my mother.”'
I never saw anything so curious. It is almost an exact epitome of my own
moral career—after simply substituting a grandmother for a mother. How
well I remember my grandmother's asking me not to use tobacco, good
old soul! She said, “You're at it again, are you, you whelp? Now, don't
ever let me catch you chewing tobacco before breakfast again, or I lay I'll blacksnake
you within an inch of your life!” I have never touched it at that hour
of the morning from that time to the present day.
She asked me not to gamble. She whispered and said, “Put up those wicked
cards this minute!—two pair and a jack, you numskull, and the other fellow's
got a flush!”
I never have gambled from that day to this—never once—without a “cold
deck” in my pocket. I cannot even tell who is going to lose in games that are
being played unless I dealt myself.
When I was two years of age she asked me not to drink, and then I made a
resolution of total abstinence. That I have adhered to it and enjoyed the beneficent
effects of it through all time, I owe to my grandmother. I have never
drunk a drop from that day to this of any kind of water.
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