Chapter 4: Our Southern Friend
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Pioneer A.A., minister's son, and southern farmer, he asked, "Who am I to
say there is no God?"
FATHER IS an Episcopal minister and his work takes him over long drives on
bad roads. His parishioners are limited in number, but his friends are many,
for to him race, creed, or social position makes no difference. It is not
long before he drives up in the buggy. Both he and old Maud are glad to get
home. The drive was long and cold but he was thankful for the hot bricks
that some thoughtful person had given him for his feet. Soon supper is on
the table. Father says grace, which delays my attack on the buckwheat cakes
and sausage.
Bedtime comes. I climb to my room in the attic. It is cold, so there is no
delay. I crawl under a pile of blankets and blow out the candle. The wind is
rising and howls around the house. But I am safe and warm. I fall into a
dreamless sleep.
I am in church. Father is delivering his sermon. A wasp is crawling up the
back of the lady in front of me. I wonder if it will reach her neck. Shucks!
It has flown away. At last! The message has been delivered.
"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works---." I
hunt for my nickel to drop in the plate so that mine will be seen.
I am in another fellow's room at college. "Freshman," said he to me, "do you
ever take a drink?" I hesitated. Father had never directly spoken to me
about drinking but he never drank any, so far as I knew. Mother hated liquor
and feared a drunken man. Her brother had been a drinker and had died in a
state hospital for the insane. But his life was unmentioned, so far as I was
concerned. I had never had a drink, but I had seen enough merriment in the
boys who were drinking to be interested. I would never be like the village
drunkard at home.
"Well," said the older boy, "do you?"
"Once in a while," I lied. I could not let him think I was a sissy.
He poured out two drinks. "Here's looking at you," said he. I gulped it down
and choked. I didn't like it, but I would not say so. A mellow glow stole
over me. This wasn't so bad after all. Sure, I'd have another. The glow
increased. Other boys came in. My tongue loosened. Everyone laughed loudly.
I was witty. I had no inferiorities. Why, I wasn't even ashamed of my skinny
legs! This was the real thing!
A haze filled the room. The electric light began to move. Then two bulbs
appeared. The faces of the other boys grew dim. How sick I felt. I staggered
to the bathroom. Shouldn't have drunk so much or so fast. But I knew how to
handle it now. I'd drink like a gentleman after this.
And so I met John Barleycorn. The grand fellow who at my call made me a
hail-fellow-well-met, who gave me such a fine voice, as we sang "Hail, hail,
the gang's all here" and "Sweet Adeline," who gave me freedom from fear and
feelings of inferiority. Good old John! He was my pal, all right.
Final exams of my senior year and I may somehow graduate. I would never have
tried, but mother counts on it so. A case of measles saved me from being
kicked out during my sophomore year.
But the end is in sight. My last exam and an easy one. I gaze at the board
with its questions. Can't remember the answer to the first. I'll try the
second. No soap there. I don't seem to remember anything. I concentrate on
one of the questions. I don't seem to be able to keep my mind on what I am
doing. I get uneasy. If I don't get started soon, I won't have time to
finish. No use. I can't think.
I leave the room, which the honor system allows. I go to my room. I pour out
half a tumbler of grain alcohol and fill it with ginger ale. Now back to the
exam. My pen moves rapidly. I know enough of the answers to get by. Good old
John Barleycorn! He can be depended on. What a wonderful power he has over
the mind! He has given me my diploma!
Underweight! How I hate that word. Three attempts to enlist in the service,
and three failures because of being skinny. True, I have recently recovered
from pneumonia and have an alibi, but my friends are in the war or going,
and I am not. I visit a friend who is awaiting orders. The atmosphere of
"eat, drink, and be merry" prevails and I absorb it. I drink a lot every
night. I can hold a lot now, more than the others.
I am examined for the draft and pass the physical test. I am to go to camp
on November 13. The Armistice is signed on the eleventh, and the draft is
called off. Never in the service! The war leaves me with a pair of blankets,
a toilet kit, a sweater knit by my sister, and a still greater sense of
inferiority.
It is ten o'clock of a Saturday night. I am working hard on the books of a
subsidiary company of a large corporation. I have had experience in selling,
in collecting, and in accounting, and I am on my way up the ladder.
Then the crack-up. Cotton struck the skids and collections went cold. A
twenty-three million dollar surplus wiped out. Offices closed up and workers
discharged. I, and the books of my division, have been transferred to the
head office. I have no assistance and am working nights, Saturdays, and
Sundays. My salary has been cut. My wife and new baby are fortunately
staying with relatives. I feel exhausted. The doctor has told me that if I
don't give up inside work, I'll have tuberculosis. But what am I to do? I
have a family to support and have no time to be looking for another job.
