The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-02-20
PUBLIC OPINION
TEMPERANCE.

EDITOR TELEGRAPH What has bee ONE
of all the temperance men that adorned Sim
m ons Hall with their presence while the most
able and pointed lecture was being deliver
ed by DR.. Carhart of Racine The great mum
bers present on that occasion created an inn
preston that Kenosha was teeming with tenn
perance men and women, even to that ex-
tent that it was scarcely safe for one to ex-
pose signboarl indicating to passers by
that rum was sold within. Why is it
tbs these men and women should after such
an arousing ard telling argument fold their
arms and sit quiet while the Temperance
cause is left to be trampled in the dust by
the very men against whom It's aim should
be directed? Can it be possible that those
who filled that hall were so much in need of
lecture on Temperance that the force of
argument was all appropriated to their
own individual need, If SO I hope that the DR..
will come again, and that soon too, and fill
this Temperance community Of Kenosha with
the same kind of material as on his last visit
So that those who are the more Immediate
victims OF inte-aperance may receive some
benefits, do not mean only those who in an
| evil hour have become victims of the fatal
| cup, but those who through the bancful in.
fuence Of intemperance spends night and
days Of anguish and suffering which only the
mother of a dying child whose father is q
drunkard can have any conception of. And
when we stop and take o full survey Of the
state of things in Kenosha from temper
ance point of view the scene is one most de-
plOrable; not alone from the fact that rum is
being sold to confirmed drinkers, and to bows
and minors, not alone that poison in it's
most deadly form is being daily dealt out,
and crime in every form is rampant in our
midst from the effects of drinking adultera
ted liquors not alone that the sanctity of
the Sabbath is broken, and riot and rowdy-
ism break from the rum shop, which is open
as well on Sunday as week days, if not the
main entrance, the secret tap at the back
boor will be attended, and wheE once admit
ted and shut in from the public the indul-
gence is only more deep and degrading not
that within the sound of the pastors voice in
the pulpit this baneful traffic Is carried on
without any restraint and all influence which
may be exerted for good and the elevation of
man in the scale of being is In great meas
ure counteracted.
say all these facts ore not the most de-
plorable feature of the scene, nor does this
compose the most dangerous and alarming
element in our midst. And here You may
very naturally ask, that if this is not the
worst clement, that any community
can be cursed with, what in the name of all
that is holy and good is? Well I will tell you
very briefly.
10 be sure to have rum shop to every one
hundred and fifty persons and every one of
these shops sell every day more or less dead
II poison in their liquor which ifoul honera-I
BILE Druggists were to be found guilty Of
they would have to atone to the offended
law, to be sure to see men in cur midst whom
rum has ROBBED of all their mental and ply
steal powers to say nothing OF the poverty
and want to which they are reduced, and to
see little onesin rags and deprived of the
advantage of education so freely offered, and
to see the widows tears and hear the orphans
cry, and hear the profanity faLd Sabbath
breaking is enough to sicken one, and enlist
ones services in the temperance cause in the
most earnest manner, all this is what every
city Is more or less cursed with, and know
and feel the terrible effect. And now let me
tell you that when we take full survey, ana
beyond all this Sc IN plain view that this
exists only by permission as It were. or in
other words, by the wilful neglect ofthe so
called temperance portion of the community.
Who are the temperance men Of Kenosha, |
who many do they number, and what is tenn
perance man? How many Kenosha temper
ance men does it require to enforce one of
the many Of the laws which exist, to sup
press evils, of which the present rum trade
is one. No, the most alarming feature is
that men will stand in some secluded place
and talk loud and long as to their temperance
sentiments and temperance movements but
they can never be seen or heard in public
only when Carhart or Bingham comes in our
midst, then they venture out and ill the hall
only to go home and sleep more sound. No,
fellow citizens, the responsibilities rest with
us, and al long as we stand still and fold our
arms and let our b est interests suffer and die
for the want Of energy and backbone to sup
press this evil, so long shall we have this and
still worse evils to contend with. No wonder
that our cIergymen} turn their backs on their
own pulpits and go to other fields to labor,
and send us back tidings of the blessed re-
suits Of their labors.
Temperance men of Kenosha rouse up and
be doing. There Is work to be done. prepare
-or action while there is yet time Let King
Alcohol with his legions be driven from our
midst. which can he easily acnnrnrli.hod III