Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1872-06-25
NUMBER 80.
For the Spectator.
Druukard-M Makers.

If no drunkard shall inherit the Kingdom
how will it be with the drunkaTd- -maker-with
him who proceeds deliberately, methodlcally
and perslstently in his work, urged by no tenn
pest of sensual appetite, but by cold calcula-
ton of gain2 For when he determines on the
business and opens his bar, he knows perfectly
well what the results must be. He knows that
around that bar will congregate all the elements
and agencies of evil in the community-they
will encourage and strengthen themselves there
in profanity, obscenity and irreligion. They
will Systematically lure in the young and un-
wary to ruin He knows that at his bar many
a man will contract aquenchiess and inconquer-
able thirst which will lead him to squander his
earnings and desert his home; and that into
that drawer will go the money which should be
feeding and clothing and educating the chill
dren OF the poor man.. He knows that while
some will come to his bar all their lives without
falling, others will frequent it more and more
and increase continually their dram until all
business is neglected and dependent ones for
gotten and money and health and character and
self-respect are gone, till the manly fellow who
stepped up to take his first drink, is the mere
parody of man and his existence death in
life. He knows in a word that if there were
no liquor sold as a beverage, there would be no
drunkenness with its attendant evils, and no
one would be seriously injured by the want of
It,. And yet he is willing to become one of the
agents of all this sin and misery, to take price
for setting the torch to this magazine OF dire
fpl possibilities, as if maE's condition were not
sinful or sorrowful enough without liquor, he
opens another food-gate of evil; as if the
Devil were not doing enough unaided to tempt
men to their ruin, he offers his help. A Vol
unteer-he blocks the path of many a noble
life by his bar, more deadly and destructive
than any barricade which ever obstructed the
streets of Paris in her 6ercest carnival of blood
God help the man who can thus harden his
heart to the wall of the widow and the orphan
and look calmly on the victims that day by day
are training at his bar for the grave and the
bottomless pit; who can sleep at night after
such day 8 work and eat his bread with any
relish, which has been earned at such COST
We do not charge every rumseller with full
consciousness OF the wrong he is doing to so.
clety or the sin he is committing before Cod
This would be to declare him the Devil himself
instead of one of bis unhappy tools. But we
do not believe-that any of them can be so dull
OF vision or of conscience as to fully acquit
himself of wrong doing. They know that their
business cannot be classed with that of the
farmer, miller, grocer, mechanic or any other
necessary and harmless occupation-of this
they have very striking proof every election
day. Let 1t not be thought that We throw the
whole blame of drnnkard making upon the
rumseller. For alas how few Of us are there
whose brothers blood may not cry out against
US on account of the evil influence which we
have lent in some way to the work of desiruc-
ton. 1t is the custom of the prudent drnkey
so-called that inundates our lard with the oc-
casion of SO much temptation aud ruin. 1t is
the custom of the prudent drinker which makes
theirs gainfYl business. How-many of the
proiessed followers of our blessed Lord and
Master have recorded their sympathy with this
God d-forsaken and ouldestroying trade. All,
how many have turned deaf ear to the heart
broken wife of the drunkard and helped to IL
eense the place where her husband was decoyed
from his happy home, and where her protector
learned to be her tyrant and her scourge, Yes.
on one side has knelt that sad and imploring
group. the drunkard's family, and On the other
has stood the insinuating trader with his-E-
cense papers, and they have not had the moral
courage to stand up for Jesus and his poor and
to say No to the enemy of them both. They
have not dared to incur the risk of making
foe of man in order to keep the friendship Of
God. They may view it differently. We can
only look upon it in this uneompromising light.
r.fa ae fsr ~Hei - rr No n +.