I reach for the bottle that I just got from George, the elevator boy.
I am a traveling salesman. The day is over and business has been not so
good. I'll go to bed. I wish I were home with the family and not in this
dingy hotel.
Well---well---look who's here! Good old Charlie! It's great to see him.
How's the boy? A drink? You bet your life! We buy a gallon of "corn" because
it is so cheap. Yet I am fairly steady when I go to bed.
Morning comes. I feel horrible. A little drink will put me on my feet. But
it takes others to keep me there.
I become a teacher in a boys' school. I am happy in my work. I like the boys
and we have lots of fun, in class and out.
The doctor bills are heavy and the bank account is low. My wife's parents
come to our assistance. I am filled with hurt pride and self-pity. I seem to
get no sympathy for my illness and have no appreciation of the love behind
the gift.
I call the bootlegger and fill up my charred keg. But I do not wait for the
charred keg to work. I get drunk. My wife is extremely unhappy. Her father
comes to sit with me. He never says an unkind word. He is a real friend, but
I do not appreciate him.
We are staying with my wife's father. Her mother is in a critical condition
at a hospital. I cannot sleep. I must get myself together. I sneak
downstairs and get a bottle of whiskey from the cellaret. I pour drinks down
my throat. My father-in-law appears. "Have a drink?" I ask. He makes no
reply and hardly seems to see me. His wife dies that night.
Mother has been dying of cancer for a long time. She is near the end now and
is in a hospital. I have been drinking a lot but never get drunk. Mother
must never know. I see her about to go.
I return to the hotel where I am staying and get gin from the bellboy. I
drink and go to bed; I take a few the next morning and go see my mother once
more. I cannot stand it. I go back to the hotel and get more gin. I drink
steadily. I come to at three in the morning. The indescribable torture has
me again. I turn on the light. I must get out of the room or I shall jump
out of the window. I walk miles. No use. I go to the hospital, where I have
made friends with the night superintendent. She puts me to bed and gives me
a hypodermic.
I am at the hospital to see my wife. We have another child. But she is not
glad to see me. I have been drinking while the baby was arriving. Her father
stays with her.
It is a cold, bleak day in November. I have fought hard to stop drinking.
Each battle has ended in defeat. I tell my wife I cannot stop drinking. She
begs me to go to a hospital for alcoholics that has been recommended. I say
I will go. She makes the arrangements, but I will not go. I'll do it all
myself. This time I'm off of it for good. I'll just take a few beers now and
then.
It is the last day of the following October, a dark, rainy morning. I come
to on a pile of hay in a barn. I look for liquor and can't find any. I
wander to a table and drink five bottles of beer. I must get some liquor.
Suddenly I feel hopeless, unable to go on. I go home. My wife is in the
living room. She had looked for me last evening after I left the car and
wandered off into the night. She had looked for me this morning. She has
reached the end of her rope. There is no use trying any more, for there is
nothing to try. "Don't say anything," I say to her. "I am going to do
something."
I am in the hospital for alcoholics. I am an alcoholic. The insane asylum
lies ahead. Could I have myself locked up at home? One more foolish idea. I
might go out West on a ranch where I couldn't get anything to drink. I might
do that. Another foolish idea. I wish I were dead, as I have often wished
before. I am too yellow to kill myself.
Four alcoholics play bridge in a smoke-filled room. Anything to get my mind
from myself. The game is over and the other three leave. I start to clean up
the debris. One man comes back, closing the door behind him.
He looks at me. "You think you are hopeless, don't you?" he asks.
"I know it," I reply.
"Well, you're not," says the man. "There are men on the streets of New York
today who were worse than you, and they don't drink anymore."
"What are you doing here then?" I ask.
"I went out of here nine days ago saying that I was going to be honest, but
I wasn't," he answers.
A fanatic, I thought to myself, but I was polite. "What is it?" I enquire.
Then he asks me if I believe in a power greater than myself, whether I call
that power God, Allah, Confucius, Prime Cause, Divine Mind, or any other
name. I told him that I believe in electricity and other forces of nature,
but as for a God, if there is one, He has never done anything for me. Then
he asks me if I am willing to right all the wrongs I have ever done to
anyone, no matter how wrong I thought the others were. Am I willing to be
honest with myself about myself and tell someone about myself, and am I
willing to think of other people, of their needs instead of myself, in order
to get rid of the drink problem?
"I'll do anything," I reply.
"Then all of your troubles are over," says the man and leaves the room. The
man is in bad mental shape certainly. I pick up a book and try to read, but
I cannot concentrate. I get in bed and turn out the light. But I cannot
sleep. Suddenly a thought comes. Can all the worthwhile people I have known
be wrong about God? Then I find myself thinking about myself and a few
things that I had wanted to forget. I begin to see I am not the person I had
thought myself, that I had judged myself by comparing myself to others and
always to my own advantage. It is a shock.
