Milford beacon., 1854-04-07
For the Milford Beacon.
To the School Voters OF School District
No. 2, South Milford.

evils, has now been eniailed upon you
nearly ayear. During that time several
have gone TO their long homes. So di-
rectly may their untimely end be tra-
ced 10 the excessive use of ine5rating
drinks that there is scarcely an individ-
ual in this community that entertain a
doubt as to the cause that produced it.
But with them the mischief desccnds not
to the grave and is there buried. No, it
fingers behind, like the worm that never
dies, to fulfil its mission--to innict the
heart of the bereaved ones already sad by
the unexpected visitation of the "grim
monster" with deeper and more pungent
sorrow. Oil of what horrid tales of woe,
of destruction and misery could we read,
if VIC could but unlock the casket of the
heart of those whose pride forbid their re-
velation. Then indeed, we could see mis-
cry and anguish, in all their moral defor-
nifty, to sickening to contemplate-then
could we see the arrows of death ranking
in the heart of innocence, which are TO
often the secret cause of the death of those
t. Der whose fair broad brow are wrought,
The intellectual lines of thought,
Those burrows which .he burning share
OF sorrow ploughs unliney there"
Adamant, indeed, must be the heart of
that man that can deal out by the quart
or the gallon the accursed poison to his
friend and his neighbor, the use of which
he kno,vs is "full of evil and that contin-
ually."-And hard too must be the heart
of that one who can deliberately take his
pen, sit down and subscribe his name to
petition for the sale of rum,-in plain Ian
guage to ask the court to legalizc man to
destroy his friends and his neighbors.
Yea, it is worse; for it not only kills the
body but destroys the soul-leaving her,
whom the victim on the night of his bridal
had sworn, on the hymenial altar, to love
out miserable and wretched existence,
without the. proper means of support
What sign rum petition ? No, neverl
| would as soon sign petition to hang
man. If we have surplus population that
we wish to get rid of, it would be much
more in accordance with the principles of
phylanthrophy and humanity to hang them
at once, than to license men to rob them
and their family of their daily earnings, by
pouring down their throats poison that
makes them drunken maniacs, and prepares
them to open Pandora's box and realize all
the tortures of its contents.
The license of one of the three stores
respectfully denominated by their patron
saints Grand Privilege, Free and Easy
and the Roaring Lion, put in blast by the
influence of a majority of you, will soon
expire, and presume your names will a.
gain, ere long be solicited for like pur-
pose. But before one of you sign a petit
tion to perpetuate the evil, pause and re-
fect--sit down. open the history of the
year now nearly gone, scan its columns,
and there read of RUNS doings-of the ig-
nomineous death of your neighbour, leav-
ing objects of pity, destitution and suffer-
ing to grope their way through life's jour-
ney. Turn another page, and there find a
brief narrative of husband, in a it of intox-
ication, acting the part of a iend towards
his wife ond children, from whom he has
snatched the means that would make them
comfortable to purchase rum TO crafty the
cravings fhis own unballowed appetite.
Turn yet another page, and read the story
recorded Of a acoman robing her only bed
Of its downy contents to procure means
that will only rivit the chains of Intem-
perance more closely upon her. Read
there too of another, who, in her hus-
bands absence, bartered her shanghais and
pork, so much needed at home, for that
which instead of bringing consolation and
happiness was fraught with misery and
woe. When you have thus glanced at the
chequered pages of the past history, ask
who is the cause of all this Let those
who signed the petition year ago answer.
There are many that have long since an
swered the question, ,--have seen their error
and, like honest men, have rcpented of their
wrong, and will do SO no more. Heaven
grant that all others may come to the same
wise conclusion, that they may consider it
an insult to be called upon to sign petition
to the Court. to legalize tho sale of poison
to their friends, and neighbors, which will
ultimately work their death and perhaps
the ruin of his family.
Many Of you may console yourselves by
knowledge of the fact that you have not felt,
directly the blighting influence of the liquid
poison. Perpetuate the sale another year,
and like the tall ship, with her sails set to
catch the gentle breeze, that glides mer-
rily along upon the virge of the whirlpool,
and is drawn imperceptably into its vortex
and dashed to pieces in the dark abyss be-
low, so may some one of your fates be, or
that of your son, now growing strong in
manhood, or of some near relative.
Like causes are apt to produce like re-
suits; so that, while the monster is in our
midst, neither we nor our children are safe,
greater than we have fallen. therefore
admonish you as good citizens, as christians
and patriots, wishing to protect your own
interests and that of your family, and secure
o permanent blessing to the community in
which you live, to repel eveyy effort at the
perpetuation of the evil; and say to you
beware, act the part Of wise men, for
.within the flowers that wreath the sparkling
bowl
Fell adders hiss and poisonous serpenis roll"
14ei va SRIB0.
South Milford, April 9th, 1854.
Correspondence Of the Milford Bea con.