The Osceola times., 1880-03-06
A Fearful EsetributiOn.

One of the most deplorable facts
met with in the Temperance work,
is, that of the five hundred thousand
who are engaged in the liquor traf-
tic, so few, comparatively are saved.
LIQUOR dealers, as a class, suffer
more from their business than any
other.
While it is true that they may
make money. they rarely keep it,
or if they do it proves a curse in
stead of blessing like the money
that Judas brought back, and the
Hugh Priest declined to take be-
cause 1t was the price of blood and
accursed, it is Only fit to purchase
Golgothas, in which to bury all
their hopes of happiness and peace
in this world or that which is to
come.
In England where statistics are
more complete than here, we learn
that the mortality among the liquor
dealers is greater than among thar
class Of their customers, denomina.
ted confirmed drunkards, (Which
does not include the moderate drin.
kers, or occasional tiplers), the IA
ito being 1873 to 100; that is, for ev-
cry 100 deaths from alcohol among
the common drunkards there are,
IN proportion to numbers, 1873
deaths among the drunkard makers
from the same cause.
The ratio in this country would
not be lcss-probably greater.
1t is very rarely that the dealer
does not become the victim of his
own traffic, and if he does not expe.
rence its curse in his own person,
he always does in his own family.
Through his low calling he deprives
them IN a great degree Of that re.
spectful consideration and social
standing IN the community which
is a cherished privilege to even the
most humble; his sons frequently
lead dssolute and disgraceiul lives
and fill drunkard's graves; and his
daughters often become wretched
wrecks of ruin wrought most gene
rally by his own customers whose
brutal passions his own liquor had
lnflamed. AT the best, he always
bequeaths to his children a heritage
of shame" Nobody bat Saloon
Keepers son." "Only a Saloon
Keepers daughter will taunt them
through life.
The evil of the traffic they all ad.
nit; its horrors and baseness they
all know; but in their greed of gain,
and their bondage to the Evil One,
they rush blndly on thinking to
stop before the arrival of the final
catastrophe, and divert their lgot.
ten accumulations as capital in a
more respectable business. Alas
it is rarely, if ever done; for evils
like all things tending downward
gain momentum as they advance,
and if they have not determination
to stop at the beginning, they will
have no strength nearer the end,
but only rush the faster into the
tina! destruction that awaits them.
Certainly dark and dismal pic
ture-not, however, in small de-
gree, approaching in hideousness
the dreadful original, as history,
statistics and observation will show.
Truly they care sunk down in
the pit that they made-in the net
which they hid is their own foot
taken. The Lord is known by the
judgement which he executeth = the
wicked is shared in the work of his
own hands" Oh that this large
number of our fellow beings would
refrain from the evil business that
brings sorrow and destruction not
only to others but to themselves
and that they might be instructed
in WISDOM" if God peradventure
Will give them repentance to the
acknowledging of the truth and that
they may recover ihemselees cut of
the snare of the Devil, who are tdtea
coptire by him at his wlll."-Ripley
News.