Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1858-12-23
Intemnarance.

reason TO believe does not receive that
attention in our community which its
importance requires. There are TEN
, perance men-there are friends of tenn
perance, IN abundance yet how little
is done to rescue the fallen, to create
spirit of reform, and public senti
ment Of hostility to Intoxicating drinks
as a most insidious and powerful foe
to the well-being of society and the
happiness Of individuals. And while
indifference paralyses our hearts, the
enemy is coming in like fiood-mak.
ing stealthy but sure advances, and lay.
ing his cruel hand upon many a Young
and manly form, before they or we are
aware, and planting within it an appe-
tlte Tor strong drink which, in the slow
and steady process peculiar to itself,
Will sooner or later result in hopeless
ruin.
We are not speaking against the use
OF splrltuous or fermented liquors as a
medicine, for in that capacity we believe
they are sometimes productive Of good
But 1T is against their use as 6everage
that we speak and here, we know,
they are incapable of defence, and there
is no plea save that Of an appetite which
disregards the claims of reason and
dlms the bright glow Of human intel
lect. AS beverage, they are no ben
eht to health, none to happiness, none
to intellectual strength, none to bust
ness prosperity or domestic tranquility.
10 all these, intoxicating drinks are de-
structive. All know this; and public
opinion does not now, as it did fifty
years ago, tolerate the habit of drinking
as respectable.
But we could not better portray the
evils and dangers of intemperance than
by quoting few eloquent and stirring
passages from discourse on the sub
Iject, by Rev. S. G. Specs, of Milwaukee,
which appeared in the Daily Wisconsin,
not long since. They will well repay
an attentive perusal:-
In one respect, the evil of intenperanee diff
ters from almost any other you can name 1t
is generic evil. 1t comprehends in itself and
leads in its train all other evils. 1t is a worm
at the very root of the tree, It kills it, body
AVID hrot hes -
is this set forth by the sacred writer-F Who
hath woe! who hath sorrow7 who hath con-
tentions? who hath babbing who hath
wounds without cause? who hath redness of
eyes They that tarry long ut the wine; they
that go to seek mixed wine" Nor is this true
OF those alone who become habitual inebriates |
1t holds good of those who drink more moder-
atey. Let man become addicted to the daily |
use OF spfrituouS liquors, and SO addicted that |
he cannot do without them, and he will find the
words of old Prior but too true of himself
"That melancholy sloth, severe disease,
Memory confusd and interrupted thought,
Deaths barbinger, lie latent in the drarght;
ana IN the flowers that wreath the sparkling bowl
zen adders hiss, and poisonous serpents roll
No man, when he gives himself ND to the
habit of drinking, has the remotest idea that he
will fall victim to that habit. 1t is the far
thest thing from his mind. Nor are his fears
awakened, when the indulgence becomes habit
ual and oft-repeated. Such indeed is the hal
Inclination under which he labors that the dark
er and thicker the signs of his approaching ruin
become, the more fool-hardy is the confidence
he feels that his own strong will is proof against
all the perils to which he is exposing himself. |
Is he Weak=minded enough to be overcome bv |
so gross an appetite? Can't he deny himself I
at his pleasure, and bid the demon awayi All, |
my friends, ere now l have stood by the side of
a swollen, maddened river, and as 1 have seen |
it overlapping its banks and sweeping every
thing before it, have asked, Whence its blind
fury? And have traced it to the thousand
little rills and brooks, from springs and hills.
pouring into it, And SO, when / have stood
beside the poor maniac, yelling in his delirious
agony, and consumed by the flames kindled
within him, have asked, Whence this mad.
ness, and whence these flames And [ have
been led to say These are the rivers Of death |
filled to the brim, by slipping occasionally at
the Wlne-cup, and by draining little too often
the foaming goblet,
Now are not such things sad and pitiable |
Indeed they are, And by and by that once no |
bic husband is brought down to the bed of death,
And what death-bed Have you ever stood
by 1t, and heard the wild rawlings and shrieks
and curslngS7 Its ministering angels are dew
rs. How they laugh at him, as they tear his
flesh with red,hot hooks. How they dance
around his cough, as they stab him through
with their iron bars. How he struggles to tear
himself away from them, and flee from his bed
OF hre 1t is hell this side Of death. And what
does it all mean? This biting of the serpent
tbs stipging Of the adder-tbese nameless hor
Tors OF dellrium tremeas- wnat 90 they mean
Inns, just this-that the drinking usaees of so.
clety are full OF danger and full of death. Will
you help to perpetuate themt
CEPHAs.