Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-01-17
Footing the Bills.

but it is seldom that the curse of Intemper. c.
anee is blamed for visiting any of these evils n
upon the public. We do not pretend to say il
Times taking up his abode in our midst, or s
the expenses of government are all to be p
attributed to the same source, but we do con- i
tend that the legalized traffic in intoxicating
liquors is one of the main sources giving rise e
to high taxes. Let us look into the matter '
Our pauper expenses have been on the in '
crease from year to year, the people groan I
under its weight and yet seem ignorant of |
what Expresses them. Rum makes paupers
more than all other causes combined, and
the hard earnings of the honest citizen is an {
nuaHy assessed to meet the cost incurred by [
- laaalizsd sale. Afamily is ruined, is bro
Ken ana beggafed tnruugn .-.apanaa-@r
sympathizing people pity them and kindly
give them support. A citizen is tempted, his
weakness is overcome, he enters the snare
set in his path BY government for a price, he
becomes a drunkard, breaks a limb, or sus-
tains some other bodily injury in his sprees,
and becomes a public charge. Another hon.
est man squanders his estate in the dramshop,
blots out the bright star that Hope had set
among flowers along the pathway of a loving
wife, he mingles with the vicious and aban-
doned and finally becomes a felon. IF he
counterfeits, commits a forgery or burglary,
the good people try him in their courts and
silently foot the bill. If, while maddened to
an insane frenzy by the peoples rum, he
thrusts an incendiary torch into the peoples
city, millions may lay in ashes and then if
the poor distracted wretch is caught, he is
confined to the dungeon for a life time or to
the gallows for an eternity and the gratifed
people foot the bill. If, in a drunken fight,
he takes the life of a fellow-sinner, a soul is
lost to Heaven, the people try him according
to law, condemn him, hang him, rejoice that
the demands of a violated code is satisfied,
and patrioticly foot the bill. The people per-
NIT the citizen to be furnished with rum un-
til his dissipation beggars himself and family
and they are sent to the peoples poor house
for shelter, the people shelter them, and clothe
them, anu feed them, and generously foot the
bill
In this way the people are drained of their
hard earnings by a curse the most fearful
that ever rested upon any land, and they QUIZ
city bear it all without o murmur. 1t has
grown powerful with the growth of years.
Like a fearful and dreadful whirlpool, it cir
Giles around with unresting tide from the
GROCERY to the grave and from the legal
lzed pit to the prison-from the cells to the
hangnan's hill a great Broadway has been
cast up, and beaten down, and worn smooth
by the dead march of thousands OF idolatrous
pilgrims who have sealed their devotion TO
their damning God with an offering of their
own hfe-own blood-and own soul!
New crimes and woes yet keener are vet
being written on the dark pages of the awful
history with every days sunlight. The sto-
ny jaws OF our prisons are ever glutted with
oesotted felons cursing their fate with new
and more fendlike curses. The public Exc
catloner is busy in his repulsive vocation,
hanging between a pure heaven and a sin
stained earth, the trembling laurels of the
trafhe. The blood Of one victim ceases mt
TO send up its smoke of offensive incense from
the crimson and clotted shrine, before anotb.
er is cast on the wheel from the bloody hands
OF the Alcade of the barroom. The great
nood OF crime rolls on in its majesty, and
MurGer stalks through the earth. at NIGHT and
MONDAY, with club and blade dripping with
human gore. Our Asylums are kept tenan-
4 BOD h.
'ed by the curse OF the traffic from their cells
at midnight and when the morning sun tints
hlil' and forest, and field with its welcoma
lght, comes up the sad wall of wopoans hro-
ken heart and the shrill shrek of RIM, nc,
rated madmen, in a chorus that startles the
ear OF the listener to hear, while the cold blood
seems to creep back to the heart. LII tho
great cloud of locusts that rested ovor ola
Egypt to scourge, lesser crimes crowd f,rword
10 swell the amount of taxes, and extort the
amount from tho hands of the peonle.
Inc liquor traffic has been estimated -
cost the American people more than tbro. |
hundred millions of dollars annually A
sum suihclent to bind our blessed land in an
uhoroken net work of railways, telecranb
wires and canals. Itwould grace every green
Faie Win a church where God might he wor-
shipped in quiet and without mutes,rrt,u-
dot every hillside with schoolhouses mok;nn
the blessings of a free education as liberal a.
the air sent US from Heaven and Il you'll
erect an Asylum wherever an afflicted bpmon
1ty groans in misfortune and undar the
of disease. e
now long will an i~ndulgent people sit still
"'a . 'neif most lovely places laid in waste
ana the sacredness of old age and homo ;nvo
ded and pillaged by the great foe of Heaven
anu man How long will a free people bear
tue pecuniary oppression of the tyrant RIM
quietly foot all the bills of his makina9
.AiNiorisM should arouse our eternal ba-
tfed to this cancerous curse, which so $500.
~ eats and fattens upon the interest,". : = our
common country we love so reyerantlv and
proudly to call our own. /,
sG- Cupid and Time are eartb,s oreot,o-
eiers. Cupid stands next to Time for To- .
girl, even if she is. as ugly as a swiI tub =.
a young fellows sympathies hitcbed -
even Sampson and his troop of servants '
unhitch him. The Gulf Stream So.
to compare with the current of a YOUNG cbans
feelings when ne first begins to form . :
qualntance with Love. We know of . 49,.
chap who is in a bad way on acconn. 70" l
niS, Love we verify believe the fellow will /.