The Portland daily press., 1879-12-17

Colonel Bob Ingersoll on the Maine Law.
In Western paper 1 find report of an ar
gument to the jury in liquor case by Colonel
Ingersoll, in the United States Court. Col.
Ingersoll is stalwart Republican and one of
the ablest men in the country. send you an
extract from his speech, and am sure that a
great many of your readers will be deeply in
terested in it. ND.
The Colonel was lately employed in a case
which related to the distilling business, and in
his speech to the jury he said:
81 am aware there is a prejudice against any
man engaged in the liquor business believe
from the time it issues from the coiled and poi
sonous worm in the distillery until it empties
into the hell of death, dishonor and crime that
alcohol is demoralizing to everybody that
touches it, from its source to where 1t ends L
do not not believe anybody can contemplate
the subject without being prejudiced against
the crime. All we have to do is to think OF
the wrecks on either side of the stream of
death. of the suicides, of the insanity, of the
poverty pauperism and destruction coming
from alcohol; of the little children Juggling at
the breast of weeping, despalrlng, starving
mothers begging for bread; OF the men OF
genius it has wrecked, of the men struggling
with imaginary serpents produced by this dew
ilish thing; and when we think of the jails and
almshouses, of the asylums, OF the prisons and
of the scaffolds on either bank, do not Won
der that every thoughtful man is prejudiced
against the vile stuff called alcohol
"Intemperance cuts down youth in its vigor,
manhood in its strength and age in its weak
ness. 1t breaks the fathers heart, bereaves
the doting mother, extinguishes natural affec-
ton, destroys conugal love, blots out filial at
tachments, blights paternal hope, and brings
premature age in sorrow and dishonor to the
grave. 1t produces weakness, not strength;
sickness, not health; death, not life. 1t makes
wives widows; children orphans; fathers fiends
and all paupers. 1t feeds rheumatism, nurses
govt, welcomes epidemics, invites cholera, i'm
ports pestlence. engenders consumption and
covers the land with idleness, misery and
crime. 1t produces controversies, fosters quar-
rels cherishes riots. 1t crowds our peniten-
tiaries and furnishes victims for the scaffold.
"Alcohol is the blood of the gambler, the in
spiration of the burglar, the stimulus of the
highwayman, and the support of the midnight
incendiary. 1t suggests the lie and counten-
ances the liar, condones the thief, esteems the
blasphemer. 1t violates obligations, reverences
fraud, turns love to hate, scorns virtue and in
nocence 1t incites the father to butcher his
helpless offspring, and the child to sharpen the
parricidal axe
"Alcohol burns up men, consumes women,
destroys life, curses God and despises heaven.
1t subornS witnesses, nurses per6dy, detleS the
jury box and stains the judicial ermine. 1t
brides voters, disqualiies votes, corrupts cleo
lions, pollutes our institutions and endangers
the government. 1t degrades the citizen, de-
bases the legislator, dishonors the statesmen
and disarms the patriot. 1t brings shame, not
homo r; terror, not safety; despair, not hope;
misery, not happiness; and with the malevol-
ence Of a tiend calmly surveys its !frightful
desolation; and revealing in havoc, it poisons
felicity, destroys peace, ruins morals, wipes out
national honor, curses the world and laughs at
the ruin it has wrought. 1t does that and
more-it murders the soul. 1t is the sum of
all villainies, the father of all crimes, the
mother of all denominations, the DEVILS best
friend and Gods worst enemy"