Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-07-15
coMMUsIcATIoxs.
HENDRYsBUReH, O., July Il, g

HENDRYsBURGH, o., July L, o.
EDITOR CHRoNICLE-Sir: In the last
issue of the Chronicle / noticed. short
editorial article, stating that some ''crit-
icise your course on the subject or tenn
perance and would have you say nothing
on that subject" fully endorse your
course and think the columns of your
excellent paper are a suitable place TO
advocate cause so noble as the cause of
temperance.
Itis a Iamentable fact that nine-tentbs
of our first class newspapers are silent
on the subject, or devote so little time
and space to it as to manifest little or
no concern. A slight effort on the part
of the religious press and an anecdote or
circumstance Sd closely connected with
intemperance as to cause few remarks
on the part of the secular press suffice
to clear from responsibility the great
conservator of public morals, the press.
Why is this? Is the subject OF so little
importance? Is it not sufficiently re-
ligious for the one or local for the ether?
Is it not sufficiently urgent OF vital in
its claims On public attention, or is il
not popular enough to call cut the edi.
torial ability of the press? Surely there
can be no reason given why it should
not be discussed by the press as well as
any other question of general interest.
Daily, almost we see the debasing influ-
ences of intemperance. We see man
hood shorn of its strength, and life of its
vigor. We see misery in its bitterest
depths enter the happy home and drive
forever away the comforts and hap -
ness that is want to dwell there. we
see our infirmaries filed with paupers,
our jails and penitentiaries filled with
criminals, our asylums with victims,
the streets OF our cities with beggars,
our grogs LOps with degraded wretches,
and our whole country with misery, a
greater part of the cases of which is
traceable directly or indirectly to the
biighting curse of intemperance. Be-
sides We spel,d annually over fourteen
hundred millions OF dollars Tor intoxI-
eating drinks IN the United States
alone. 1fl
Then, should you remain silent on
the subject? should you cease 10 cry
c-yse To advocate lis overthrow? No. Go
10 the wIetched home of the inebriates
family, ask the heart-broken wife and
miserable otfsprings and their silent
tears speaking the most sublime IAN
guage will answer no. Go to our aims
houses and other charitable institutions
and ask the two hundred thousand in
mates, they will answer no. Go to our
jails and penitentiaries and ask it there
and yeu will get the answer no. Ask
the little ragged beggars that beg a
scanty subsistence from door to door,
their catered garments their half max ed
bodies and hungry forms will answer
no.
Surely there isno reform more needed
than temperance reform. We have a
great evil TO contend with, powerful
Zoe TO conquer, and j would that every
newspaper in the land would devote u
portion of its space 10 fight the demon
alcohol. Surely the work is great and
the labors are few. Every effort is need
ed to drive the monster from the land.-
1t will not do for US to be still or uncon-
cerned on SO important question:, else
the face of that young man who loiters
about the groceries and calls himselfre
spectacle would soon become the face of
wretchedness. II. is public sentiment
that keeps him where he is. Public
sentiment has created the law that
holds him in check 1t is public senti-
ment, the great moral monarch of this
government, that must be elevated and
sustained if we would prosper in this
cause The press must be used to raise
the standard of public sentiment. Then
let it not remain silent but speak, boldly
60
forcement of the laws that we have un-
til we can raise public sentiment to a
point where we can expect laws of suffi-
cient severity TO drive all rum sellers
from their unholy calling. Then we
may expect better days, happier people
and more prosperous nation. w.