The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-04
the commemorative


This gives grand total of about one hun
dred and twenty-five thousand which, esti-
mating the present population of the State at
$3.50, 900, shows that one person out of
thirty is dependent upon the rest of the COM
munity either for support or correction. In
bettering the physical and moral condition of
this vast multitude, there is abundant work
for hundred institutions such as the Citizens
Association.
Thus far the Association have chiefly
directed their inquiries into the causes of in
temperance and endeavored to devise the most
effective cure for it. In selecting this as the
starting point for their labors, they have
chosen wisely. The Incorporate use of
spirituous liquors is the primal source of one
half of all the wretchedness and of three
fourths of all the crime with which humanity
is cursed. 1t is, moreover, never-failing
fountain, whose loathsome stream keeps
even pace with the increase of population, and
is perpetually renewed by the lapse of time.
1t is more devastating than warfare, more
perilous than famine, more destructive than
| the plague. immortality, avarice and violence
left to mark its path.
To cure intempepance is difficult task; to
prevent it in the first place would be far wiser,
but to do this is even more difficult. The at
tempt to exercise the demon by legislation
to prevent drunkenness by closing all places
where spiritdous liquors are sold, has proved
a signal failure wherever it has been made.
| ha ha h,yt 10
power is to so restrain the traffic that its more
obnoxious features shall be in some measure
obviated, or, if possible, altogether removed.
The true remedy for the evil is the elevation
of the moral sentiment of the community; the
substitution of a proper and harmless taste for
a depraved and ruinous one. This fact the
Association recognize and the course they
have marked out is in accordance with its
teachings. The cure of intemperance in ind-
vidual cases is, therefore, the starting point
which they have selected. A large farm, in a
retired and healthy locality, and easy of access
to the city, has been purchased, and on this it
is proposed to erect the buildings which will
be required in the furtherance of their reforma-
tory labors. Hitherto in every institution of
tLiS hlllui IllO LtIoS nave ol Dten COllSreSdJeU
in one or more large buildings, where the
privacy of the household is from necessity un,
known. Whatever of shame is attached to an
inmate, whether voluntary or involuntary, OF
a areformatory institution, is therefore suffered
to rankle in his heart, to the positive hin.
drance of his thorough reformation. To obviatC
this drawback upon the ease and efficiency O
their labors, the Association have determined
to erect number of small cottages, varyinl
in size so as to afford accommodations fo
families of from five to twenty members. Thes
can be erected at an expense much less il
proportion than the amount which would b
swallowed up in buildings of larger and NOR
massive character besides which, all the com
forts and appearances Of true home can b
thus secured, and such restraints on liberty G
person and habits as may be necessary will b
less evident, and, therefore, less calling.
a The report of the Association elaborated
: reviews all the points upon which we hav
, touched, and presents, on the whole, the mos
/ feasible scheme that has ever been devised fo
II the cure of intemperance and the alleviatio
ID OF the miseries which spring from it. We ca
but wish the Citizens Association, in the goo
u work which they have undertaken, Tn
y greatest and speediest success
n