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 ex- 

 perience and that here set down 

 by the late Mr. Benton is so re- 

 markable 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 in- 

 fluence : — ' 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 gam- 

 bled. I cannot tell v/ho is losing in games 

 that are being played. She admonished 

 me, too, against liquor-drinking, and what- 

 ever capacity for endurence I have at 

 present, and whatever usefulness I may 

 have attained through life, I attribute to 

 having complied with her pious and cor- 

 rect 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 black- 

 snake 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. 



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