New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-06-28

town meetings, and elections, bees,
picnios, etc. 1t is the "best domestic
medicine 'good for a cold and
ceugh;" 'for pain in the stomach" and
weakness in the limbs - " loss of
appetite and rheumatism" and it is a
"great support in old age" 1t makes
"market for our rye and apples :"
sustains one hundred thousand fam
lilies who are distilling and vending"
and to cap the climax "pours annually
millions of dollars into the national
treasury"
Now, Mr.. Editor, can we lawfully
amass wealth by a course of trade
which fills our land with beggars, wild
ows orphans, and crimes; which peo-
pies the cemeteries and potter's field
with premature mortality, and the
world of woe with the victims of
despair Could all the forms of evil
produced in the land by intemperance
come upon US in one horrid array it
would appal the nation and put an end
to the traffic in ardent spirits. If in
every house built by blood the stone
from the wall should utter all the cries
which the bloody traffic EFFORTS, and
the beam out of the timber should echo
them back, who would build such a
house And who would dwell in it ?
What, II in every part of the house,
from the foundation upward, through
all the halls and chambers baJblings
and contentious and voices and groans
and shrieks and wailings were heard
day and night What if the cold
blood oozed out and stood in drops
upon the walls, and by preternatural
art all the CHASTITY skulls aud
bones of the victims destroyed
by intemperanoe should stand
upon the walls, in horrid sculp-
ture, within and without the build
ing-who would rear such building
What if, at eventide and midnight, the
airy forms of men destroyed by intern
perance were dimly seen haunting the
distilleries and stores where they re-
ceived their bane-following the track
of the ship engaged in the commerce,
walking upon the waves, fitting
athwart the deck, sitting upon the
rigging, and sending up from the hold
within and from the waves without
groans and loud laments and watlings
Who would attend such stores Who
would labor in such distilleries Who
would navigate such ships
Oh were the sky over our heads one
great whispering gallery, bringing
E down about us all the lamentation and
woe which intemperanee creates, and
the firm earth one sonorous medium of
sound, bringing up around US from be-
meath the wailings of the damned,
t whom the commerce in ardent spirits
/ had sent thither; these tremendous
realities, assailing our sense, would
invigOrate our conscience, and give
, decision to our purpose of reforma-
: ton. But these evils are as
: real as if the stone did cry
! out of the wall. and the beam answer
ed it; as real as if day and night vail
!. ings were heard in every part of the
house, and blood and skeletons were
seen upon every wall; as real as il
the ghostly forms of departed victims
!. fitted about the vessel as it passed
: over the pillows, and showed them
. selves nightly about stores and distil
= leries, and with unearthly voices
screamed in our ears their loud lament
They are as real as if the sky owe
our heads collected and brought dow
about us all the notes of sorrow in GU
land, and the firm earth should open
passage for the wailings of despair t.
8 come up from beneath.
Il This drinking has killed more men
Is women, and children than war, pesti
If lence, and all other evils together
IS You can not bring upon man s.
r awful curse as alcohol. Is there
l. moderate drinker among your reader
le who says he can use "a little o
"much" and ''quit" when he pleases
lie l tell him he can not do it. Well, h
i can If he pil, but he agon't l0iil, tina
W is the difficulty, and there is the fata
st mistake. 1t is the moderate use, tn
a little, the pretty drink, the genteel
ID fashionable that does the mischief
Of The moderate drinker is training t
d take the place of the drunkard.
At Look at the drunkards' homes. Til
IS most of them are husbands an
/ fathers Many have large families
IN Iu6IE uuuS6S are StnoLdllJ hnOWA v
re the broken dooryard fence; the falle
q: gate; the windows stuffed with 9pl
N hats and rags; the clapboards danglin
Il in the air; the barns held up by prop
se and stripped of their boards, whic
id have been used for fuel last winter;
ID half-starved dog stands in the stree
IN and several ragged children, VIII
without hats or shoes, spend their day
IN in dragging brush wood from the fol
ests, or in begging from door to doc
IS. to buy their mother a loaf of bread.
Ill In the interior little is visible eithe
" Of neatness or comfort. No bed bu
ad enc of straw laid on the floor; here
is show of table, and there broke
e, chair. A broken plate, rusty knit
d, and fork, an iron spoon; mug fC
at cider and bottle for rum. Neitht
ty carpet nor plastering is there; in ii
winter the snow often lies upon the be,
and the mother andher children may |
seen huddIed together over few en-
at bers as their only refuge. Nigl
at comes, but no sound Of fathers voiC
81 with comfortable food to cheer an
gladden.. The children cry themselvt
J to sleep. The mother sits an
W, watches the moon go down." distar
nd footsteps are heard, and horrid oatl
ell vented at not fading the door cause
the heart Of the wife to quail, as