Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1881-07-29
The Temperance Question and tn


The Temperance Question and the
Press.
The time for new departure has come
1t ia punctuated by the shifting and un-
certain movement of those who have " had
their own way" for many years, and who
find themselves as far from the goal At
which they aimed as they were when they
started. The press independently must
take this question in hand and educate the
people to temperance. The truth il that
there is not a country on the face of the
earth where stimulants are needed 80 little
and where they are capable of producing
so much mischief as our own. Our spark
ling, sunny atmosphere, and the myriad
incentives TO hope and enterprise in our
circumstances, are stimulants of Gods own
appointments for the American people.
This pouring down of Intoxicating liquors
Is ten thousand times worse than waste-it
is essential sacrilege. This straining of
the nerves, this heating of the blood, this
stimulation or stupefaction of the mind,
the imposition of cruel burdens upon the
digestive organs, is foul wrong upon ma
ture. Tens of thousands of valuable lives
are sacrificed every year to this Moloch Of
strong drink. The CRIME, the beggary, the
disgrace, the sorrow, the disappointment,
the disaster the sickness and death that
have flowed in one uninterrupted stream
from the bottle and barrel throughout the
length of the land, are enough to make all
thinking and manly men curse their source,
and swear eternal enmity to it.
The American people need to have it
proved to them that under no circnm-
stances are the various intoxicating drinks
good for them. They are not yet con-
vinced Of this, although they knew, OF
course, that the abuse Of drink brings all
evils that can be imagined.
Every juvenile periodical, every news
paper, every magazine, every review owes
it to the country to teach this fact persist
emily. There has been something in the
| way in which the temperance reform has
been pursued which has brought upon il
| the stigma of fanaticism. That stigma
ought to be oblilerated-so thoroughly
oblitera' ed that the man who weakly yieldi
to degrading appetite, or wantonlJ
courts such an appetite, and the danger
and disgrace it brings, shall feel that h,
bears a stigma which marks his degrade
tion among generation of clean ant
healthy men. In short, temperance mus
lie made not only respectable, hut fash
ionable. The wine-bibbler and the beer
drinker, az well ms those of stronge
stomach and coarser tastes, must be mad
TO feel that they are socially disgraced b,
heir habits. In the family, everywhere
by all the ordinary means Of approach Il
young and plastic minds, the virtue o
temperance should be inculcated. II il
fashionable for the young men to drinl
wine to day. II must not be to morrow
and in order that il may not be the nc
cepted leaders OF public opinion must tel
the people the truth, and enforce upon lh,
people the obligations OF duty.
| The world OF high life winch rend
down itH powerful influence upon all TN
life beneath IL never wns Influenced b,
| professional temperance organizations, ano
is not likely to he. The clergymen il lis
tens To; the papers, the magazines, III,
books Il reads, and the social authorities
it respects, must incmlcate temperance un
til il shall be shame TO place wine
bottle before friend.
. Heaven! for one generation oil clear
and nnpOllnted men--men whose veins a r,
not led with fire men liz To be companion,
OF pure women; worthy to be the father,
OF children; men who de not stumble up
ON the rock OF mpoplexy at mil.age, or ~
blindly groping and staggering down int
a drunkard's grave, but who can nit unt
lonk upon the faces of their gfand.chil,lrc,
with eyes undinmed ami hearts uncanker
ed. Such generation il pnssi BILE in Amer
ica and 10 produce such n generation a
this, the persistent, conscientious worl
of the pnbic preaa Ia entirely conIpeien
rs an fundamentally.
DR. j. G. IIohAsp.