Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-03-12
THn wIDow'c crnron on Tuu nonroE
QUESTION.

QUESTION.
[rhis speech, though very short, goes to the
bottom Of the subject, and when well consider
ed, will settle the question.-ED.
The Hon. George n Briggs. Ex-Governor of
Massachusetts,, delivered Temperance address
some time since in the course of which he re-
lated the following anecdote with thrilling ef-
feet:
Mr.. Briggs said this question of the intro
duction Of intoxicating drinks assumed some
what Of a practical form last spring in a thriv-
ing borough in Pennsylvania. The inhabitants
had assembled, as was their usual custom. to
decide what number, if any. of licences the
town should petition from the County Court
from whence they are issued. There was full
Attendance. One of the most respectable mag
istrates Of the borough presided, and upon the
platform were seated, among others, the cler-
gvman of the village, one of his deacons, and
the physician.
After the meeting mad been called to order,
one Of the most respectable citizens of the bo-
rough rose, and after a short speech, moved
that the meeting petition for the usual num-
Der Of licenses. They had better license good
men, and let them sell. The proposition seem
ed to meet with almost universal favor. 1t
was an excellent way to get along quietly-any
one. and then another in their turn expressed
their hope that such course would be adopt-
ed
The president was about to put the ques-
ton to the meeting, when an object rose in
distant part of the building, and all eyes were
instantly turned in that direction. Ii was an
old woman poorly clad, and whose careworn
colntena~oe was the painful index of no light
suffering. And yet there was something in tho
flash of the bright eve that told she had once
been what she was not then. She addressed
the president and said with his permission she
wished to say few words to the meeting. She
had come because she had heard that they were
to decide the license question.
"Iou," said she, "all know who am. You
once knew the mistress of one of the best es-
tates in the borough. l once had husband
and five sons; and woman never had q kinder
husband-mother never had five better or more
atfectionate sons. But where are they now p
Doctor, ask, where are they now? In yonder
burying ground there are six graves filed by
that father, and those five sons and o they
are all drunkard's graves. Doctor, how came
they to be drunkards? You would come and
drink with them, and you told them that tenn
perate drinking would do them good. And
you, too, sir, addressing the clergyman) would
come and drink with my husband and my sons
thought they might drink with safety because
they saw YOU drink. Deacon. YOU sold them
rum, which made them drunkards. You have
got my farm and all my property, and YOU got
it abby rum. And now" she said Il have
done my errand. l go back to the poor house,
for that is my home. You, reverend SIR YOU,
Doctor, and you, Deacon, l shall never meet
again, until | meet you at the bar of God,
where you, too, will meet my ruined and lost
husband and those five sons, who through your
moane and influence, fill drunkard's graves."-
rue oiu "vn"" '"' d"wn Perfect silence pre-
vailed until broken by the president who rose
to put the question to the meeting "Shall we
petition the court to issue licenses to this bo-
rough the ensuing yearp" and then an unbrok-
en- "No" which made the very walls re-echo
with the sound, told the result of the old wo-
mans appeal.