The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-06-19

| march OF drunkenness IS onward still.
1t reaches abroad to others, invades
the family and social circle, and spreads
woe and sorrow all around. -5'+
1t cuts down youth in its yigory man
hood in its strength, and age In its
weakness.
1t breaks the fathers heart, bereaves
the dOting loving mother; extingulshes
natural etfection eraces conjugal love,
blots out flial attachment, blights par
entail hope, and brings mourning age
with sorrow to the grave. 1t produces
sickness, not health; weakness not
strength, death not life.
1t makes wives, widows ); children,
orphan 's,-fathers, friends; and many
OF them paupers and beggars. 1t halls
| levers, feeds rheumatisms, nurses gout,
| welcomes epidemics, invites cholera, i'm
parts pestilence, and dembTacescO cOnsump-
tion; it covers the land with idleness,
poverty, disease and crime ;-it fills your
jails, supplies your alms-houses, and de-
| mands your asylums; it eDgenders con-
trOversies, fosters quarrels, and cher
| ishes riots it cOntemns law, spurns or
! der, and furnishes victims foFi'the seaf-
| fold lit is the life blood of the gam
| bier, the aliment of the counterfeiter,
| the prop of the highWayman, and the
support of the midnight ineendiary =
| it countenanCes the liar, respects the
| thief, and esteems the blassphe,ner3-it
! violates obligations, reverences fraud,
and honOrs infamy lit defames benev-
ole1ce, charity and religion 3 hates love,
1t incites the father to butcher his
offsprings, helps the husband to massa-
Gre his wife, and aids the child to grind
the parricidal axe ;. it burns up man,
consumes woman, detests life, curses
God, and despises heaven ;--it snbbOrns
witnesses, nurses perjury, defiles the
lury-box, and stains the judicial erlnine /;
| it brides votes, :disqualities voters, cor
Erupts elections, pOl1utes our institutions,
and endangers good government;-it
degrades the citizen, debases the legis-
lator, dishoners the statesman, and dis
arms the patriot brings shame, not
honor, terror, not safety ;--despair, not
hope misery, not happiness. a.a
And, now, as with the malignity of q
fend, it calmly surveys its frightful
desolations, and insatiate with havoc, it
poisons felicity, kills peace, slays repu-
tation, wipes out honor, curses the world,
and laughs at it's ruin. ~ ~
Oh! what cruelhorrid work is this Let
the widow tell the story of her sorrows; !;
let the orphan speak and ye wives,
from your bleeding, broken hearts, bear
testimony to the truth of these asser-
tiOns. 1 m# gs.
Fathers mothers, brothers, wives,
sisters, lovers and friends, we call upon
you. ga 'sf,,s59e
Behold your sons, brothers and hlls-
bands, how they crowd the place where
the cup OF death is sold. 1t is this ac-
cursed drink that has filled the world
with the wounded, the dying, and the
dead with -blighted hopes, and broken
hearts with widows, and with oFp-
hans, and the grey hairs of fathers and
mothers, it has brought to the grave. 4
Brothers, and sisters, parents, and
children, husbands and wives, and
neighbors, and friends mourn with am
guish over his innumerable victims.
He has tolled millions OF knells--tlug
millions of graves, and enveloped mil
lions of our race in amoonless and star
less night, To-day, he stalks in your
midst; the wall of his ruined ones, land
the shrieks of the despairing is.heard in
the land. .& sd t9a
The supplication of his broken-hearted
victims fail uDon your ears; his skeleton
monument dripping with tears and
blood, passes before You and shuts outthe
clear light OF the sun; and, yet, like the
step OF desting, he moves onward; and
neither the shortness of the crops, the
scarcity of money, nor the hardness of
the times, stops his mad career.
All! you may well lament the sad con-
dition of the people of this State, and it
will be no better, unless we rise up as
one man and Danish the Whiskey barrel
from our midst.
Have you any conception, Eye men
who pay taxes, and who daily complain
of the heavy burdens that rest upon you)
of the amount Of whiskey consumed
annually in Louisiana? Leaving out
immense quantities, such as wine, bran
dy, gin, rum, and numerous milder bev-
erages down to bitters and lager beer9
The inhabitants of Louisiana, white
and black, consume about 70, 900 barrels
of whiskey yearly. If we reckon up the
cost of 0,000 barrels of Whiskey to the
consumer at fifteen cents a drink, and
throw in all other liquors consumed in
the State to make up for short ckoning
where drinks do not cost fifteen cents,
we lind that it foots up to .f0rty-tac0
millions, eight hundred. aud forty tltous7
and dollars, according! to bar keepers
reckoning" Ninety7six drinks to the
gallon, and forty7two and a half gallons
VI tllE bitGGGls
This amounts to more than tho value
of the sugar, cotton, rice, and tobacco
crops Of Louisiana in the year 1870. ,.,
Do you wonder why everything is SO
perfectly demoralized, when SO much is
paid out for Whfskeyq Do You wonder
that there is no money in the country. !?
expect, that there is enough intoxica-
ting liquors consumed here i'm st. LAM
dry Parish, in the course OF a year, as
would float the steamboat r.. E Lee. F,,
lis there no end to this river of death
Shall it never cease to pour its burning
whitening waters DER the land and the
wor1df
Never, until the community at large
awake more fully t0 the subject, and
take hold OF the work of temperance re-
form with an interest becoming the
OF the evil, never until the |
g sons of Levi purify themselyes,n and |
the Church OF Christ come out and be |
separated, and touch not, and taste not |
the unclean thing;--never. until total |
abstinence from all that intoxicates |
shall everywhere prevail. +,
) From this subject my young friends, /
learn the danger of evil company. ..g
ii There is no season that lis so critical /
as the season of youth. 1t is like ship |
that has been lanched on o tempestous I
ocean, without theaid of compass, chart,
or skilful pilot to enable her to shape T
her course amid the dangers of the |
deep;--the inexperienced youth often
sails down the stream of time in treacIl- |
erous security on the quicksands of des-
truction. .5.
EndeaVor, therefore, in the season of |
youth, to make good selection of the
companions of your heart. Remember