Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-03-15
RGARGA rs.
gettrrs TO tbe a9toQIe.
In which the Author meets his Readers at their
Fireside.
NO Nv
m - Vorrn

GA0H /
To THE VorER.
My DEAR CITIZEN Upon you devolves
the duty of aiding in the removal of the most
consuming curse that ever scourged the hu-
man race. Let as examine it:
htempcrdnce, in a single breath. embodies
oil that is crushing in poverty, painful in
woe, black in crime and awful in Eternity
The traffic in the agents producing intemper-
ance Is on unmitigated curse upon the people
Ia prolific, undying mother Of abomination
and corruption, from its first gangrenous eat
ings upon the social vitals down TO the pres-
ent day. The legalizaticn of that traffic Is the
most shameful and consummate system Of
l~egalized s~windling ever forced upon an in
telligent and free people. Has not your past
experience taught you these facts
Look at the Diorama of the Rum. curse l.
IL moves steadily before our gaze. Day and
night 1T untolds Its horrid pictures to the
gaze OF millions in both hemispheres. What
sonl-chiling scenery OF woe, want, desola-
ton and crime faithfully painted from life
scenes and death-scenes in the lurid colorinp
Of tears and blood There is not one sunny
spot on which the eye would love to dwell
Gods sunlight seems to shrink from it abash-
cd, and in its stead the glare of the pit falls
upon 1t to display its horror and ugliness.-
kum has ever been man malign star. From
the warm cradle by the hearthside to the red
vestibule of the cold grave it has trembled be.
fore him in life's pathway, leading him with
deceptive wiles to the threshold Of the pit, and
there with the righteousness of fends torment
md destroy. 1t is an i~nsatiate Gorgon it
feasts upon ffy thousand Of your fellow-men
annually, and still its wolf-howl startles us
from our slumbers-it prowls at MONDAY
and moonlight for more victims-its raven
GUS nav can never be filed. Earth's histo-
ry knows no parallel for a%trocity.
When King Death in his Yellow Robe
made our nation tremble last Summer, as
his dead-march among the hollow collins was
heard in the South, in mercy he spared us
and others. Rum plies its torturing engine
Of Death in Carolina as faithfully as at New
Orleans.
When the Destroying Angel, shaking the
fatal poison ofCholera from his leaden wings,
swept across this continent, he seemed to
have one spark of pity unsmothered in his
bosom and spared some-red graves and fes-
tering corpses did not mark his flight eUery,
lchere. RUNS Death Dragon is a stranger
to pity-he has never learned mercy in the
high scool ofthe pit-he poisons every stream,
he lays fields and cities in waste-he breaks
every home-circle. Like the midnight lam.
entations of the scourged and plagued Egyp
tians, in almost every home is heard the wal
- rof the mourners around the bier of the dead
The sprinkling of the lintels with hyssop and
blood would not turn aside the Avenger II
this Passover of He'll
When the scythe of the walking pestilenct
in Europe moved down the wailing victims
the Angel of the Scourge grew weary at las
and ceased his desolating harvest. RUM
sword is never sheathed-he never unnerves
his blood-dyed hand. The slogan" of hi'
blood thirsty m%ercenaries is "slay, and slay
and Stay" until the green grass of our wales
are incarnadine, and our grave yards, where
the disconsolate turtle-dove COOS its mournfu
anthem, groan with the fairness of bloateC
corpses of the slain.
When the "Black Plague burnt its dealt
"spot" on almost every third face in tn,
Eastern world, it killed SuddenIy-paSSed 0,
and left the surviving few free from fear O
danger. The black plague of Intemperanc
sits in every gathering-in homes, fields anC
highways-at the social Preside and the fes
tive reunion, at the wedding and the funeral
an everlasting curse, he never departs.
When war invades and overruns a country
il sweeps across, like the lurid banners of
storm-fanned prairie fire, and its track i
marked with the ashes and ruins Of desola
ton. But the prairie fire does not return
and the green blade and sweet foweret 500
hide the footprints of the destroyer tn
storm of war passes over, the roll Gifts drum
the screech of its fife and boom ofits canno
die away with their echo, and peace smile
and plenty grasses the scathing marks of til
death dealing host. RUNS legion know I
peace, no treaty, no compromise the Shot
of its rabble is ever swelling, its black horC
reel from the bar-room to the grave, fro
the grave to the pit, the rattle of the la
eo2pers Of the victims and gingle of the glas
es on the stencil boards of the drunkery go
up with the startling wall Of the recent dam
ed. Like StrOmbolis' smoking crater q
fires Of the Rum Volcano nave burned
for centuries with increasing intensity Il
cloud of smoke and poisonous gases hal
over the widowed distillery, the hot brea
of pestilence reeks up from the malario
lungs Of the low drunkery, the lava tide
drunkenness among the people still swee
on whitening, scaling and blasting all that
green and lovely in Gods moral Univer'
The children drink as their fathers drank a
lie down at their side to rot with them
~drunkard's graves. One generation catcI
the consuming torch Of Intemperance a
madly filings it down to the next, a bequea
ed curse to their posterity, an hereditary
gacy Of body-blighting, soul-consuming {
20 our children and our children's childrt
CITIZEN! Don't you know that the RI
curse invades all? Has the monster not !
led an assessment from among those y
loved? If he has not you are happy (
families but what mourn the loss of one "
went down to the grave a drunkard W
Gods curse resting heavily upon his SO
The holiest ]precints are insecure. 1t plu,
Divines from the sacred desk with the sa
sang fr0id as It manifests in the lowest h
Of infamy among the vile and abandon
The Statesman and Scholar, the Poet {
Philosopher, the peasant and prince are al
mown down. The strongest and weak
haye been bound down together. The sa
blast that snapped the fragile reed has t
the sturdy oak from its rock grit roots.
Onward ONWARD ! the dark and do
ming avalanche has rushed with a roar t
tells Of death, stream has mingled with sire;
wave has chased after wave until indivi
ais, families and friends have gone dow
return no more. A mangled humanity
oil along plead for mercy and respite, s.
pathy has wept and vainly tried to stay
Avengers bloody harvest, and Jehovah
denounced the policy in the fearful thunc
OF Ills law; but the scourge has hiddcl
self behind n strong bulwark Of statute boz
and hooted its defiance across the entrer
ments dug by the Infamous legislation of
past. Thus secure from the vengeance o
oppressed people it has moved on a resist
whitening curse; q kissing lava-tide, b
with the shattered wrecks Of homes. h
and bliss. Its freight has all along
des0lations, human hearts knotted and
vulsed in all the agony of woe, orphans,