The Indiana State sentinel., 1874-03-31
SOLVING THE PROBLEM.
THE TEMPERANCE TOPIC.
DIR. HOLLAND TO ARCHBISHOP
PURCELL.
vIGoR AND EARNEsTNEss.


PURCELL.
vIGoR AND EARNEsTNESs.
A part of Doctor Hollands remarkable
letter to Archbishop Purcell was printed in
the telegraphic columns, br.s in view of the
agitation on the subject it will be reproduced
entire:
VERY REVEREND SIR: The friends of tenn
perance all over the union have received and
read your recent circular with profound re-
gret. Your high character, your influen tial
position in the great church which you rep
resent, and your confident and ingenious ap-
peal to divine authority as the basis of, and
warrant for, your views and opinions, give
your manifesto great significance, and rear
a formidable obstacle before the feet ofthose
who labor to win the nation to sobriety, and
destroy a traffic in which vice, immortality,
disease, misery and death find their most re.
dundant fountain. do not question
for moment your sincerity or
the purity of your motives, but L
believe you have made a great mistake
"a mistake surcharged with danger to your
own people, to the country, and the world.
beg you not to deem distant stranger
impertinent if her regards you as represent
ative of large class of the clergy, not only
of your own but of other denominations,
and undertakes to show wherein that mis-
take lies. OF the woman 'stemp perance move
ment in the west know nothing but what
find reported in the daily eastern press. |
notice that it has been instrumental in clos
ing dram-shops, in pledging multitudes TO a
life of total abstinence, in largely diminish
ing the sale of intoxicating liquors at the
manufacturing centers, and that these results
are accompanied by decided revival OF
religious feeling, and the exhibition OF
a great deal of christian heroism. i
notice, too, even here in the east, where
we only catch the echoes of the great COM
motion, that strong moral in fiuence is felt,
and that the public conscience has been
quickened nightly with regard to the evils
of intemperance. So much seems plain,
and so much, 1 am sure, ought 20 be a
cause of rejoicing to you, and to all who
love men and their Master. Besides. would
it not be we'll for us to remember that the
women who engage in this crusade are
working in the only way that Providence
has left open to them? Who.are they? They
are the mothers, wives, sisters and daugh-
tiers of men whom they have seen. year after
year, dropping into the graves of drunkards.
They have suffered
WORSE THAN DEATH
that the rum-seller might live. They have
seen their loved ones become sots, idiots.
madmen. They have seen their fortunes
squandered; they have found themselves
disgrsced; they have been cursed, beaten,
bruised; they have seen their peaceful and
happy homes turned into places of fear and
torment. Boys that were nursed on the
bosoms of some of them have been trans
formed by drink into fiends. Men wi ose
kiss of love and loyalty honored them with
wifehood, have degenerated into beasts. For
these, through weary, suffering years
they have prayed. Nay, they have
knelt with them, and held up their
weak and lmbecile hands while
they prayed for themselves. Day after day
thew snaye done this, as men have gone to
their business through temptations that be-
set their path at every corner, and have re-
ceived them at night, only to cover them
from sight with shame, and To sink back
into their old despair. The sorrows through
which these women have walked have been
simply immeasurable. No words OF mine
can describe them; no words of any man can
exaggerate them. They have looked to the
leaders of the church for help; have they
had it? They have looked to the politicians
for help: have they received it? They have
asked for laws, which were easily made tC
satisfy their clamOr: have they been
executed? They have been pure and
abstinent themselves; has their example
with all the eloquence OF love with those
who have broken their vows to cherish and
protect them, to forsake their vice, and have
received only curses or promises not worth
straw. What in Gcd's dear name was
there left for them to do, but just what they
are doing, and what you condemn? Who
have driven these women To this great me-
cessity2 Who have forced them into po-
sition from which all their natural instincts
dissuade them? Who have made their cru.
sade absolutely necessary, in order to save
the men of the present generation from go
ing to ruin? Men, and men of influence,
WITH SHAME BE 1T sAIDl
II the leaders of the christian church had
done their duty, and the leaders of state and
national politics had done theirs, there
would net be dram-shop to-day between
Canada and the gulf. The whole busines.
has thus been left to God and the women
and the latter are praying in churches and
in the street, aad pushing on their divine
and peaceful crusade, because the men O
| America have failed to do their duty. Shal
a christian man, in high station or low, lif
| his voice against them? Rather let hin
hide his head in shame and self contempt
You say that "the archbishop can
not instruct or preach that it i.
sin for a day. .laborer who has tC
or August up a steep ladder, to the third OF
fourth story of a building, to restore his ex
hausted strength by glass or two of beer. ,
Have you not unwittingly avoided OF
changed the issue? Did the "lady league
defi0itely ask you to declare such an act
sinf If they did, they were unwise, think
Do you suppose this crusade would have
been begun if nothing worse were dr9nl
than beer? That is dad enough, without
doubt, and an unMitigated curse to all whC
drink it habitually, whether they drink to ex
cess On not but the women know that where
beer is there is something worse; and al
I their observation has taught then
| that that worse thing cannot he got rid o.
1 unless Che beer goes with it. Besides, thsy
know, what you do not seem to admit, thai
"a glass or two of beer" restores the wasted
strength of no man. A stimulus restores
nothing. Alcohol exeites the nervous sys
! tenn and Eli artificial excitement is followed
! by reaction and exhaustion. Alcohol in nc
| form adds 10 the vital forces, it suhtracts
from them. In sickness 1T may stimulate
g. 10 I,n nf