St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1875-10-29
The Magnitude of the Temperance
Work

The following from the pen of Pres
idemt kitrhcll. late of Middlchury
College, is ii sound and clear prcscnta-
tion of the work done. and to he done
for temperance. Read it, friend or foe,
all who desire to know how earnest
workers regard it. We shall OCCASION
ally furnish other strong passages from
the same source:
We have undertaken to rcuovatc the
cntiIc social body. to eradicate the
strange prcjndicc> and customs which
have come down to us from the old
Days of Drink, to cnlightcn and purify
and elevate all CLASSES of men in Il
word, to rc-educatc society and carry il
over bodily to rational views and right
practice.
Look now at two pictures of society {:
In the one, we see the whole commIIn-
ity utterly blind and stupid under the
dominion Oi Intcmpcrancc. There Is Il
little srIISe OF the evil, and no con
science touching it. All drink, shame
and misery abound. vice Icign>, Il hor-
rid deSolation is spreading: Il strange
blindness is over all. The cause and
the remedy of all this are unthought Of
To drink and provide drink to sell
and to Use these are among the chief
ends OF life's things necessary. with no
character of morality about them.
society is stepped in strong drink.
Bonn, living, dying. no man can do
without it. Such state of things is
possible it has bccn-and forty
years ago it existed among us. 1t MAS
in this condition of things the work of
reformation began.
! And now contemplate the other pie
| ture, and il is substantially true of SOME
| towns in Vermont to-day. 1t presents
Il community III which, instead of
strange prciudices in favor of ntoXicat-
ing drinks. there is Il natural and in
tclligcnt dread of them, and the Use of
| them by amy man as beverage Is
! looked upon us an act of wanton trifting
with his own Well-being and that of all
around him. For Il man to put him
self in Il state of mtoXication, or make
any voluntary approach toward tha;
state, is regarded as IL mad and climi-
nal act. All see it as it is Il voluntary
abandonment of his own rational and
moral being: an expulsion of Judgment,
conscience and Selt-control, and IL sur
render of himself, for the time into the
possession of demon. to he used by
him as he will. All see and feel that
no human being has the right thus to
turn himself loose and infuriated among
his fellows, ready agent for every
shameful and infamous deed.
And with equal clearness all see that
for another to aid and abet such an act,
and even tempt to its commission by
furnishing for gain the means of such
dcraupcment. is an intolerablc wrong
to the whole community. That Il man
should make il his business to sell What
tends directly to madden and destroy
his fellows. and expose every right al
fcctIon and interest of others, that he
should live by making ruthless havoc
all around him. all look upon such an
act as one of superlatiNe guilt. In this
condition of society, voluntary mehlit-
tion is treated as IL crime and he who
furnishes the means of intoXlcltion L.
deemed guilty of Il higher crime. They
have laws to that end, as clearly seen
to he necessary aud just. and enforced
with as ready and unanimous approval
as our statutes are against the thief ol
the burglar.
Alcohol takes its place among the
useful but dangerous drugs. to he treat
ed as other poisons are. Drink it The
man who does drink it is the man To he
t,keucare of and he who should 50 tritit
with the public security and peace IA
to rive or sell it for a drink, and shoult
talk of getting his living in that way
he would have living provided fol
him. more honest and more honorable
in the states prison. 49,.
Now. from these two conditions o
society. drawn ONLY in outlines, we ma,
leatn the nature of our enterprise. Gu
work is to carry over the entire oo"I
the people from the one OF these 10 'h'