Smyrna times., 1872-01-10
MiSceIIU 10 e D IL s.
For the Smyrna Times.'l
81 Think I See an Opening Here" "

So said a stranger to Squire of our town
last week. An opening-what for? Another
restaurant" Another place to sell Rum.
What msnOmer Call it Destructaurant.
| Another place to sell Rum Why, we have
nine licensed rum-shops now, and God only
knows how many unlicensed Where is there
an opening for another? Tell US ye men that
have sons to be ruined, and ye property hold
ers, whose real estate will decrease in value as
the public morals go down? What is the
character of this opening? To our youths and
young men, it is an opening to LOafing, Drunk
enness, Gambling, Stealing, LicentiOusness,
Poverty, Inebriacy, Murder, Ruin, HE'LL.
Another opening TO He'll! God save US
from it.
What are tie signs of tbs opening? The
most excellent business done by the grOg-shOps
already established. The crowds Of do nothing
men and youths that gather day after day on
our street corners and in our stores, for Do
: nothingism is the Broadway Of Rum City.
Laziness is the highway to Drunkenness.
Other signs of this opening may be seen IN
our neglected night school and town library.
II H0W can thiS stranger enter UiS opening .?
Only by getting license which can be Sc
= cured only by the signatures of twenty-tour
freehoders from this hundred. Can he get
. them He said he could. Where shall lie
ri find them? Who among us will sign his petit
d ton for license? Will any father ask for
> another opening to hell for his boy? Will any
man ask for another opening for his daughter
> to get drunken husband? Increase the mum
o ber Of rumshops in our town, and you increase
=, all manner Of crimes. Will any man that owns
property make another opening to decrease it!
value by giving his name to stranger to make
10 more loaferS, thieves and murderers? Is /
{" possible that this stranger can find twenty-fOu
20 ireeholders in Smyrna who will join him to in
g. crease the number of those who are mora
!, plague to any community, VIZ: Those mel
a. who through the Internal Spirit Of Rum, ar
m. transformed from valuable producers to viciOu
lll consumers-trom honest men to thieves; con
sumers Of the public morals, and thieves O
S, public virtues? Heaven forbid it, and ma
d' all Me peopte say Amen.
-. Nine licensed grog-shops are nine times to
ys many openings to hell for any community
ng great or small. For the sake of all that
mt good, pure, lovely and sacred to u.s. our wlve
and our children, don't let us have any more
"h Let the men who have helped to make drunk
ards and thieves of sober and honest men b
signing the rumsellers' petitions, do SO n
: more Let the whole community lend i
:. energies to shut up the abominable opening
n nS that already exist, and then strangers lOOkn
mi in upon us for a few hours will fail to st
sis others. How shall this be done? Let tn
vii majority of our voters ask the Legislature
old Delaware to grant us the privilege Of sayn
the among us, or not. Let christian men ar
be morasts have the pluck to stand up again
as Rum and all its associations. 1t may hurt
Sc little 1t may take few dollars out of the
cen pockets Some one may call them by ha
tle names. Some may swear at them. God pi
;. the manhood that is unwilling to be hurt
little to save the community from the ruin
rum and perdtion, when Christ endured Il
hurt of the cross for us all. lquestion a
man s manhood that hasn't point enough in
owe to make bad men swear at him. Any mar
'aiu lie virtue is questionable "when all men spe
,a, ani well of him." Let good men in the commul
ned ty bleed little in reputation and pocket
owe their opposition to rum and rumsellers, a
pur the day will not be far from us when our peoI
s In will be blessed with new moral and fnanc
,wn life
Our young men and youths are the prin
pal supporters of the rum shops in our tow
k. To the buOyance and excitabiity of youth
the rumsellers look for the profits in trat
,ney How shall our young men help close up the
lime openings of rum? Spend less time i'll loaf
ex- OH the street corners and elsewhere, and spe
. more time with your mothers and sisters a
,27,s pass your evenings In the society OF ladi
- rather than in the rum-shOps. Let One-teT
Of ;he money that goes into the hands of I
rumseller 90 into the hands OF the editor
some good weekly or monthly or put o
IN twentieth of it into our town library, and )
iii will fill your brains with good thoughts, q
W. your hearts with virtues, and empty and cl
up these Ominous openings, these rum. shop
these manhood slaughter houses of our toy
When shall we awake out of this Rp-V
Wiukle sleep on the question Of temperanC
How shall we close the many grog-shOps t
are selling without license? How shall we k
those licensed from selling on the Sabbath
the law demands? How shall we shut them
&c. entirely? The way is so plain that "a way
ing man, though a fool, need not err the
in.
Good citizens of Smyrna, these questi
come to us with an everlasting Significance
their answers.
a ,v j. F. CLYMEH