The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1880-03-25
Canon Farrar on Temperance LegisIa-
finn.

Canon Farrar on Temperance Legisla-
ton.
To the Editor Of He Cincinnati Gazette:
The speeches and writings of Can
on Farrar on temperance reform are
producing q profound impression in
England. The publication in this
country Of his recent address at Ok
ford, on temperance legislation, is
most opportune, as attention is
being directed to this subject as
never before. What he Gays Of the
prominence which the subject must
soon assume In England is as true
Of it in this country as it is in that
that it is ga subject which the whole
nation must soon regard as being Of
overwhelming Importance" ." Let
some Of our fippant politicians, and
even some Of our grave preachers,
who think the discussion of the sub
iect too small a matter to receive
their consideration, stand rebuked
by such a man. If any think his ex-
preston too strong, let them read
his arraignment of the traffic in
strong drink-truthful as it is terri
bic. Here it is, In part:
s'GHTLElEN Hook around me, not
here in England only, but also
through all the world, and I see the
frightful, the intolerable evidences
Of the devastation wrought by one
fatal sin-the sin of drunkenness, and
that sin caused by one fatal product
-alcohol diluted in Intoxicating
drinks. I am unable, I have not the
heart to-day TO touch on one tenth
or one-hundredth part Of the proofs
which demonstrate to every serious
mind which is at all acquainted with
the facts the awful Importance of.
this question. Focus the lurid
CLEANS which fash upward from this
pit Of destruction, and you will see
how frightful is the glare. Track
the subterraneGn ramifcations of
this evil, and you will see how the
whole nation, the whole empire, is
undermined, how every tread we
take is over fire ever bursting through
the treacheroUs ashes. It is matter,
not Of assertion, but Of sternest dem
Onstration, that the drink traffic
causes the most amazing. waste Of our
national resources: that to it are
due, mainly and almost exclusively,
the worst phenomena Of pauperism ;
that it causes IS per cent. of those
melancholy cases Of domestic ruin
which fill our police courts; that it
contributes enormously, both directly
and indirectly, to the hideous social
evil that, but for it, on the testimo-
ny Of nearly every Judge on the
bench, crimes Of violence would well |
nigh disappear; that it is the cause, !
both directly and indirectly, of a
most terrible mortality; that it |
chokes our prisons, madhouses, and /
penitentiaries ; that it creates an
hereditary taint which makes life
curse to a stunted population that |
because Of it thousands, ay, tens Of |
thousands of miserable men, and yet |
more miserable women, and poor
little children, most miserable of all, |
lead lives of such squalor and an
guish as only they who have witnessed |
can conceive; that it degrades the hu-
manity, and blights the bodies and |
the souls, not only of 100000 drunk /
ards, but of the millions whom their
ruin drags down to shame; that it
prostrates our missionary efforts
abroad: that it is the darkest stain
on the glory and the prosperity of
our nation. EZaggeration, gentle
men There is not one word Of this
indictment which is not true to the
letter not one word oft which is not
capable of the most rigorous proof
which evidence can establish and sta
tistics contain.
All true, you say, but with the
Scotch Magistrate, you have heard
1t 'eowre and Owre." Yes, and does
not the evil repeat itself eoETe and
owre 2" But there is another reason
why the story must be repeated
again and again, tiresome though it
be. Hear the Canon upon this
point; f'It is tiresome, it may-as
the Times once said-be tiresome to
fatUity, but it must be done. $50
We must not be ashamed to reiterate.
We must be ready to report the
facts, and the same arguments, #**
however disagreeable it may be, we
are bound to reiterate we do so be-
cause thus only can our point be
carried-it is the only way to batter
at the ears Of prejudice, which are
like those of the deaf adder, and to
break the heart Of self-interest,
which is as hard as the neither mill
stone. Let the Senate hush for
awhile, be it for a day, the clamor Of
factions, TO listen TO the terrible ap-
peal of facts let the nation silence
for awhile, were it but for an hour,
the voice of monopolists, who say
that they have vested interests in a
system prolific Of the national
ruin, and then let them listen to
the cries Of agony which are arising
daily from the altar and the hearth
from the nsulted heavens and from
the desecrated earth from the
dead beneath, who have died in their
degradation, and from the living who
are perishing in them let them lis
ten to those cries, so many and so
piercing, that to him who hath ears
TO hear them, the whole world thrills |