National Republican., 1876-11-01

unworthy the society of friends
and family, the confidence of fellow-men,
the love of parents, wife,. brothers, sisters,
children, and has become loathsome nui-
sance and disgrace to mankind, because
he drinks alcoholic spirits, and he viii soon
find that he can do without them. We are
all to blame more than we think for our
treatment of the drinker of spirits. We aid
him in bis self-deception. Instead of tell
ing him how drunk he was the night be-
fore, and how he disgraced himself, his
name, family and manhood, and making
him see himself as others saw him, to his
shame and modification, possibly to HE re-
form, we admit that he was s1ittle ele-
vated," but did nothing out of the way.
If he lodged in the station-house until he
slept off the effects of the stimulants, and
then emerged by leaving collateral or
through our Influence, we suppress his
right name out of regard to 'the feelings
of his family" If he dies of deliriam
tremens or congestion of the brain, or COM
mits suicide from the effects of rum, we
t'ke care to have the physicians certificate
find some other name for the disease that
is genteel and respectable, and the editors
write glowing obituaries of these drunken
sots, in which they speak of their ''gene-
rous qualities" and genial temperament"
and large heart, &C.. and then turn round,
with a meaning shake of the head, and
coufidentially whisper to you, "Rum did
it. The family pastor attends the funeral
service and eulogizes the deceased, and,
pouring oil into the wounds of the broken
hearted relatives. omits to say that 'sdrunk-
ards shall enter into the kingdom of
Heaven" but fixes up a nice theory, by
which man who had SO lived as to utterly
destroy all the divine attributes of his be-
ing and practiced hahitually the infraction
OF ;ne whole decalogue Tor INC p,.i.vsc- af
gratifying his appetites, desires and lusts,
can enter upon the full fruition of all the
joys of heaven the moment he leaves this
world by his own suicidal acts.
You do not like the picture. Is it not a
correct statement of the facts2 What will
not drunkard do to crafty his appetite
Will he not lie, steal, blaspheme, swear
falsely, commit adultery and even murder
by the starvation of wife and children? +?
You need not fear that he will be hurt by
your admission of the truth of these facts.
He knows they are true. Alas, too many
know them experimentslly. Then self
accusations, when they are upon the stool
of repentance chatting themselves and
cursing their folly" are far more severe
and bitter than anything we have said.
There is no temperance advocate who Is
capable of denouncing the folly of intem-
perance in such truthful language and
choice, expressive terms as the drunkard
himself Shakespeare could never have put
that eloquent apostrophe to the "invisible
spirit of wine" into the mouth of Cassie if
he had not been there himself 1t Is not
30 much the fact as it is the knowledge
that the fact has got abroad which mortifies
the drinking man. When he realizes that
it has become public that he is dissipated,
that his old friends shun him as too de-
graded for their society, that his business is
leaving because of its neglect, that his
family Is no longer courted or visited or
invited because of his reputation, then his
crisis has arrived. He either arouses to
the sense of his condition and reasserts his
free moral agency by totally abstaining
from drink and regains his moral and So
cial status, or he plunges into that deeper
depth of despair and ingloriously yields
up the fight in death by his own will and
hand. "
We say, then, this drinking is a social
evil. Indeed, 1t is the root of all evils. Its
magnitude is every day becoming more and
moro alarming But It is social evil, and
society must taboo it. That will cure 1t.
The ladies cannot pray it down SO that it
will stay. They have tried that and it has
failed. Let them try another method. Let
them notify their friends that they consider
it disgraceful to drink; that drinking man
is evil company, an unreliable friend, an
| unsafe adviser, and that they do without
his company in their homes until he has
emancipated himself from the slavery of
drink. Let them make drinkers feel that
they are not welcome company in their
families unless they are total abstainers.
Let them Danish liquors from the social
circle, and above all, let them see that they
abstain from the use of alcoholic stimulants
| themselves. God knows that their sex are
the greatest sufferers from this evil.
The women of the United States have
the power in this manner to put stop to
the use of and traffic in liquors as bever-
age In this land in few months. The few
abandoned drunkards whom such in
| fluences will not reach will soon be re-
moved by death, and the new generation
will be raised to fear and shuu the intoxi-
eating cup. The traffic will cease Just as
soon as the profits are cut off. And when
the moderate drinkers cease the saloons
will close Moderate drinkers are now
paying fully 1000 per cent, profit upon
every glass Of spirits they imbibe at fifteen
cents glass. 1t is this enormous rate of
profit which sustsins our gorgeous saloons.
A common drunkard is not going to pay
this. He is too fond Of liquor, and too
short of money to do this. He is of no
profit to the saloon keeper any way. 1t is
the men of sense, of intelligence, of educa-
ton, of family, of birth, of breeding and
of property who acknowledge their slavery
to drink by the sole act of patronizing
drinking saloons where they are charged a
thousand per cent. profit upon the liquor
they drink above the market price by the
barrel. Suppose the bakers charged this
advance upon flour when made into bread.
How long would these same men submit
to pay fifty cents loaf for bread for their
familiesf Not day without fuss. And
yet they will expend more every day for
whisky at these saloons twice over than
would keep their families in bread. and
without murmur. Why do they not
economize in it as they do IN -four, and
purchase it by the barrel3 Why they are
ashamed to take it home. They are
ashamed to let their wives and friends
know how much they drink. A barrel,
properly diluted for bar purposes, contains
$500 drinks, or say ten drinks for each day
in the year. The market price now is
about 81 per gallon, so that $40 would
| ef1nn1v q man with ten drinks A dav for n