Then comes a thought that is like a voice. "Who are you to say there is no
God?" It rings in my head; I can't get rid of it.
I get out of bed and go to the man's room. He is reading. "I must ask you a
question," I say to the man. "How does prayer fit into this thing?"
"Well," he answers, "you've probably tried praying like I have. When you've
been in a jam, you've said, 'God, please do this or that,' and if it turned
out your way that was the last of it, and, if it didn't, you've said 'There
isn't any God' or 'He doesn't do anything for me.' Is that right?"
"Yes," I reply.
"That isn't the way," he continued. "The thing I do is to say 'God, here I
am and here are all my troubles. I've made a mess of things and can't do
anything about it. You take me, and all my troubles, and do anything you
want with me.' Does that answer your question?"
"Yes, it does," I answer. I return to bed. It doesn't make sense. Suddenly I
feel a wave of utter hopelessness sweep over me. I am in the bottom of hell.
And there, a tremendous hope is born. It might be true.
I tumble out of bed onto my knees. I know not what I say. But slowly a great
peace comes to me. I feel lifted up. I believe in God. I crawl back into bed
and sleep like a child.
Some men and women come to visit my friend of the night before. He invites
me to meet them. They are a joyous crowd. I have never seen people that
joyous before. We talk. I tell them of the peace and that I believe in God.
I think of my wife. I must write her. One girl suggests that I phone her.
What a wonderful idea!
My wife hears my voice and she knows that I have found the answer to life.
She comes to New York. I get out of the hospital and we visit some of these
newfound friends.
I am home again. I have lost the Fellowship. Those who understand me are far
away. The same old problems and worries still surround me. Members of my
family annoy me. Nothing seems to be working out right. I am blue and
unhappy. Maybe a drink---I put on my hat and dash off in the car.
Get into the lives of other people is one thing the fellows in New York had
said. I go to see a man I had been asked to visit and tell him my story. I
feel much better! I have forgotten about a drink.
I am on a train, headed for a city. I have left my wife at home, sick, and I
have been unkind to her in leaving. I am very unhappy. Maybe a few drinks
when I get to the city will help. A great fear seizes me. I talk to the
stranger in the seat beside me. The fear and the insane idea are taken away.
Things are not going so well at home. I am learning that I cannot have my
own way as I used to. I blame my wife and children. Anger possesses me,
anger such as I have never felt before. I will not stand for it. I pack my
bag and I leave. I stay with some understanding friends.
I see where I have been wrong in some respects. I do not feel angry any
more. I return home and say I am sorry for my wrong. I am quiet again. But I
have not seen yet that I should do some constructive acts of love without
expecting any return. I shall learn this after some more explosions.
I am blue again. I want to sell the place and move away. I want to get where
I can find some alcoholics to help and where I can have some fellowship. A
man calls me on the phone. Will I take a young fellow who has been drinking
for two weeks to live with me? Soon I have others who are alcoholics and
some who have other problems.
I begin to play God. I feel that I can fix them all. I do not fix anyone,
but I am getting part of a tremendous education and I have made some new
friends.
Nothing is right. Finances are in bad shape. I must find a way to make some
money. The family seems to think of nothing but spending. People annoy me. I
try to read. I try to pray. Gloom surrounds me. Why has God left me? I mope
around the house. I will not go out and I will not enter into anything. What
is the matter? I cannot understand. I will not be that way.
I'll get drunk! It is a cold-blooded idea. It is premeditated. I fix up a
little apartment over the garage with books and drinking water. I am going
to town to get some liquor and food. I shall not drink until I get back to
the apartment. Then I shall lock myself in and read. And as I read, I shall
take little drinks at long intervals. I shall get myself "mellow" and stay
that way.
I get in the car and drive off. Halfway down the driveway a thought strikes
me. I'll be honest anyway. I'll tell my wife what I am going to do. I back
up to the door and go into the house. I call my wife into a room where we
can talk privately. I tell her quietly what I intend to do. She says
nothing. She does not get excited. She maintains a perfect calm.
When I am through speaking, the whole idea has become absurd. Not a trace of
fear is in me. I laugh at the insanity of it. We talk of other things.
Strength has come from weakness.
I cannot see the cause of this temptation now. But I am to learn later that
it began with my desire for material success becoming greater than my
interest in the welfare of my fellow man. I learn more of that foundation
stone of character, which is honesty. I learn that when we act upon the
highest conception of honesty that is given us, our sense of honesty becomes
more acute.
I learn that honesty is truth and that truth shall make us free!