St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1873-08-08
The Liquor Interest.


course, lie down i'll the grave of drunk
ard Every year during the past de-
cade has witnessed the same sacrifice :
and sixty regiments stand behind this
army ready to take its place. 1t is to
he recruited from our children and our
children's children. TRAMP, tramp.
tramp, sounds come to us in the
echoes of the footsteps of the army just
expired; tramp, tramp, tramp,-the
o.i,h snakes with the tread of the host
now passing; tramp, tramp, tramp.
comes to us from the camp of the re-
cruits. A great tide of life flows re-
sistlessly to its death. What in Gods
name arc they fighting for? The priv
ilege of pleasing an appetite, of con-
forming to II social usage, of filling
sixty Thousand homes with shame and
sorrow, of leading the public with the
burden of Pauperism, of crowding Our
pIisomhouses with felons. of detracting
from the productive industries of the
country. of running fortunes and break
ing hopes, of breeding disease and
wretchedness, of destroying both body
and soul i'll hell before their time.
The prosperity of the liquor interest
covering every department of it. de
pendS entirely on the maintenance of
this army. 1t cannot live without it.
1t never did live without it, So long as
the liquor interest maintains its present
prosperous condition. it will cost Amer
lea the sacrifice of sixty thousand men
every wear. The effect is inseparahle
from the cause. The cost to the coum-
try of the liquor traffic is sum 50 stu
pendouS that any figures which we
should dare to give would convict lis of
trtllng The amount of life absolutely
destroyed. the amount of industry sac
nticed. the amount of bread transformed
int" poison. the shame. the umavailing
sorrow. the crime. the poverty. the
pauperi>m. the brutality. the wild waste
of vital and financial resources make
an aggregate 81 NaSt-SO intellectually
vast. that the only wonder is that the
American people do not rise as one man
and declare that this great curse shall
exist no longer. Dilettante conventions
are held on the subject of peace. 10y
men and women who find it necessary
to fiddle to keep themselves awake 4
hur-and-cry is raised about woman
suffrage. H. if any wrong which may he
involved in womamS lack of the suffrage
could hc compared to the wrongs at
taclred to the liquor interest,
Does any sane woman doubt that
women are suffering Il thousand times
more from rum than from any political
disability?
The truth is that there is no question
before the American people to-day that
begins To match in Importance the tenn
pcrance question. The question OF
American slavery was never ANYTHING
hut a baby hy the side of this: and we
pruphcSy that within ten wears. if not
within five. the whole country will hc
awake to it. and divide upon it. The
organizations of the liquor interest. the
vast funds ut its command. the umiver-
sal feeling among those whose business
i pitted against the national prosperity
aud the public morals these are enough
to show that. upon one side of the mat
ten. at least. tin present condition ot
things and the social and political pucs-
tiun> that lie i'll the Immediate future
are apprchendcd. The liquor interest
knows there is to bc Il great struggle.
and Is preparing to meet it. People
both in this country and in Great Brit
ain are beginning to see the cuormitV
of the buSiness-arc beginning to real
iIc tl:at Christian civilization is actually
poisoned at lts fountain. and that there
can he no puritication of it until the
source of the poison is dried up. The
country l. to he sincerely congratulated
on the fact the wine interest of the
United States does not promise much.
Little native wine. after all our pains
taking. finds its way tn Il gentleman :
table. The California wines are dis
appointment and Il failure. and the
Western wines are the same. Neither
the dry nor the sparkling Catawba
takes the place of anything imported.
They are not popular wines. and we
congratulate the country that they new
er can he. The lager beer interest is
endcavoring, in convention. to separate
itself from the whiskcy interest, claim
ing To he holier and more respectable
than that.
They are all to he Jumped together
They are all opposed to sohriety. and.
i'll the end, we shall find them all fight
ing side by side for existence against
the determined Indignation of long
suffering people.
\ respectable English magazine re-
ports. as Il fact of encouraging moment
that of the fifty thousand clergymen OF
the Church of England as many as foul
thousand actually abstain from the use
of spirits, SO, eleven-twelfths of the
clergymen of the English Church con-
sent to he dumb dogs on the temper
ance question How large the proper
ton of wine-drinking clergymen may
he in this country we do not know, but
we do know that IA winc-glaSs stops the
mouth on the subject of temperance,
whoever may hold it. a wine-drinking
clergyman is Il soldier disarmed. He
is not only not worth Il straw in the
fight he is a part of the impedimentd
of the temperance army. We have Il
good many such to carry. who ought to
he ashamed of themselves, and who
very soon will he. Temperance laws
are being passed by various Legisla-
lures, which they must sustain, or go
over, soul and body, to the liquor inter
est and influence. Steps are being taken
on behalf of the public health, morals,
and prosperity, which they must ap-
prove by voice and act, or they must
consent to he left behind and left out
There can he no concession and no com
promise on the part of temperance men,
and no quarter to the foe. The great
curse of our country and our race must
he destroyed.
Meantime, the tramp, tramp. tramp
sounds on,-the tramp of sixty thousand
yearly victims. Some are besOtted and
stupid, some are wild with hilarity and
dance along the dusty way, some reel
along i'll pitiful weakness, some wreak
their mad murderous impulses on one
another, or Oh the helpless women and
children whose destinies are united Ia