The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-06-15
The Other Serpent.
BY JENNIE FOWLER WILLING.

According to the old myth, Juno sent
two serpents TO destroy the infant Her
cules in his cradle. The doughty lit
tie hero strangled them both, and thus
saved his own life.
America, though century old, is ali
infant among the nations. The iabors
of Kidding the world of its pests-its
dragons of wrong and outrage-are
waiting for her growth and strength.
The arch-enemy has plotted against her
life. She has strangled slavery, that
earth-born cyclops-
Fellest of the giant brood.
IL remains to be seen whether she cal
rid herself of its twin demon-intempe-
rance. She is hardly yet aroused to
grapple with the monster. Its Shiny
coils are tightening upon her form. rs
poisonous breath is in her face. She
reels and staggers under its power.
God grant that she be not overcome,
for if she goes down, the hope Of ali
lands will set in murkiest gloom!
When we were in the struggle against
slavery, brave and wise people, the
world over, watched the fight with the
utmost apprehension. They feared lest
the Republic should prove unequal to
such strain upon its powers, and the
experiment of fgovernment turn out
a failure. When, at last, we came out
Of the conflict, battle-stained and bleed
ing, yet victorious, their 1'e Deum as
cended with ours to the throne.
The problem Of the contest that 10
opening is quite as grave. Can our
country stand the financial loss of
$4,000, 100000 year that are sunk by
the traffic i'll strong drink? Can she
spare 10000 of her citizens every
twelve months-the 10000 who are
slain by intemperance? Can she main
tain standing army of l 100000 sots!
Can she afford to have that million OF
men and women taken from her produc.
tive force, and made the most expen-
sive consumers, because most of them
have not only to be boarded and buried
at the public expense, but many of the
number kept in Warehouses; and jails,
under guard, as lunatics and criminals
Let us look over the death-roll of ma
tions, and see if it has for us any lesson.
What overthrow that magnificent Per-
sian Empire? Not the courage and mil
itary skill of the 5000 Greeks that AL
exander led across the Bosphorus, but
Persian effeminacy and vice. And, in
+ turn. tho conquercr was conquered
when Alexander died Of drunkenness
in Babylon.
Not the rough energy and stern dis
cipline Of Roman soldiers laid the glo-
rious city of Minerva under the yoke,
f but the personal sins Of the Greeks. 1t
wasnot the rugged strength of the barba-
rians that brought Rome to the dust.
, Slavery and drunkenness destroyed the
imperial city.
If America falls, ii will be because
she also is betrayed by the vices Of her
own children.
There is terrible meaning in the fig
, ures we have given-an inner darkness
wall of Belshazzar's palace. This evil
of strong drink leads our people into vi
ces coarser and more gross than those
that overthrow the Greeks. They like
the Pcrsians who went before, and the
Romans who came after, became effem-
mate through excessive aesthetic display
and indulgence. They spent much OF
their time and money upon art. A Ro-
man satirist, speaking of the statuary OF
Athens, said that it was easier to find
god there than man. We waste our
millions upon the grossest, lowest appe-
tites. The Greeks put premium upon
muscle. In their grand national festi-
val, the Olympic Games, they crowned
the best racer or wrestler with the high
est honors.
When he returned to his native city
he was not permitted to enter through
the gates, but part of the wall was Ia
ken down for him to pass through, in
dicating that the city that produced
such men had no ueed of walls. We
put premium upon that that destroys
muscle. We grant a monopoly to those
who sell drugged compounds that are
utterly ruinous to the physical, as well
as the mental and spiritual life. BY
permitting them to ply their trade upon
the Sabbath, when people Of other avo-
cations are obliged to abstain from la-
Dor, we make the business of dealing
out fevers, palsies, cholera, delirium tre-
mems, idiocy, death and damnation so
profitable that, except for the penalties
God has affixed. ii i the surest road to
wealth.
Many 4 grand republic has gone
down beneath the waves over which We
sail. The old Greeks. whom Dante
saw in his dream moving with "calm,
slow eyes" of whom Plotinus said,
"rhey used TO get out of their bodies ia
think'-Socrates, Plato. Pericles and
the rest, wrought their best upon the
plan of a model republic. Leaving ont
the moral element. they failed misera-
bly,.
If we ignore moral issues, permitting
those who live by the sins of others 10
enjoy their monopoly of Sunday trade,
and enrich themselves at the expense
of decency, order, truth and purity--if