HOWW - Drinking Moonshine

This "His Only Weakness Was..." came about when I was thinking about some of the middle-range social vices of humans.  

     Polo’s only weakness was drinking moonshine.  It was a habit he started in primary school, no doubt a result of being related to his father. It caused a delay in knowledge about the world in some areas, but ignited explosions of experience in others. He was able to have a quality to his life, not of mere sustenance and material items, but of adventure, of outlook, of disposition.  After The Accident, he felt so bad and cried so much, and talked himself so down that he up and quit moonshine.  He quit eighty-three times actually. The shortest bit of moonshine sobriety was four hours. The longest streak of not drinking moonshine would have been a whole week, except on that Sunday, the Boon Rascals showed up, so really it was just six-and-a-half days.  But he told everyone it was seven, so it was seven to anyone that was asked.  And there was that time he got a birthday present from Bard Cooney. A jug a’ gin. Folsem’s brand.  Now that’s a drink you can serve to your grandmother.  Polo drank that for a whole month instead of moonshine. And he told everyone in town that he had been thinking about things, had a talk with someone and that he would stop drinkin’ shine and would switch to proper spirits instead. He told all about Bard's birthday gift and everything. Sheriff Tinney said he was right proud of him and that this was a start to a new chapter in his life. The Women’s League even came out and sang him a song, gave him a pamphlet and told him they would be prayin’ on their knees, cryin’ and sobbin' too, so that he would get sober. But we all knew that prayer for other folks don’t work as good unless that person is praying for the same thing. I never seen Polo pray. Never heard him talk about doin‘ it either. And if he did pray up to Almighty God, I’m not sure it would be to stop drinking. During the Folsom's Month, Polo dressed himself up proper, started working and even went to church for the Easter service of 1902.  
      Much later Bard told him that it was bathtub gin that he put in a Folsem’s jug. Why would he do something like that?  Everyone else in town knew that Bard made gin in his other barn and they kept it to themselves. So when Polo come around braggin' about his month, they all smiled and congratulated him and wished him good luck. Polo looked at Bard like his only child was just kidnapped. Things degraded swiftly for Polo, Bard, Tinney and a few others in town. 
     At the end of August in 1908 Sheriff Tinney began talking about jailing him again because something had to be done. Complaints increased.  So, it was on the last day of that month that I went over to Polo's with a string of lake trout as an offering. I had planned to talk  some sense into him and fix him once and for all.