The Kanzas news., 1858-09-11
Tie Five Great wayes.

| NC uEsI great wave OF the temperance
ocean rose up and rolled over the land un-
der the early ladors of Hewitt, Edwards,
Beecher and Kittredge, and their compeers
in 1826-'29. 1t promised thorough worl
wherever there was a conscience and q
heart. But it subsidized in 1884, as re-
formed men went back upon cider and ale,
and gentlemen were satisfied with wine
though they relinquished the fruits of the
still.
| The second great wave rose, and rolled in
with mighty power, in 1886, as the whole
real temperance community rushed to the
rescue of the cause, and rejected from theil
tables and sideboards, wine and all ferment-
ed drinks. Everything promised mighty
results, but the distilleries, breweries and
rum shops continued to do their horrid
work, and drunkards increased rather than
diminished; and though total abstainers saw
ed themselves, they did not save the lower
population from reveling in the dram-shops,
and was almost forgotten.
In 1910 the third great wave came in,
beginning at Baltimore, and rolling in on all
the coast. 1t welled up, pouring over the
whole land, and rescuing every drunkard
from ruin. A hundred and fifty thousand
miserable inebriates were buoyed up, and
carried to the safe port of total abstinence,
and there was great Joy throughout the
whole country. O., that Washingtonian
wave! How great, how blessed-neVer to
be forgotten But the traffic was unmolest-
ed. 1t was licensed In every State. The
reformed men believed they could subdue
it by love. But alas the snare and the
trap were too well laid for the feeble and
ill-fated inebriates. Had we then had a
Maine Law, all might have been saved
But we had not; and the unholy traffic over
rode the whole of that beautiful work, and
swept it nearly all away. The order of the
Sons of Temperance came to the rescue,
and so prolonged, for season, the mercy.
In 1851 rose the fourth mighty wave,
commencing at Portland, Maine, and we'll
ing up all down the Atlantic coast, and
over the Green Mountains, and rolling over
upon the vast and beautiful fields of Indi-
ana, Michigan and Wisconsin. A burning
indignation at the traffic filled the breasts of
thousands and tens of thousands, and men
and women, fathers and mothers, said we
must outlaw this terrible evil, and give our
land a freedom from the scourge. The
hopes of all considerate men were greatly
animated. But that wave dashed against
high and terrific rocks, Constitutions and
Courts, and rich barricades, and was lost
in circuitous political mountain passes. and
after short period it was put back, and the
whole was pronounced failure to accom-
plish all it promised.
But the end is not yet. A fifth wave is
to roll in We know not what it Is to be,
or when it is to come. But we think we
see it. 1t is coming Perhaps not in form
of law, or association, or ecclesiasticism;
but it may be in mighty power of public
sentiment-a sentiment seizing the minds
of the masses-a rising of the whole peo-
pie as the heart of one man against the traf-
fc, in all its operations, as the scourge of
the world, which may almost in day sweep
it entirely from the earth. We will look
and pray for it. 1t will be no more sur
prising than the waves which have already
rolled in and effected such signal blessings.
Jour. Am. Temp. Union.