The Keeley Cure Comes to Olympia

WONDERFUL WORK.

What is Going on at the Keeley Institute.

Patients From Every Part of the State—Voluminous Correspondence Fighting the Deadly Enemy.

The Keeley class is well pleased with its new quarters in the Horr building. They are comfortable, central and pleasant, and these features, combined with the ever obliging and assiduous attention of Manager Haller, renders attendance at the institute rather a pleasure than otherwise.

ALL ARE HOPEFUL.

The members of the class are, as a rule, men of more than ordinary intelligence and education, and most of them have had an extended and active business experience. They come from all parts of the state, and their discussion upon the merits and characteristics of their several localities, and upon all topics of general interest, are both instructive and profitable. They meet upon a common ground, with common hopes and sympathetic aims and purposes, and a mutually friendly association is at once established. All hope confidently for release from the curse that has blighted and clouded their lives, and each honors the other for the courage and manhood that has led him to make a stand against the common enemy.

WONDERFUL WORK.

The correspondence of the institute is already quite voluminous, requiring the service of an expert typewriter, and it is increasing at a very rapid rate. Many of the letters received contain specimens of the saddest literature imaginable. They come from heartbroken wives, grieving parents, and sorrowing friends, and the burden of the cry is, 'save our loved ones.' Sometimes they come from the victim of habit himself, confessing in an agony of self-abasement and misery his chained and helpless condition, and seeking through the institute to save himself from the demon that pursues him. One of these is now before the writer. Its author, a wretched and helpless slave of habit, often relating his futile struggles against his terrible foe, always resulting in disaster, defeat and decreased power of resistance, says: 'From what I have heard and seen concerning the efficacy and success of your treatment, results the first ray of real hope that has ever crossed my darkened way. I believe that it will save me, and little can you or anyone else imagine what such a hope means to one in my condition. I shall hasten to your institute as soon as I am financially able.'

In the last clause of this statement there is a point that may well attract the attention and careful consideration of all friends of temperance and reform. The greater portion of effort and expenditure in the direction of temperance reform is a failure, because it is not practical. It aims to cure through the mind, but it gives no help or support to the affected and often shattered body, which is the real seat of the disease. If the effort and means now so lavishly devoted to the interests of the persuasion and the moral restraint methods was directed toward effecting a real physical cure, of what is now admitted to be a real physical disease, there can be no question that the number of wretched drunkards in the land would rapidly decrease. The methods of moral suasion are not to be by any means totally condemned, but in the light of past experience and present opportunity, they may certainly and with justice be questioned when the matter of dealing with the confirmed victim of drink is being considered.

SELF CONTROL.

A member of the Keeley Institute met a friend upon the street the other day, and the following conversation ensued:

'Do you not feel a sense of humiliation in connection with your attendance here?' said the friend. 'I should think that such a public confession of a man of self-control would be repugnant to you.'

The Keeley man looked at his friend for a moment, and then quietly but very seriously asked:

'If you had been hurled into a roaring torrent and were being swiftly and surely swept into furious rapids where certain destruction awaited you, would you be ashamed to grasp a limb reached out to you? I think not, and yet that was precisely my situation when I came here. And then think of another phase of the case. My personal destruction would be no great matter, but think of my friends, of those who love me; yes, love me, vile and low as I am, and who are bound to me for good or evil by the strong ties of kindred and association. Think of the rivers of tears that I have caused to flow, of the hearts that have ached and almost broken because of my conduct, of the sorrow, disappointment and privation that has flowed from my bondage to the great enemy, strong drink, and then ask if I am ashamed to be seen making an honest and practical effort to free myself.

'No, I am not ashamed. If I, as I doubt not, can escape from the great curse that has well nigh destroyed me, if I can heal some of the wounds that I have made, if I can once more stand a man among men, clothed and in my right mind, and able to direct my efforts toward securing the comfort and happiness of those dependent upon and related to me, I shall be the happiest man alive, and pride rather than shame will fill my breast. Such a result I am certain will follow my attendance here, and therefore a sense of humiliation is the thing farthest from my mind.'

The friend shook the speaker heartily by the hand and bade him God speed.

THE TRIBUNE FUND.

In the furtherance of the work among such residents of Olympia who are financially unable to share in the benefits of the treatment THE TRIBUNE has placed at the corner of Main and Fourth streets a box for the reception of contributions, however small. The proceeds of the fund are placed in the care of a committee consisting of Judge Robinson, John F. Gowey and the Rev. Mr. Drake. All worthy persons who desire financial aid in this direction should make application to any of the gentlemen mentioned above. These gentlemen alone will have knowledge of assistance from THE TRIBUNE fund, and no publicity will be given the matter, so that the patient need not feel that he is ever looked upon as an object of charity. Let those who have comfortable homes and everything for the enjoyment of Christmas remember how many homes are wrecked and how many little children near by are without the actual necessaries of life, to say nothing of the comforts. Remember that it is not only this Christmas, but probably for years back. Think of the ray of pleasure that would surround the little ones and the happiness that would fill every room of so many homes were it not for the deadly grasp on a father or a brother. Of your plenty you can surely spare a little for another's good. A little self-sacrifice will make you happier and better at Christmas tide, and a coin dropped in the box at the northwest corner of Main and Fourth streets will help toward a world of good.