The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-12-05
COMMUNICATIONS.
Review of Adam jerks Completed

TO the Editor Of the Press;
The Utopian scheme of Adam jerks has
perhaps already received more attention at
our hands than 1t deserves. We have only TO
add TO our previous remarks, that If we are
TO wait till the children of our city and our
land are trained according to the pIan which
this writer has laid down, the day when rum
will cease its ravages and the hosts of Tenn
perance march to victory, is Tar, very far dis
tant We cannot afford to wait the carrying
out of such policy. 1t will cost too much
too many dollars, too many happy years, too
many bright hopes, too many broken hearts,
too many lives. Too many young men, our
country's strength and pride are wrecking all
in ale saloons, too many "wives worse than
send up their anguished wall to heaven; too
many graves are opened every day, TO be
closed over rum-bloated corpses = Oh. no,
some other, shorter way must be, tciH be found
to stay the direful food.
1t is asked what this shorter way shall be
We reply, accomplish first just what Adam
jerks plan presupposes to have been done.
Disinthrall public opinion; quicken the pop
ular heartbeat to a just appreciation of the
direful present and its awful future; educate
community to feel as well as knor the woe
and wretchedness which ale and rum are
creating all about us, every day; wake up the
instinct OF selfpreservation to perception
that all our dearest aud most vital interests
are threatened, nay, most seriously endan-
gered. This done and there will be a grid
ing on OF armor to meet the foe, an uprising
to the conflict which in its maj jesty and power
shall hesitate in the use OF no weapons which
may be necessary to blot out forever the
traffic in Intoxicating beverages This accom-
piished, and we may hope to find parents and
public instructors rightly tempered, and in
sufficient numbers to undertake with success
the work proposed by Adam.
Let US not be misunderstood. We would
not have the young neglected or the gentle
persuasions of cur writer omitted. We simply
say It will not do 10 depend on these, till the
public mind is brought up TO the point we
have indicated. God speed every movement
whica has for its purpose the forming and de-
yeloping Of right principles in the hearts of
our children. God help and bless every
parent who, in Withholding from his child all
unhealthy stimulants, whether physical or in
tellectual, is aiding to give to the world man
or woman Of robust and healthy character.
But ah, let us not forget the tens of thousands
bound hand and foot by the chains of alcohol:
the children OF parents STEPPED In crime, be-
sotted, drunken; aud while in our temper
ance homes we so teaderly rear the children
OF culture and refinement, let us also reach
out the strong arm of law, backed by an en-
these neglected, fallen ones.
This to do and not to leave the other undone."
We now recur TO the question with which
Adam jerks started in this discussion. How
shall the tide of intemperance be stayed. How
shall the condition OF public opinion which we
have indicated be secured.
We would have the temperance press and
the temperance platform do their work. We
would have the scenes which meet us every
day, the ale and beer shops springing up at
every streetcorncr, the hourly sale of liquor
at the bar of nearly every hotel in our city,
the fact that some Of our most pious and godly
apothecarics ito say nothing of the lewder
sortl make more money by their sales of
liquor than in all other ways combined. the
staggering, bear-eyed soldier, disgraciDg the
uniform oi our glorious army, open the ewes
of our people TO the devastation going on
about us.
Your paper, Mr. Editor, told us on Tuesday
morning the story Of a soldiers wife. who
with her four starving children about her had
spent her fourteen dollars just received from
the city for rum, and without fire, without
food, waited in bcastly intoxication the last
act of the dreadful drama; and in the same
paper you told us likewise of a drunken IA
ther who, amid similar circumstances Of dcs-
titution, stood over his wife with a drawn ra-
zor at her throat. Such facts ought to stir
the hearts of our people. Oh would to Heav-
en- that the daily and weekly increase of in
temperance in all circles and grades of soci-
ETY., from the lowest to the highest, might
arouse our citizens and nerve to Que agonizing
struggle for the redemption of humanity from
the curse of alcohol.
But If these things be not enough to awak-
en- our community fromity lethargy, let us as
sure those who turn SO slightingly away, that
time will come, and that at no distant day,
when the popular will shall do and dare ali
things TO secure the removal of this mighty
curse. When a few more battles have been
lost TO liberty and the Union through the
drunken imbecility Of military officers, when
a lew more thousands OF our brave sons and
brothers have lain upon the CORY field, slaugli-
tered through that same insanity, Our people
VIII begin to think. Nay, most of all, when
the brave fathers, and sons, and brothers,
whom We have sent TO fight our battles. come
back to us, as Oh how many will, with the
damning appetite fixed upon them, with the
noble souls of which we were and are so
proud, stained by the blight of rum - come
back TO us, escaped the dangers OF the camp
and field, only to writhe in the remorseless
coils Of the serpent of the still' - then shall
an injured and outraged people be fully
aroused, and with the sword Of ayenging JUS
fice drive oat every trace of the foul traffic