Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-03-03
THE LIQUOR INTEREST.

d" Tramp, tramp. tramp, the boys are
marching: :" How many Of them Sixty
thousand Sixty full regiments, every man
of which will, before twelve months shall
have completed their course. lie down IN
the grave of a drunkard Every year dur
ing the past decade has witnessed the same
sacrifice; and sixty regiments stand behind
this army ready to take its place. Ii Is TO
| be recruited from our children and our
| children's children. Tramp, tramp,
tramp,-the Stands come to Us in the
echoes of the footsteps OF the army jus;
| expired tramp, tramp. tramp-the earth
shakes with the tread Of the host now pass
| ing tramp, tramp. tramp, comes 10 Us
| from the camp OF the recruits \ great
tide Of life flows resistlessly 10 it, death.
What in Gods name are they fighting Tor
The privilege Of pleasing an appetite. Of
conforming to q social usage, OF filling
sixty thousand homes with shame and s0r-
row, OF loading the public with the burden
of psuperism. of crowding our prison
houses with felons, OF detrscting from the
productive industries Of the country, OF
mining fortunes and breaking hopes, OF
breeding disease and wretchedness, Of de-
stroying both soul and body IN hell before
their time.
The prosperity Of the liquor interest.
covering every department OF it. depends
entirely on the maintenance of tnls army.
Ii cannot live without it. 1t never did live
without it, So long as the liquor interest
maintains its present prosperous condition,
it will cost America the sacrifice of sixty
thousand men every year. The effect Is in
separable from the cause. The cost to the
country Of the liquor traffic Is sum so
stupendous that any figures which We should
dare to give would convict US of trlhlng.
The amount OF life absolutely destroyed,
the amount OF industry sacrificed. the
amount Of bread transformed into poison,
the shame, the unavalllng sorrow, the
crime, the poverty, the pauperlsm, the
brutality, the wild waste Of vital and tinan-
cial resources, make an aggregate 50 vast
SC intellectually vast. that the only wonder
IS that the American people do not rise as
one man and declare that this great curse
shall exist no longer. Dilettante conventions
are held on the subject Of peace, by men
and women who find 1t necessary to fiddle
to keep themselves awake. \ hue-and-cry
is raised about woman-suffrage, as # any
wrong which may be involved in woman's
lack Of the suffrage could be compared to
the wrongs attached to the liquor interest
Does any sane woman doubt that women
are suffering a thousand times more from
The truth Is, there Is no question before
the American people, today, that begins to
match in Importance, the temperance ques-
ton The question Of American slavery
was never anything but a baby by the side
Of this and we prophesy that within ten
years. If not within five. the whole country /
will be awake to 1t, and divided upon il
The organizations of the liquor interest,
the vast funds at its command, the uni /
versal feeling among those whose business /
is pitted against the national prosperity /
and the public morals-these are enough 10 /
show that upon one side Of this matter. at |
least, the present condition Of things, and |
the social and political questions that lie in .
the immediate future are apprehended. The |
liquor interest knows there Is to be a great
struggle and is preparing to meet 1t.
People. both in this country and In Great
Britain, are beginning 10 sec the enOrmlty
of this business. are beginning to realize
that Christian civilization Is actually pois-
oned at its fountain. and that there can be
no publication of it until the source OF II Is
dried up.
The country Is to DO sincerely congratu-
lated on the fact that the wine interest of
the United States does not promise much.
Little native wine after all our pains taking,
finds its way to gentleman table. The
California wines are disappointment and
failure, and the Western wines are the same.
Neither the dry nor the sparkling catawba
takes the place of anything imported. They
are not popular wines, and We congratulate
the country that they never can be. The
lager beer interest i endeavOring, In con-
Sention, to separate itself from the Whisky
claiming to be boiler and more
than that. They are all to be
Jumped together. They are all opposed to
iobriety, and, in the end, we shall lind them
Ill fighting side by side for existence against
he determined Indignation oi long-sutier
ng people.
A respectable English magazine reports.
Is fact of encouraging moment, that of
he fifty thousand clergymen of the Church
# England as many as fur thousand ac-
ually abstain from the use If spirits So.
even twelfths of The clergymen OF the Eng
ish Church consent to be dumb dogs on the
temperance question How large the pre-
,ortion of wine-drinking clergymen may be
n this country We do not know, but We do
now that wine-glass stops the mouth on
he subject Of temperance, whoever may
oldIt
A wine-drinking clergyman is soldier
isarmed. He is not only not worth straw
D the fight, but Is part of the impeachment
the temperance army. we nave E0O1
lany such to carry, who ought to be !
shamed of themselves, and who very soon c
ill be.
Temperance laws are being passed BY the
arious legislatures which they must sus-
ain, or go over, soul and body, to the 1
quor interests and influence. steps are a
eng taken on behalf Of the public health, s.
lorals, and prosperity, which they must 8
pprove by voice and act, or they must con-
int to be left behind, or be left out. n,
here can be no concession and no COM a.
romise on the part Of temperance men, Ii
I'd no quarter to the foe. The great curse II
our country and our race must be de- 81
troyed. {
Meantime, the tramp. tramp. tramp
'unds on,-the tramp of sixty thousand 7.
Early victims. Some are besotted and 81
upid, some are wild with hilarity and to
,nce along the dusty way, some reel along IL
pitiful weakness, some wreak their mad 4
I'd murderous impulses on one another, or =
the helpless women and children whose T.,
,stinies are united to theirs. some stop in OF
ayside debaucheries and infamies for a IT
oment, some 90 bound in chains from ia
hich they seek in vain to wrench their
eeding wrists and all are poisoned in body
ID soul, and all are doomed to death. p
'herever they move, crime, poverty, e
anne, wretchedness and despair hover in ~
sful shadows. There is no bright side to