Litchfield enquirer., 1876-03-30
ITEM FRANCE,


 held by numerous class of citizens or that subject. That the position taken ii an unteha6le one we ahaii endeavor tC show in reply:
 MR. EDTToR:-I am glad to sec the sub iect of Temperance once more under dis. cussion in our village. and was well pleas ed with the meeting at the ConRregataon- al chapel last Thursday evening. Although ! dislike secret societies, and am not total abstinence man, yet am nevertheless 6 strong temperance man, and will join in any good healthy movement whose object shall be, to banish the curse of intemper. EAnee fEem oa& &xillages Now would like to propose a way for trial: It may not be youE way-nor the best way-yet it might result in good.
 There are in this village, within a stone's throw of the Liberty Pole, five places where intoxicating drinks are sold by the quantity or glass. These dealers claim to be respectable men in our community, and but for this one busi- ness they are engaged in, have no fault to find with them. Yet they are, every ones doing more to-day. to break up hap py homes, to fill our jails with criminals, our poor house with paupers, and Hell with immortal souls, than all the rest of the to~n put together. This may be strong language, Eut who can deny itP It IS the rum-seller that lays the temptation in our way, and many there are that cannot esist it. Now would go for making rum selling q dishonordble business. I would nave our people look on the rum-seller, as man whom they ought to despise. whom they will not respect, whom they will not invite into their families, whom they will not by their votes place in positions of honor or trust. Let us plainly show them that so long as they continue in their damnable business of rum-sslling, they are obnoxious persons, and are not to be received among us.
 Such is the way would like to try with them, and certainly think that when. they come to realize that people are re- garding them in such light, the business of rum selling will be left to those who have no character to lose.
 BOSTON.
 We can easily imagine the reply the respectable rum-seller" would make to the foregoing:
 My business is respectable simply be- cause respectable people like yourself pat rOnlze it. If there is anything wrong in the. sale of Intoxicating drinks as bever- age. it is because it is wrong to drink in- tOxicating liquors as beverage. You re- spectable drinkers try to throw upon us respectable dealers the whole blame of evils that results from habits of indul- gence made respectable by your example. Our crime, if it IS a crime, results directly from yours. There would be no respect able 'rum-sellers' if there were no re- spectable 'rum-driukers.' You assume that sce make drunkards, fill He'll with immortal souls, &c? It is not so. It is the general habit of indulgence in alco- holic liquors as beverage-which you countenance by your example-that makes drunkards and fills He'll with, immortal souls ] It makes no difference whether the person who so indulges buys his in- ptoxicating liquor at wholesale or at retail, at home or abroad, or whether he manufac. tures it for his own use. Everyone who
 
 diligence is fatal 10 some; yet he con- slders. justly as We believe, that wine is on the whole blessing in which he may indulge with propriety, leaving it to every individual to decide for himself whether it is safe so to indulge. How can know when your moderate or occasional indul- gence is making you a drunkard? When you urea drunkard, indeed, may know it, and then the law forbids my selling to you; but that is too late. In general Ican- not know when your habits of moderate indulgence are dangerous till they have become fatal. Could you expect me to refuse you the next, pint ofwhiskey or quart of ale, you ask of me merely be- cause have my suspicious? Respect able drinkers like you do not allow them selves to be insulted by respectable deal CTS like me in any such way. Still less can you reasonably expect my clerks to furnish a whole community with the dis. cretion, the self control, the conscience, which some of them most unfortunately lacki'
 No doubt both the foregoing views are colored by prejudice. Rumselling is a bad business, but the respectable rum- seller is. not the fend he ia painted. Nor, on the other hand, is he particularly conscientious in the administration of his iiquors; selling to many whom he certain. Iy ought, on any principle, to refuse. Neverthless his logic is the better of the two. It is not he but an evil condition of society that makes drunkards. The at. mosphere of place where the habit of in. lulgence in strong drinks is general is 6 tainted atmosphere, and no burnt offering of rum-sellers will purify it. A certain proportion of the population of every such place are infected by, and fall victim. 10 the prevalent malaria. No one car predict who hose victims are to be. Thsy rot at the core and are lost before theil langer is discovered. The only way il xhich such an atmosphere can be puri jed is by the general adoption ofLabits O abstinence. Then, and then only, dt persons of weak moral or physical consti tuition cease to be exposed to fatal infec ion. Then and then only is the business of the respectable rum-seller" made i'm possible by the absence of the Prospect able rum-drinker." Then and then onl, can the sale of liquor be effectively pro hibited.
 In Litchfeld it is society, not the rum seller, that is the tempter. Young men, ,lder men of convivial habits-meet ant aempt each other. The impunity of thos Sho indulge safely is the ruin of thos vho cannot indulge safely. The lax hab it of those whose position in life shield them from great danger makes liquo drinking, and consequently liquor selling respectable. It is our own want of sel lenial that is to blame for the pestilenc that scourges us. Let no man imagip