Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1877-10-18
IngersOll on Alcohol.

The ministers ofthe Gospel who have
any Christianity about them, heartily
endorse the temperance movement.
SO do the intelligent men who are not
members of any church in fact nearly
everybody. Col. r. G.. Ingersoll, who
is called the "Boss Infidel," in speak
ing to a jury in a case which involved
the manufacture OF alcohol, used the
following eloquent language:
al am aware that there is a preiu-
dice against any man engaged in the
manufacture Of alcohol. / believe
that from the time it issued from the
coiled and poisonous worm in the
distillery until it entities into the hell
of death, dishonor and crimes, that it
demoralizes everybody that touches
it from its source to where it ends. I
do not believe anybody can contem-
plate the subject without becoming
preiudiced against that liquor crime.
All we have to do, gentlemen, is to
think OF the wrecks on either bank
OF the stream OF death, of the suicides,
Of the insanity. OF the poverty, Of the
ignorance, OF the restitution. of the
little children tugging at the faded
and withered breast of weeping and
despairing wives asking for bread, of
the men OF genius that it has wreck
ed, the men struggling with imagin-
airy serpents. produced by this dew
ilish thing; and when you think OF
the jails, OF the alms-houses, OF the
asylums, OF the prisons of the scat
folds upon either bank / do not Won
der that every thoughtful man is pref
udiced against this damned stuff that
is called alcohol. Intemperance cuts
down youth in its vigor. manhood in
its strength, and age in its weakness.
1t breaks the fathers heart, bereaves
the doting mother, extinguishes ma
tural affections, grasses conjngal loves,
blots out filial attachment, blights pa
rental hope and brings down mourn
Ing age in sorrow TO the grave. 1t
produces weakness, not strength;
sickness not health; heath, not life.
1t makes wives. widows; children, or
phans; and beggars. 1t feeds rheu-
matism, nurses govt, welcomes cpl
denies, invite scholera, imports pestiI-
ence and embraces consumption. 1t
covers the land with idleness; misery
and crime. 1t fllls your iails, supplies
your almshouses, and demands your
asylums. Itengenders controversies,
fosters quarrels and eherishes,. riots.
1t crowds your penitentiaries and fur
nishes victims to your scaffolds. 1t
Is the life blood of the gambler, the
element Of the burglar, the prop of
the highwayman and the support OF
the midnight incendiary. It counten-
ances the liar, respects the thief, es-
teens the blasphemer. It violates
obligations, reverence fraud and hon
ors infamy. 1t defames benevolence,
hates love, scorns virture and landers
innocence. 1t incites tho father to
butcher his helpless offspring. helps
the husband to massacre his wife, and
the child to grind the parricidal
axe. 1t burns up men, consumes wo-
men, detests life, curses God and de-
spises heaven. 1t subioins witnesses,
nurses perjury, defiles the jury box
and stains the judicial ermine. 1t
brides votes, disquallfies voters, cor
rupts elections, pollutes our institu-
tons, and endangers government. 1t
degrades the citizen, debases the leg
islator. dishonors statesmen and dis
arms the patriot 1t brings shame,
not honor; terror not safety; despair,
not hope; misery not happiness; and
with the malevolence of a fiend it
calmly surveys its frightful desola-
ton, and unsatiated with havoc IL
poisons felicity, kills peace, ruins
mortals, blights confidence, Stays rep
utation and wipes out national honor,
then curses the world and laughs at
its ruin. It does all that and more
it murders the soul. It Is all tho sum
of all villainies, the father of all crime,
the mother OF denominations, the |
DEVILS best friend and Gods worst
enemy.