Ellsworth American., 1876-12-07
Misfellanfons. q
Home Protection.

among the mountains VI difficulty over
which our native land must climb, to
reach the future OF our dreams. The pro-
blem OF the rum powers overthrow may
well engage our thoughts as women and
as patriots. Tonight ! ask you TO con-
slider it in the light OF a truth which Fred
erick Douglass has embodied in these
words:
I'VE can, in the long run, trust all the
knowledge in the community to take care
OF all the ignorance OF the community, and
sll of its virtue to take care of all its vice"
The difficulty in the application OF this
principle lies in the fact that vice Is Al
ways in the active, virture often in the
passive. Vice is aggressive. 1t deals
swim. sure blows. delights in keen-edged
weapons. and prefers a hand conflict;
while virtue instinctively fights its unsa-
vory antagonist at arms length; its great
guns ATE unwiedly and slow TO swing Unto
range.
VICE Is TIE TIGER WITH KEEN EYES,
alert ears and cat-like tread, while virture
Is the slow paced, complacent, easy-going
elephant, whose greatest danger lies in its
ponderous weight and consciousness Of
power.
SO the great question narrows down TO
one of the methods. Ii Is not, when We
look carefully into the conditions Of
the problem. How shall We develop
more virtue in the community TO offset
the trodhical growth of vice by which we
find ourselves environed! but rather, How
the tremendous force we have may have
best be brought to bear; how we may un-
timber the huge cannon now poiRting in.
to vacancy, and direct their full charge At
short range, upon our nimble, willy, vigil
liant foe!
AS bearing upon a consideration OF that
question. lay down this proposition All
| pure and Christian sentiment concerning
any line OF conduct which vitality affects
| humanity, will, sooner or later crystalline
into law. But the keystone of law can on
| ly be firm and secure when 1t is held in
| place by the arch of that keystone. which
| is public sentiment.
make another statement, not SO often
reiterated, but just as true, viz. The
more thoroughly you can enlist In favor oil
your law the natural instincts OF those
~ho have the power to make that law, and
| to select the officers who shall enforce it,
| the more securely stands the law. And
still another: Fl rst, among the powerful
| and controlling instincts in our nature
! stands that of self preservation. and next
| after this (if indeed, it does not claim su-
perior rank comes that Of
MOTHERS LOVE,
You can count upon that every time-ii
| is sure and resistless as the tides of the sea
| for il is founded in the cha ngeless nature
| given to her from GOD.
Now the stronghold of the Rum Power
lies in the fact that ii has upon its side two
deepIy-rooted appetites namely, in Il I
\ fnr and in rho drink
er. the appett for stimulants. We have
doloroasly said, in times gone by. that. OF
the human plane, we have nothing ade
auate TO match against this frightful pair
But let us think more carefully, and WI
shall find that, as in nature, GOD has Civ
EN- US an antidote to every poison, and II
grace a compens alton for every loss SO 4
human society, he has prepared, aXains
alcohol. that worst toe of the social state
an enemy uhder whose weapon IL Is +
bite the dust.
Think of il. There is . class in ever
one OF our communities-in many OF thet
far the most numerous clsss-which,
speak not vauntiugly, / but name it As
fact has not in all the centuries of wine
beer and brandy drinking. developed. a
class and appetite for alcohol, but who's
instincts. on the cOntary, set SO stroDgl
against intoxicants. that If the liquor ira
fic were dependent on their patronaR
alone, il would collapse this night q
though all the nitro-glycesine of He
Gate rect had exploded under it. TheE
is a class whose instinct Of selfpreserv'
ton must forever be opposed to stimula'
which nerves, with dangerous strengthen
arms alread so much stronger than the
own. and SO maddens the brain &c
meant to guide those arms. that they stril
= down the wives men love. and the lit
children for whom, when sober, thu
would die. The wife. largely depende
for support of herselfe and little ones upt
the brain which strong drink parslyze
= the arm il masters and the skill il rende
futile. will. ia the nature of the case prO'
J. herself unirendly to the actual or potent