The Battle Axe for Temperance by Cook, George W - 1887: A Wail From the Drunkard's Hovel

Syracuse, N. Y.: Masters & Stone, 1887. Presumed First. Hardcover. Very Good. Maroon cloth covered boards have a stamped-in starburst design and border design on front board and a pebbley texture on both boards, with some rubbing that has lightened some of the high spots. The front bottom corners are lightly bumped. The spine edge has wear at top and bottom edges and has faded to a brownish color, but the gilt lettering on the spine still has some shine. The binding is intact. The free endpapers and paste downs have a blue marble look and feel. The previous owner has signed her name on the ffep and the back or the frontispiece which itself has a picture of the author. The first several pages have some foxing, but most of the rest of the pages have only occasional foxing. The author feels very strongly about the evils of alcohol. He writes, "I do not present myself as a reformed drunkard and ask for your sympathy, for such I never was; but I appeal to you as a drunkard's child - one that has been copelled to pass through this terrible ordeal with all its attending horrors and sufferings, and consequently have a knowledge of it which the inexperienced can never gain."