The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-06-20
Wholesale Liquor Dealers.

ne DOSLOn E1eTalu HdS Iue ioi"""So o. ''e'''
which has seldom been surpassed for bold and
terrible imagery, whitening reproof, cutting sar.
casm, and fearless, outspoken truth. II is like
two edged sword-like thousand daggers
like the bitter wall and the fierce invectives
of those who have been enticed, corrupted and
ruined by the maddening cup. If | was enga-
ged in the liquor traffic, it would be like Ban
quo's Ghost, always before me. 1t would give
a complexion "black as night to my dreams,
and disturb my waking hours. Read it, ye
men who sneer at Prohibition as fanatacisIn,
and stand .unmoved at the sorrows, and sighs,
and tears which your business brings upon ten
thousand wretched families. Read it, and
abandon at any cost, traffic so pregnant with
mischief and misery to your fellow-men.
1--WE have not doubt, that in the opinion
of many men, the wholesale dealer occupies
much higher position in the scale of morality
-immea<urably higher-than the retailer
But is he real entitled to such ,sition up
on any just principIes We do not hesitate to
answer no! We care not for his fine apparel,
his costly furniture, or his princely dwelling
They are stained all over with the blood OF the
victj ms of his unholy calling. 1t crimsons the
rich mantels in. which his gay wife and chill.
dren haunt by the wretched and thinly clad
children of want and destitutlon, made by has
trade Every stone in his marble palace has
dragged some soul down to drunkards hell
upon earth. Every spring in his sofa has cost
the sinews of some strong man. Every wlre-
spring in his piano has been torn from some
painting bosom. All the gorgeous dyes in his
soft carpets have been cunningly extracted
from the bodies of his victims. There is the
bright vermillion, drawn from the throbbing ar
teries of weak women-the ultra marine OF
chidren's blue eyes-and the lake white,
ground from young mems bones, wrought into
beautiful devices and brightly colored flowers,
which he ,reads proudly under his feet Yes,
had he conscience, he might fear to tread
that crimson carpet lest his feet should slip
in the gore, or the bones crackle under them,
or the starry flowers look up with fearful hu.
man eyes, reproachfully upon him from its del
icate woof He might start up shudderng,
from the spring.seat of his luxurious sofa, as if
he felt human muscles contracting under him.
He would fly from the sound of his rosewood
piano as though every key.touch sent forth a
wall of human agony. He would shun his
gilded mirror as though ghost lurked behind
its quicksilver amalgam, ready to stare upon
his face and reproaeh him for its murder. He
would not dare to seat himself behind his blood
horSes-purchased with the price of blood
lest the echoing sound Of every proud hoot.faI
might summon spirit from the land of shad
ows, to charge him with the crimes which nat.
uraly and inevitably result from his unrighte-
Gus businass Shall he be deemed compare
lively innocent because he pours out poison by
the wholesale? As we'll might one who should
poison the waters in the Croton Aqueduct plead
innocence, because, forsooth, he dIew it not
forth from the leaden pipes and pressed it to
the lips of the citizens. And is he not guilty
of the meanness Of adulterating that which is
already poison2 as ifthe hot draught were not
potent enough for the destruction of body and
soul, until they drugged it with the fiery es'
sences of Delrium Tremens, SO that the brain
of him who drank the accursed draug ght shall
TEEN with phantom snakes and daggers, and
bring prematurely upon him the horrors of the
damned. Surely when men shall come to re-.
alize the true nature fthis horrible curse which
overshadows the whole land, they will assign
to every one engaged in it, his proper place in
the scale of morality. The rumseller will then
become isolated from the affections, from the
respect of good men in every community, whe
ther he is a wholesale or retail dealer in the
liquid poison. Phil Ledger.
|
TENNEssEE.-A State Temperance Conven.
ton is to be held at Murfreesboro' on the 4th
of July next. This promises to be an impor.
tant movement towards redeeming the State
from the rum power.
The State Sentinel states that the Board of
Mayor ard Aldermen have enacted portion
of o prohibitory law in Nashville, forbidding
the sale or gift of Intoxicating liquors under SO.
we're penalties, to slaves or free negroes. We
look upon this as the first step towards legal
prohibition.