The Potter journal and news item. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1872-1874, 1873-05-02
From the independently
What the Rope Means

swinging off into eternity from th'
gallows. it is said that he gave +;
push to the rope which dangled be
, side him and said to a bystander
THAT rope can 4 bottle Of rur'
There Is no doubt that the fata
moose which slipred over Foster:
neck lately in New \ ork meant pre-
ciselv the same thing. The Foster
whom DIR. Tyng knew in the Sunday
school was not the malicious lad
, likely to grow up into wanton mur
=, derer; he was not naturally brutal
; The bottle made him a brute on the
night of his frightful crime. STRIP
away all TIE volumes of argument
appeal and apology that have growr
out Of the famous Foster case, and
You will find that the rope which
ended the case ''means a bottle O
rum"
That is what four-ffths of all the
murders mean. Even if not commit
ted underthe ferocious craze of drunk
enness, the murderer was yet steeled
to his devilish purpose by the infiu-
ence Of strong drink. Booth never
would have put that pistol-ball into
the brain of our Lincoln if he had
not Stitfened his nerves by that last
I dose of brandy. | do not believe
that one deliberate homicide out Of
twenty is ever committed without 2
previous Use OF the conscience killing
dram. And if the hangman's rope
''meanS a bottle" so does many q
rope of the suicide. Nearly all the
striped jackets in our penitentiaries
mean the same thing. Examine the
foflicial reports of our prisons and
salmshouses, and YOU will find that
rum furnishes more ''customersr than
lall other sources of crime and pau
iperism combined. The brothel. too.
* bottOmed upon the bottle. Every
house Of infamy is drinking-house.
Costl V wines are both the bait. the
st!mulant and the opiate to consci-
ence in ali the fashionable resorts of
prostitution. THE likes OF u. said
a poor street prostitute of London,
could never live as We do without
the GIN"
Who shall attempt to compute tue
amount Of crime engendered by the
bottle, when we consider that during
the year 1871 this country either
made or imported three hundred and
twenty-five million gallons Of alcohol
ic drinks! If all that liquor were
loaded On wagons-at twenty barrels
on wagon-the horrid procession
would reach from New York to ssh
I Francisco. At fair estimate of re-
suits. about onc wagon in every
twenty would contain the corpse of a
Legitimate victim Of this stupendous
amount Of poison! Now the Chris
tian nation which loads up such a
procession of liquor-casks as that
must expect to pay the toll. This is
in the line Of Gods inevitable retri-
buttons. If our nation manufactures
and imports 325,0OO,00O gallons OF
drink, then we must be prepared to
read the undeniable fact that the
pecuniary cost of intemperance (say
ing nothing of its moral waste and
havoc will foot up each year a round
billion of dollars! This is the tax We
pay for the bottle
But to return to ''the rope" Who
hung Driver? Who hung Foster
Who sent the two young drunken
car-thieves TO prison for fifteen years
last week in New York? The ready
answer is: Society" The common
wealth hung the nurderers and
locked up the thieves. in selfdefense.
Those gallows were erected and that
prison built to punish crime and TO
protect human life and property.
Society has hemp-rope and cell
for drunken murderers and thieves.
and yet society licenses the establish
ments which manufacture the thieves
and the murderers. New York : law
permits and protects the traffic which
furnished to Foster his maddening
glass. New York's social customs
encouraged and tempted Foster to
become a drinker. 4 very large
proportion Of New FORKS Christian
. citizens set the example Of using the
social glass, even though most OF
them may be able to keep within
: moderation" in its use. And yet
New York stands aghast around
Fosters gibbet, and perhaps piously
calculates: The wages Of sin is
4 death ~ Very tr1Ia death * the