Judge Hammond Quotes

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Because of the period in which Timothy Shay Arthur wrote Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There he spent a lot of time writing about the sins and virtues of humanity as well as the importance of temperance. That being said, while the virtue of temperance seems to be the most important in the mind of the speaker, the sin of greed is what makes his story what it is and what sets the ball rolling for his main plot points. Very specifically that of Simon Slade and of Judge Hammond. Had Slade kept his profitable, respectable career as a miller, thus not bringing on the greed of Hammond, the unspeakable tragedy that fell upon Cedarville would have been avoided. Despite having an honest trade as a miller, Simon Slade chose to change professions …show more content…

Hammond himself was near unaffected by the barroom of the Sickle and Sheath, unlike his son, but was consumed with greed. A new, more respectable, bar “slightly increased the value of his property,” (662) and as such he was led to bringing his peers and young son to the bar with him in an effort to endorse it and raise those values further. Having been influenced by the drink in a tavern that his peers also frequented, Willy Hammond, once full of promise for both his father’s business and for the town, started “dashing… recklessly along the road to ruin.” (701) This “dashing” lead to his involvement with Harvey Green, a gambling man that epitomized the books showing of greed as a deadly sin, and died for it at the hands of a knife. His mother, having already been troubled by her boy’s long nights at the bar, died of a broken heart by his side, leaving Judge Hammond alone and, eventually, deprived of the money he had lost his family in the pursuit of. Left to die in a poorhouse by a community that remembered him only for his greed, Judge Hammond suffered a lonely fate because of his involvement with the Sickle and …show more content…

On his end, Judge Hammond could have continued to live a wealthy, comfortable lifestyle with his wife- barring any unfortunate business decisions- as his son grew to inherit the family fortune and take over the family’s businesses and properties. Both parents could have expected to live to see their children grow up and to see their children if fate was kind, but their need to progress their wealth further took away these chances and instead handed them the ends they

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