Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1860-10-10
FOR THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.
An Address to the Moderate Drinker.

BY THOMAS C. WESTALL.
Intemperance is such scourge to the hu-
man race, that it seems idle to ask who are
the opposers of reform. But this question
is often asked and as often enormously an
swered. For it generally occurs to US, at
the first glance, that none but the low and |
ignorant, and those who are melted by sordid |
motives, will oppose any society whose sole
motive is the ameioration of the condition |
of men; but it is far, very far from being the
case Many suppose that the opposition to
the Temperance Reform is made up alone of
those who cry against the Order OF the Sons
of Temperance. But such is not so 1t would
be well if it were.
There are many who have stationed them
selves at the head of society, whose greatest
| influence is turned against the Order; for
their actions speak loudly against reform
They acknowledge that intemperance is the
very bane of society-that it generates pau
perism, idiocy, infidellty and crime that it
ills prisons, furnishes victims for the gallows
and makes broader the road that leads to
death-yet they are undoubtedly the worst
stumbling block in the way of the philanthro-
pist's work of reform. They claim to be
temperate drinkers whose influence in So
ciety is infinitely more blasting than that of
all the reeling manacs and bitter denunca.
tors. The abandoned inebriate and all such
as cry against temperance organizations, for
naught spend their fury against the battle
ments of the temple of love, while their own
poisoned shafts rebound and wound themsel-
vcs but the moderate drinker halls society
with a kiss, and at the same time covers it
with the malaria of death. BY stealth he un
dermines its foundations, pulls down the pill
lars that support the fabric on which his own
children stand, and with the fragments of its
S desolation erects a tottering edifce on the
a confines of the grave -.-
!. But the moderate drinker claims to be a
temperate man, and to prove that he is such,
J, he reasons by syllogism. He says that
d its in moderation, therefore he is temper
ate man. Thus he reasons himself into what
: he calls a : Scripture view of temperance
But in the same way he may reason himself
1t into the belief that to be strictly temperate
in all things, he must daily take small
t. quantity of virulent poison. and to some ex
IS tent indulge in all manner Of vice. Now
he can prove that dram is required to sus
IS tain animal life, and that it contains nouI
er shing properties, then he cannot be contro
verted. But can he establish such a propc
Y, sition9 Let his own increasing restlessnes
IS answer While the moderate drinker indu
at geS Dram, at the same tlfnc ne looks o
drunkenness and its attendant miseries wit
or a mingled feeling of pity and disgust fc
Or there IS not one person, perhaps, among th
millions of dram m-drinkers now in the land
TX the living, that commences the use of spirit
that he might feel all the woes of the inebr
er- ate and at last be swept into drunkards
grave. Such is not the design of any fl
f wine is mocker, strong drink is raging
and whosoever is deceived, thereby is n
ng wise 1T comes in the mask of kindnes
his and whispers peace, but at the last it bite
yht like serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
1t is the work of the arch decciver, WI
eep winds around the heart of youth the silk
ed. cords Of delusion-the work Of him that so'
we ed the seeds of sin in an innocent worl
ked and allured our first parents from their peac
full walks around the verdant plains and ev
do blooming fields of Paradise.
Let those who are in the habit of mod
ga ate drinking look around them again a
again, and ask themselves if inebriety, wi
Iss the desolation it brings, is not the otfspri
ce." of a temperate dram?' Look at the sot, a
in ask what he was only few years ago? /
do, he not drink moderately call himself te
perate man, and despise the staggering drl