Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-08-22

Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are march
ing how many of them? Sixty thousand /,
Sixty full regiments, every man of which
will, before twelve months shall have COM
pleted their course, lie down in the grave
OF drunkard Every year during the
past decade has witnessed the same saeri-
fee: and sixty regiments stand behind this
army ready 10 take it, place. Ii i to be
recruited from cur children and our child
ren 5 children. Tramp. tramp, tramp
the sounds come 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, eOmss to Us from the camp of the re-
cruits \ great tide of life flows resistless-
~ to its death What in Gods name are
they fighting for? The privilege of pleas
ing an appetite, of conforming 70 social
usage, of filling sixty thousand homes with
shame and sorrow, of loading the public
with the burden Of pauperism, of crOwding
our prisOn-hOuseS with telOns, of detract-
ing from the productive industries of the
country, of running fortunes and breaking
hopes, of breeding disease and wretched-
ness, Of destroying both body and soGl in
he'll before their time.
The prosperity of the liquor interest. GOV
ering every department OF il, depends en-
tirely on the maintenance OF this army. 1t
cannot live without it. It never did live
without it. So long a. the liquor interest
maintains its present prosperous condition.
it will cost America the sacrifice of 60, ,0OG
men every year. The effect i inseparahle
from the cause. The cost To the country of
the liquor traffic is sum 80 stupendOus
that any figures which we should dare 10
give would convict Us of trilling. The
I oru,ur+ Of Ef. ob.s,1.+a1,- do-4r.,.,I .ha
amount of industry sacrificed. the amount
of bread transformed into poison the shame,
the unavailing sorrow, the crime, the pow
erty, the pauperisn, the brutality. the wild
waste of vital and financial resources, make
an aggregate so vast-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 sub
ject of peace. by men and women who find
it necessary to fiddle to keep themselves
| awake. \ hue-and-ery is raised about wo-
man suffrage, as if any wrong which may
be involved in woman's lack of the sutfrag ge
could be compared to the wrongs alta ched
to the liquor interest
Does any sane woman doubt that women
are suffering thousand times more from
rum than from any political disability?
The truth is that there is no question be-
fore the American people to-day that begins
to match in importance the temperance
question. The question of American Slay-
cry was never anything but baby by the
side of this and VIC prOphesy that within
ten wears. ifnot within FIVE, the whole coun-
try will be awake to it, and divided upon it.
The organization of the liquor interest,
the vast funds at its command, the uniyer-
sal feeling among those whose business is
pitted against the national prosperity and
| the public mOrals-these are enough to
show that, upon one side of this matter, at
least, the present condition Of things and
the social and political questions that lie in
the immediate future are apprehended. The
liquor interest knows there is to be great
struggle, and is preparing to meet it. PeO-
pie both in this country and In Great Bri-
tain are beginning to see the enormity of
this business-are beginning to realize that
Christian civilization is actually poisoned
at its fountain, and that there can be no
purifcation of it until the source of the
poison Is dried up.
The VIENNA EXPOSITION. lin a letter
from Vienna to the Utica Herald Hon. Ellis
H. Roberts sums up the American part of
the exposition as follows:
The list of our exhibitors is instructive in
its contents and its omissions The number
reaches nine hundred and twenty-five. and
score of educational journals, and fifty
nine catalogues Of Libraries. stand for more
than three-scorc in the enumeration. In
the group of mining America has thrty-six
entries; in agriculture. forty; in chemical
industry, seyenty-fve in food as product
of industry. sixty-seyen; in textiles and
clothing, thirty-two; in leather and India
rubber, twenty-seyen in works in metals,
ffty-ive wood work eleven in stone,
earthenware and glass, nineteen small
ware and fancy goods, nine; paper and sta
tionery, sixteen graphic arts and indus
trial drawing, thirty-three; agricultural
and general machinery, one hundred and
fifty philosophical and surgical instru-
ments, thirty-one musical instruments,
seven /; in the art of war, fifteen the navy,
seven civil engineering. public works and
agriculture, fourteen; farmhouse, one;
domestic industry, two art applied to re-
ligion, two ; fine arts, sixteen teaching,
fourteen; educational division, two hun
dred and sixty-seven. Think Of this list for
nation of forty million producers.