, 1872-12-26
ImpfacticabIe Reformers.

ifJtdCt!CdDic keTOfmefSt
Inc Echo, professed 'sorgan OF tenn.
temperance, makes the occasion of our
refusal to publish the advertisement of
q lawyer proposing to procure clandes-
tine divorces, tie basis of the following
assault:
We wonld sooner advertise the bu-
siness OF the man whose business il is
10 procure divorces, than to advertise
tue business OF those whose business
ooes the real work that makes four-tifths
OF all the divorces necessary. In the
same issue from which the above notic..
ana eomments-with what "holy hor-
roi they appear TO have been made
are cllpped. we find the columns OPEN
ea' ana at very nominal price, to eight
places OF business, where can be procnr-
ea an that Is ne essary "to promote
vice. righteousness and unlawful prac-
tlees' support doctors of private and
disfeputable practices, lotteries and 9th
er gaD'bllnS devices, houses of prostitu-
tioii' and procurers of clandes:ine di-
vofces.''
IL is hardly necessary to say, that
there IS no business advertised in ouy
paper which is not sanctioned bv law
and of the class to which reference is
made, endorsed by public sentiment,
with as much right to the use of our
advertising columns, at onr usual rates.
as any other class of business. That
immense evils and sufferings grow out
OF excessive indulgence in intoxicating
drinks, will not be disputed. That total
abstinence is the most effeetual remedy
for the evils of intemperance cannot be
denied. But that the cause of temper
ance will be promoted by tae intemper-
ate and unreasoning zeal and bigotry
displayed. in the foregoing extract, no
reasonable man can believe. The use
Of intoxicating DRINKS, which "maketh
the heart glad, has been sanctioned by
the usages of centuries; it has the en-
dorsement of the highest Christian au-
thority and the example for its use of
the most pious dlvines and the purest
and best men in every age of the world
while its abuse by excessive indulgence
has always been held as a sin. There
are even now sincerely pious men who
would as soon think of adopting the
Shaker system of non-intercourse be-
ween the sexes as a remedy for the So
clal evil, as to expect universal total alb.
stinence to be adopted as remedy foi
drunkenness. Temperance organiza-
tons, with total abstinence pledge,
are modern institutions, demanded by
a growing tendency to intemperance and
excess, and calculated to do much good
under judicious management, in rescu,
ing individuals of depraved appetites
and infrm purpose from the evils of in
temperance. But that good purpose i.
greatly thwarted by Incorporate yea
which provokes resentment, or the dis
position manifested to procribe or dom
mate people habituated to freedom
1t is as easy to establish new religious
dogmas by force, as to establish new
moral dogmas by the SAME means.
We have been laboring for some time
in what we supposed TO be the cause Of
l
morality and public decency, agains,
houses of prostitution, public gambling
houses. and to compel the retail rs Of
intoxicating drinks to obey the laws and
comply with the restrictions which the
laws impose for the maintenance of or.
der and public decency. And now
comes in this "organ of temperance, ;
and tells the keepers of brothels, gam.
bling-hells, and like dens of infaray thai
their business is as respectable as that
of the vendor of one of the elements
used i'll the most holy sacrament of the
Christian religion; that the business Of
John Pennell is of higher grade, enti
Ting him to better social position
than the business of Merrs. Schwabach.
er Bros. & Gatzert, Stone & Burnett
Crawford Il Harrington, and J. r. Rob
bins, all Of whom are among the adver.
tisers denounced by the Echo. This is
well calculated to give aid and comfort
to keepers of brothels, but if intended
to aid the cause of temperance. it is q
most miserable failure.