The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-05-01

this liquor question; neither was any
attempt ever made 10 disunite them.
The ladies did try to induce him to leave
of selling liquor; his wife resented the
interference with his business, and
fully sympathized with him.
AS for Mr.. Fryer, he was i'll while on
the jury, and rendered more so by busi-
ness worry. Undoubtedly this indispo-
sition and anxiety about his affairs was
why he did not hold out against the
other five. According to his own state
ments he was sorry to do anything
against the ladies, and sympathizes
with the Temperance Movement. Mr..
Fryer is known to be an honest, right
minded man, and as he was the only one
on the jury who showed conscience in
the matter of the verdict, 1t is prepos-
ferrous to presume that the ladies had
any ill-feeling toward him. His name
is upon the pledge and the petition to
the Council, and certainly under the
circumstances there is no occasion to
charge Mr.. Fryer with any opposition
to Temperance; but rather to give him
the support of the Temperance part of
the community.
1t has even been charged that one
man committed suicide because the la
dies talked to him. That man was
found in the river; but as he had hardly
been sober for the past ten years, it
might be reasonably presumed that he
tumbled in involuntarily. Let us,
however, grant that husband and wife
have been parted, man rendered i'll or
I insane, and that another one has COM
mitted suicide, all on account of the ef-
forts put forth by the Crusaders to check
or abolish liquor selling in this city.
We would in all earnestness inquire il
these three cases offset the many sepa-
rations, cases of insanity and suicides
that are occasioned by liquor?
Let any attentive reader of the daily
papers take note, and keep record for
one month, or one week, of the divorces,
murders, defalcations, insanity, sui
cIdes, accidents and injuries attributable
directly and indirectly to liquor drink
ing, and he will be amazed. All those
newspaper slurs about "hoodlums" and
violence on the part of the women fall
without effect on the ears Of those who
realize this terrible evil, and who see the
good to be achieved by the earnest efforts
Of the Crusaders.
A party OF three ladies sat in conver-
sation a night or two ago, and men,
toned one and another of the men they
knew who were drunkards-all in re-
spectacle society and heads of families.
In n few minutes twenty-five names
had been mentioned, though neither of
the persons speaking were old cit-we
mean residents of Portland, for women
are not "citizens"-ande could not be as
familiar with family histories in this
city as if they had been. But they
knew cases enough TO make the heart
sicken, not only Of men Of families, but
of bachelors, and mere boys too, who
are rapidly sliding down into the grave
of the drunkard.
Those journals which have only scorn
and jeers for workers in a reform so i'm
perative as this one the women have
undertaken are nearly as mischievous
and inimical TO the interests OF the
community as the saloon men them
selves. The truth is, that journalism
has been become so degraded in many
respects that the daily papers are hardly
fit to enter the family circle. Instead
of being guides and conservators of pub
lie morals, they are exactly the oppo-
site, and fiaunt corruption in our faces,
creating the appetite for unhealthy ex-
element which they are afterwards SC
willing to crafty. 1t is quite time that
heads of families and all good people
should demand reform in this diree-
tion, as well as we'll as in the one the
Crusaders have taken in hand.