Judge Hammond Quotes

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

as he, “… got tired of hard work and determined to lead an easier life… in which a man is sure to make money,” even while understanding the temptations of the job (656). Even if his intentions were to do well by his family as a tavern keeper he knowingly did this despite the feelings of his wife and the possible corruption of his children. Through each night the speaker stayed at the Sickle and Sheath, Simon Slade himself is shown to be slowly corrupted by the money he had gained, and thus, more influenced by the drink than had been originally predicted. This is reflected by his son, Frank, who began the story a friendly, respectable boy, but who also fell to the influence of alcohol after months of clear temptation. Although Simon saw the danger after Frank began to drink with the patrons, he continued to keep the inn for the money it produced. His wife, Ann, whose heart was slowly broken over the course of the story as she watched her son and husband succumb to sin, lost her grasp on reality after her son beat her husband in a drunken rage and spent the rest of her life in a hospital. Flora, their daughter, remained pure and was the luckiest of all the family. While the lack of temperance causes these hardships, it would also have never been a problem for a family of hard-working laborers. The desire for more wealth put the Slade family in the way of temptation.
Had Simon Slade chosen to stay a miller, Judge Hammond’s life would have been completely different, and much easier for the trouble.

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

Sheath.
“You were still doing a fair business with your mill?” This is what the speaker asks Mr. Slade as he tends to his inn on the first peaceful night, and it shows the surprise at the fact that any man would abandon “so useful a business.” (656) As such, the speaker’s incredulousness is tinged over the years with regret that the former miller hadn’t done just that. Had Simon Slade kept his quiet job as the hardworking, Cedarville miller, he would have still made a pleasant sum of money at the end of the month, and would be able to raise his children in a safe environment.
Frank could have continued his father’s work or been apprenticed in another field of hard labor, and Flora would most certainly have married and bore children for a respectable man, perhaps even Willy Hammond.

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

suffered.
With Judge Hammond egging him on all the way, Simon Slade’s greed lead to the loss of the town people’s temperance, and in doing so caused the destruction of his own family and that of his benefactor. This is seen through the corruption of Frank Slade and Willy Hammond, the mental and physical loss of their wives, and the general destruction of their families. Had he, as the speaker would have preferred, stayed a humble miller he would have been much better off in the long run; perhaps even living a long life with a much happier family in a much more peaceful community. Likewise, had Judge Hammond kept away from the bar as he had the last, and had not urged his cohorts along, he would not only have saved his son but a decent portion of the town as well. These men’s greed led to the corruption of a once quiet town, and to the tragedy of both their houses.