Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-10-27
The Original Liquor League.

That wholesome foods to poison turned
I've something then to hate.
-
The Original Liquor League.
NJ 7. DE- wirr rALSAoE.
The original liquor league must have
been formed in the lower world. One day
the bad spirits met together and resolved
that our human race were too happy, and
delegation of four Intervals was sent up to
earth on an embassy of mischief. One spirit
said, 81 will take charge Of the vineyards !"
Another said, I" | will look after the grain.
fields !" Another said, al will supervise
the dairy ~" Another said, al will take
charge of the music " They landed in the
great Sahara desert, clutched their skeleton
fingers in hand-shake of fidelity kissed
each other goodbye with lip of blue fame
and separated for their mission.
The first spirit entered the vineyard one
| bright morning, and sat down on the twisted
root of grapevine in sheer encouragement
He could not at first plan any harm for the
vineyard The clusters were SO full and
| purple and luscious and pure. The air was
fairly bewitched with their sweetness
health seemed to breathe from every ripened
bunch. But in wrath at so much lovelness
the fend grasped a cluster in his right hand,
hand was red with the liquid and began To
smoke. Then the fiend laughed, and said
as he looked at the crimson stream dripping
from his hand, "That makes me think of
the blood of broken hearts. | will strip the
vineyard and squeeze out all the clusters,
and let the juices stand till they rot, and will
call the process Fermentation And
great vat was made, and men seeing it,
brought cups and pitchers and dipped them,
and went off, drinking as they went, till they
dropped in long lines of death, so that when
the fiend of the vineyards wanted to go back
TO his home in the pit, he trod on the bodies
of the slain all the way, going down over
causeway of the dead.
The fend of the grain-feld waded chin.
deep through the barley and the rye. As he
came in he found all the grain talking about
bread, and prosperous husbaudmen, and
thrifty homes. But the fend thrust his long
arms through the barley and rye, and pulled
them up and flung them into the water, and
kinded fires beneath, by spark from his
own heart, and there was grinding and a
MASKING and stencil. And men dipped
their bottles into the fiery juice, and stag
gered and blasphemed and rioted and fought
and murdered, till the fend of the grain
field was so well pleased with their be-
havior, he changed his residence from the
pit to a whiskey barrel; and there he sits
by the doorway, at the bung hole, laughing
right merrily at the fact that out of so harm
less thing as barley and rye he has made
this world a suggestion of Pandemonum.
The fiend of the dairy met the cows as
they were coming up full-uddered from the
pasturefeld. As the maid MIXED, he said,
1t will not take me long to spoil that mess.
will add TO it some brandy and sugar and
nutmeg, and stir them up into milk punch,
and children will like it, and even temper
ance men will take it, and if can do no
more / will make their heads ache, and hand
them gradually over to the more vigorous
fiends Of the satanic delegation" Aud then
he danced breakdown on the shelf of the
dairy till all the shining row of milk pans
quaked.
The fend of music entered a grog-shor
and found the customers few. So he made
circuit of the city and gathered up all the
instruments of sweet sound, and after the
night had fallen he marshaled band, and
trombone blew, and cymbals clapped, and
harp thrummed and drum beat, and bugle
called, and crowds thronged in and listened
and with wine-cup in their right hand, be
gan to whirl in dance that grew wilder and
stranger and rougher, till the room shook
and the glasses cracked, and the floor broke
through, and the crowd dropped into hell.
They had done their work so well, these
tends of vineyard and grain-field and dairy
and concert-saoon, that on getting back
high carnival was held, Satan from his
throne announcing the fact that there was
no danger of the earths redemption SO lone
as the vineyards and orchards and grain
fields and music paid such large tax to thu
diabolic. Then all the satyrs and spirit
and demons cried, Hear, hear ~ and, lift
ing their chalces of fire, drank Long lif,
to rum-sellers Prosperity to the gallows
Success to the license lawl"
In view of the devastatons of strong
drink, my first word is to toilers of brain o.
hand or foot God intended us all to b,
busy. The sun and the moon in six thou
sand years have rested only part Of a day
and then it took miracle to stop them
Nothing that God ever made, animate or in
animate, human or angelic, can afford u
quit work. But the outlay Of human en-
ergy often leads 10 inebriaton. Men hav,
so much to do that they think they mus
have artificial stimulus. Vast multitude
of professional men have found their ner
vous system exhausted and their braiI
lethargic, and have resorted to this danger
Gus help. Now, what a man cannot d,
without perpetual stimulant, do not be
eve he ought to do. You are responsible
for no more strength than that which 20,
have in your arm, and for no more spec,
/ than you have in your foot, and for no NOR
Il vivacity than you have in your BRAIN Go,
h asks no more, and the world has a right +
expect no more. Notwithstanding this
some of the most brilliant men in the Law
and medcne-yes, even in the ministry
have fallen overheard 1t will be gloriou
- day when all professional men and artisan
shall throw the bottle out of the bacl
81 window. 1t may require a struggle, blu
y what great and grand and glorious thin
ii was ever done without struggle
VI My last word is TO the temperance men O
er to-day To arms l sound the tocsin of wal
4, compared with which Sedan and Waterlo
: and Gettysburg were child's play. Will
we do not underrate the foe, let us not limi
) the power of the God in whose cause W
have enlisted The flag we bear is nc
stained with tears or blood. No skeleton
will be found in the track of the host VIII
march out for the defence of the right. Br
in the wake of this army of philanthropisi
will smile the harvest of reformed inebr
ates, and be heard the shout of children 9
the return Of their fathers from the captivit
of the wine cup.
The mountains and the hills shall brea
forth into singing, and all the trees of tn
field shall clap their hands. On the fir
day of January some years ago, our ABR
Ia I'm Lincoln made proclamation of emanc
patton for all bondmen of my own countr,
Would God that there might go forth
proclamation of emancipation for all tn
slaves OF strong drink.