The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-02-23

The Whiskey acknowledgements.
The crusade of the women in the North.
west against whiskey saloons is so connect.
cd with social economy, and SO full Of sug-
gcstiors concerning public morals, TINT we
propose to devote to it q few more reflections
The vice of intemperance, as we have fre-
p1ently said, is that from which women sui:
Ter NEST. The wretcbedness to which fami-
lies ere everywhere reduced, their want and
misery, and the neglect of so many children
thu: live vasabond-lives, and become thieves
and murderers, all are chiefly due to the in
temperate use of ardent spirits. 1t is not
wonderful that women should become DIES.
tcrate, and in their agony should resort to
extraordinary means to put an end to the
causes Of their misery but the efforts OF
the women of the Northwest are more re-
markab,e for their zeal than for their judg-
ment.
The manner of the crusade involves those
who conduct it in violation of law. Their
assembling in the streets in large numbers
before saloons, praying and singing, OBJ
structs the streets, creates disturbance, and
obstructs access to the saloon, which is Ii
censed, and under the protection of law.
They not only violate law themselves, but
they provoke Others to it, for the assailed
persons may re!aliate with jeers and taunts
aut. noises of all sorts and bands Of music, to
the great scandal and annoyance of society.
With tho nryncipcr ay,,rlay-inr fhoir
different means Of annoyance, it would be-
come question simply of endurance, and
end in abortion. Public opinion would de-
eide that the movement was contemplate,
and that it was not deserving of sympathy.
Should II, however, on the other hand, be-
come popular, 1t will be seized hold of by
those who seek public favor, and they will
deprive it Of the only thing which makes it
respectable-the honest and supplemented
desire Of the women to defend themselves.
The end vii, be reaction which will
leave the women weaker and more helpless
than before.
But there are other evils inherent in The
course of these poor women, leading ineyi'
tably to consequences worse than The very
Ills they seek to put an end to:
/. TIE irritation Of the iquor-dealers and
their fear of the injury to so lucrative and
widespread an interest, which will rouse
those engaged in it to more determined re-
sistaIce and In physical or public war
fare of this kind their sex is utterly unequal
to cope with the whiskey interest, which i.
a power in the land.
2. 1t will produce domestic breaches with
out limit; for this public interference, ant
this effort at domestic coercion, will destroy
the love and peace Of married life more
e1ectually than whiskey itself-it will make
the men more determined druukards thar
ever.
8. This street-praying-this use Of prayer,
or rather of the formula OF prayer, not fos
solemn invocation OF the Deity, but rs an
offensive means Of assault, inpairs respect
for religion, whose guise It assumes, brings
discredIt on holy things thus perverted, and
hardsns the hearts which they desire to melt
and to influence. 49, u ,sss 4.
4. This streetpraying this publicity
debases and degsades the sex whose spe.
ciaity Ii Is to Min and to iead-not to drive.
Woman Is always lowered from her high
pedestal when she deseeDds into the public
srcpa OF force and 81 naie.. Rhe.he. as a