The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1872-09-12
ST. MARKS TEMPERANCE AND BENEv.
CLIENT SOCIETY.
ELOQUENT LECTURE BY TEE REV. FATHER
McGINNITY.

Within the past year the subject of intem-
perance has received more attention, and the
cause of temperance greater impetus, than
perhaps in any dozen years preceding. It
has become subject of thought among all
classes OF people in the community. Old
Ideas have been taken away from scores of
brave men, and new ones have been given to
them. A practical view of the evil has been
taken; the nucleus of what may become a
grand army Of social and moral reformers,
has been modled and to-day, the Temper
ance Soc iety of st. Marks Catholic Church
is the advance guard of the cold water move
ment in Southern Wisconsin.
On Thursday evening of last week the
members of this society assembled at Sim
mons Hall to listen to a lecture by the Rev.
Father McGinnity, of Geneva. The audience
was large, and while we regret than many by
absenting thems elves were losers, we feel
confident that every person who did attend
was in some measure benefited by the i'm
pressiVe, eloquent, and practical lecture of
Father McGinnity. For our own part, we
are free to confess, that we lost some inter
liberal Christian spirit that had brought
priest and dissenter to work together against
what the lecturer regarded as 'the root of
many crimes.p The beautiful evasion of all
denominational variances was really admira
| BILE.
Rev, Mr.. Hitchcock, of the Congregation
| al Church, introduced Father McGinnitv,
who said the aim of his discourse was to con-
slider a crime, one that was the root of MANY
other crimes ,-intemperance. s ome self
conceited people maintain that intemperance
is becoming fashionable. An examination of
the crime would dispel this illusion. He pro-
posed to consider the subject in three dIvi
sions first, The causes {; second, The sin
against humanity and God; third, It's effects
on mankind. Had lie the eloquence ola
Cicero, or the genius of Shakespeare or
Milton, they should be devoted TO q life-bat.
tie against the evil of Intemperance. Drunk
enness, properly defined, was an excessive use
ofintoxicating liquor; and that man who
drank until reason had gone, and his body
writhed in the mire, was a drunkard. What
an important one? If they could be removed
drunkenness would decrease. Saloon keep
ers do not compel men to enter; if they did
they do not compel m en- to drink. Let the
saloon, the beer garden, aud every place
where strong drink is sold, be discountenanc
ed, and they would soon be removed. Ex-
cessive grief or pleasure was another verv
comm on cause of drunkenness. He attribu-
ted the Irishman's fondness for LIQUOR to the
fact that he had long been the su beet of grie-
vious oppression. But denied the charge
that the Irish as a nation were more deeply
implicated in the evil than any other. To
| support this, the lecturer appealed to high
a uthorities. Another cause was found in
wars, civil and domestic feuds. The war in
| Europe between France and Germany would
Icorroborate this statement. It's results had
been an enormous increase in drunkenness,
and not only with those who had been van
pushed, but also among the victors Our
own rebellion had fully proven this fact.
Thousands bad found a drunkard's grave, and
the war was the road to it. War is peculiar
| ly calculated to promote lntemperanee. Then
the influence of mel of position has some
thing to do with this crime. On temper
ance basis men may be divided into three
classes, l, Drunkards; 2, Temperance ;
8, Cold-water men,, AS it was very evident
that drunkards did not come from the first or
the last class, it mu st be acknowledged from
the anti-temperauce or moderate drinking
class, graduated all the drunkards: How
strange that j trade that pays such poor wa
ges should have so many apprentices! Drunk
lenness is SIM nay, it is m ore, it is hydra
headed SIM 1t is sin against the family it
is a sin against religion and society. 1t took
away reason, and made a man fiend. It
took away health and left man inefficient,
with all his God given powers paralysed. 1t
kept man apart from God, and brought eter.
nal wretchedness upon the soul. Assem- Bile
together party of sinners of every kind, and
J, you have before you an army of drunkards
, Drunkenness robs man of reason. yery
curious case had come under the notice OF
the lecturer, which he related. A man who
had INDUCED so far as to lose all power over
self, wandered to the railroad, where he Law
with his legs across the iron rails By and by
the train came along and severed both legs
from the body The poor victim of alcohol
| lay there, until, when some one was passing
4 by he called Jodt, "WilI you take off nv
! boots, they hurt mig teet?' Thus were mer
mangled and Killed without knowing 1t
Drunkenness defaces beauty. 1t eradicates
the image of God from the soul, and imprint,
the image Of the devil. It is witch to thu
senses devil to the soul; and thief tc
the purse. The beggars companion. wife't
woe, and children's sorrow. Oh, look a.