The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-07-29
The Liquor Interest.

huoOebNt iNPiiNN
The Liquor Interest.
Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are
marching: how many of them ? Sixty
thousand Sixty full regiments, every
man Of which will, before twelve months
shall have completed their course, lie
down in the grave of drunkard Every
year during the past decade has witness
ed the same sacrifice; and sixty regi-
ments stand behind this army ready to
take its place. 1t is to bo recruited from
our children and our chidren's children.
Tramp, tramp, tramp'-the sounds
comes to US in the echoes of the footsteps
of the army just expired tramp, tramp.
tramp-the earth shakes with the tread
of the host now passing; tramp, tramp,
tramp, comes to us from the camp of the
recruits. A great tide of life flows re-
sistessly to its death. What in God s
name are they fighting for? The privi.
lege Of pleasing an appetite, Of conform
ing t, social usage, of filling sixty
thousand homes with shame and sorrow,
of loading the public with the burden OF
paupcrsm, of crowding our prison-houses
with felons, of detracting from the pro.
ductive industries of the country, of ruin.
ing fortunes and breaking hopes, Of
breeding disease and wretchedness, of de.
stroying both body and soul in hell be.
fore their time.
The prosperity OF the liquor interest,
covering every department of it, depends
entirely on the maintenance of this army
1t cannot live without it. 1t never did
live without it. So long as the liquor in-
terest maintains its present prosperous
condition, it will cost America the sacri.
flee of sixty thousand men every year.
The effect is inseparable from the cause
The cost to the country OF the liquor
traffic is sum so stupendous that any
figures which we should dare to give
would convict US of trifling The amount
Of life absolutely destroyed, the amount
of industry sacrificed, the amount Of bread
transformed into poison, the shame, the
unavailing sorrow, the crime, the poverty,
the pauperism, the brutality the wide
waste of vital and financial resources
make an aggregate so vast-so incalcula.
bly, vast, that the only wonder is that the
American people do not rise as one mau
aud declare that this great curse shall
exist no longer Di!ettante conventions
Are held on the subject Of peace, by men
and women who find it necessary to i'd
die to keep themselves awake. a hue
and.cry is raised about woman-suffrage
as if any wrong which may be involved
in woman's lack Of the suffrage could be
compared to the wrongs attached TO the
liquor interest.
Does any sane woman doubt that wo
men are suffering thousand times more
from rum .han from any political disabil
ity?
The truth is that there is no question
before the American people to-day that
begins to match ip importance the tenn
pcrance question. The question Of Amer
lean slavery was never anything but a
baby by the side of this and we proph
esy that within ten years, if not within
five, the whole country will be awake tt
it, and divided upon it. The organiza
tions of the liquor interest, the vast fund
at its command, the universal feeling a
mong those whose business is pitted agains
the national prosperity and the publ,
morals-these are enough to show that
upon one side OF this matter, at least, tn,
present condition of things and the socia
and political questions that lie in the i'm
mediate future are apprehended. The Ii
quor interest knows there is to be grea
struggle, ard is preparing to meet it
People, both in this country and in Grea
Britain, are beginning to see the enormity
Of this business-are beginning to realiz,
that Christian civilization is actually poi
soned at its foundation, and that ther'
can be no publication of it until the sourc,
Of the poison is dried up.
The couutry is to be sincerely cougrat
ulated on the fact that the wine iniere>
Of the United States does not promi,
much. Little native wine, after all on
painstakiDg, finds its way to gentle
mans table. The California wines are
disappointment and failure, and th
Western wines aIe the same. Neithe
the dry nor the sparkling Cataw5a take
the place Of anything imported The
are not popular wines, and we congratu
late the country that they never can be
The lager beer interest is endeavoring, i
convention, to separate itself from tn
whiskcy interest, claiming to be holic
and more respectable than that. The
are all to be Jumped together. They ar
all opposed to sobriety, aud, in the enc
we shall fiod them all fighting side by sid
for existence against the determined il
dignation of long-sufferiDg people.
A respectable English magazine r,
ports, as a fact Of encouraging momen
that of tho fifty thousand clergymen
the church Of Eogland as many as fou
thousand actually abstain from the use
|, spirits So, eleven.twellths of the Gle
gymen of the church Of Eogland conser
, to be dumb dogs on the temperance que
tion How large the proportion Of ii
wine-drnking clergymen may be in tn
country We do not know, but we do kno
that wine'glass stops the mouth on ii
subject Of temperance, whoever may hol
it, A wine-driokiug clergyman is so
der disarmed He is not only not Wort
a straw in the fight he is a part of Il
. impedimenta OF the temperance arm
We have good many such to carry wi
ought to be ashamed Of themselves, al
who very soon will be. Temperance la,
= ! are being passed by the various Legisl
turcs, which they must sustain, or