Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-08-01

financial resources, make an aggregate so
vast-so intellectually vast, that the only
wonder Is that tho American people do not
rise as one man and declare that this great
curse shall exist no longer. Dilettante con-
ventions are held on the subject of peace,
by men and women who find II necessary
to fiddle TO keep themselves awake. A
hue-and-cry is raised about woman-suff-
rage, as If any wrong which may be invol-
we'd in woman's lack of the suffrage
could be compared to the wrongs attached
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 be-
gins to match in importance the temper
ance question. The question of Amori-
can slavery was never anything but baby
by the side of this and we prophesy that
within ten years, if not within five, the
whole country will be awake to II, and d.
vided upon 1t. The organizations of the
liquor interest, the vast funds at its COM
mand, the universal feeling among those
whose business is pitted against the nation
al prosperity and the public morals-these
are enough to show that, upon one side of
the matter, at least the present condition of
things and the social and political ques-
tons that lie in the Immediate future are APP
pr chendcd. The liquor interest knows
there is TO be a great struggle, and is pre-
pa ring TO meet it, People both in this
country and in Great Britain are beginning
TO see the enormity of the business-are
beginning 10 realize that Christian civilian
ton is actually poisoned at its fountain,
and that there can be no publication of 1t
until the source of the poison is dried up.
The country is to be sincerely congratulate
ed on the fact the wine interest of the Uni
ted States does not promise much. Little
native wine, after all our painstaking, finds
its way to gentleman's table. The Cali
fornia wines are II disappointment and a
failure, and the Western wines are the
ame. Neither the dry nor the sparkling
Catswba takes the place of anything i'm
ported. They are not popular wines, and
we congratulate the country that they new
or can be- The lager beer interest is en-
deavoring, in convention, TO separate itself
from the whiskey interest, claiming 10 be
holer and more respectable than that.
They are all to be Jumped together. They
are all opposed to sobriety, and, in the end,
we shall find them all fighting side by side
for existence against the determined indig-
nation of long-sufferng people.
A respectable English magazine reports,
as fact of encouraging moment, that of
the fifty thousand clergymcn of the Church
of England as many as four thousand act
ually abstain from the use of spirits! So,
eleven-twelflhs of the clergymen of the
English Church consent TO be dumb dogs
on the temperance question! How large
tho proportion of wine drinking clergy
men may be in this country We do not
know, but we do know that wine-glass
stops the mouth on the subject of temper
ance, whoever may hold it. A wine-dtink-
ing clergyman is n soldier disarmed. He
is not only not worth a straw in the fight !;
he is part of the impedimentd of the tenn
perance army. We have good many
such TO cary, who ought to be ashamed of
| themselves, and who very soon will be.
Temperance laws are being passed by vari-
Gus Legislatures, which they must sustain,
| or 90 over, soul and body, to the liquor in
terest and influence. Steps are being take
on behalf Of the public health, morals, and
prosperity, which they must approve by
voice and act or they must consent TO be
left tehind and left out. There can be no
concession and no compromise on the part
of temperance men, and no quarter 10 the
foe. The great curse of our country and
our race must be destroyed.
Meantime, the tramp, tramp, tramp
sounds on,-thc 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
in pitiful weakness, some wrpak their mad
and murderous impulses on enc another,
or on the helpless women and children
whose destinies are united to theirs, some
stop in wayside debaucheries and infimies
for moment, some go bound in clains
from which they seek in vain to wrench
their bleeding wrists, and all are poisoned
in body and SOUL and all are doomed to
death. Wherever they move, crime, pow
erty, shame, wretchedness and despair
hover in awful sh ldows. There is nc
bright side to the picture. We forget:
there is just one The men who make this
army get rich. Their children are robcd
in purple and fine linen, and live upon
dainties. Some of them are regarded as
respectable members of society, and they
hold conventions 10 protect their interests
Still the tramp. tramp, tramp goes on, and
before this article can see the light, five
thousand more of our poisoned army vii
have hidden their shame and disgrace in
the grave. DR.. j. G. Holland. IScriJney't
for august.