Eleven years a drunkard, or, The life of Thomas Doner: having lost both arms through intemperance, he wrote this book with his teeth as a warning to others

He tells of the shame, misery and pain which alcohol brought on him, and will bring to anyone whosoever be tempted by the pleasant feeling it produces at the time of drinking. It doesn't bring one home to shelter but drives them away. It leads one to forget the evil it brings and tempts one to pursue more for the pleasant feeling it produces. This "pleasant feeling" produces many murderers in our land. It doesn't push the sufferer to ask for help but to lie about the drinking. Once Satan has a foothold he wants an even tighter grasp. He exhorts - you boys, to learn this lesson, "If you do not take the first drink, you will not be tempted to take the second." And if you take the first drink do not take the second or the monster will have done its work and will surely lead you to a third and a fourth and to associate with the inmates of taverns until you are committed to prison, executed in the gallows, a cripple (like Doner) or to a drunkard's grave. Filth, drunkenness, crime and blasphemy, Doner writes, are the rewards for stepping in this Snare of the Devil. - Summary by Curt Walton