The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1881-06-17

but for the plague which men let loose |
upon themselves there is no healing
until they themselves send forth the
decree to halt and surrender.
A day and night the fire fiend RACES
and one third of prosperous city may
lie in ruins. There is loss of property
and more precious loss of human life.
But strong men battle the fire fiend.
The kindly rain descends from heaven,
and the impetuous master remains
only as an obedient and much priced
servant. A hundred years may pass
before that city Is visited with q like
calamity. But alas What city once
cursed with the blight of intemperance
has shaken itself clear In limited
timer The nauseous gases of under
ground tenements invite pestilence by
the year. The unclean heights ascend
ed by rickety stairs know no renova-
ton. The poor town of brick and
mortar may be rebuilt, but who enters
the imperishable city of the human
mind and builds over against the char
red and blackened remains of former
purity comely edificep
may not presume to instruct an au-
dience like this, but there are no argu-
ments like facts, and such is the natural
apathy into which we fall, that we have
to be saturated through and through,
with q storm of facts, to rouse us to
anv adequate endeavor.
Scarcely two months ago passenger
on the up train from Bellows Falls,
looking from the car window as the
train halted in prosperous town,
might have observed sharp controv-
| nn of
men standing on the platform. Blows
followed words, and when the train
moved of, one of the most excited of
the number seized his big satchel and
entered the cars. AT the same time
another member of the party stepped
on the rear platform of the car, saving
as he did so, "Pll bring him back on the
next train" Scarcely five minutes had
elapsed before the man with the satch-
ell, who was evidently drummer, rose
and walked with an unsteady gait tow
ard the smoking car. In the brief time
he had remained sitting the power of
narcotics had SO wrought upon him
that 1t was with difficulty he could
move. He staggered fearfully against
the seats, and OH reaching the door,
fell on the platform between the cars.
He managed, however, to gather up
and enter the smoking car, and when
the train halted at the next station he
stepped out, tumbling full length upon
the platform as ne did SO, whereupon
his attendant at the other end of the
train also stepped of and walked into
the depot. AT this point one who had
watched the whole affair said to an ac-
quaintance on the same seat, "This is
shameful piece of business. That young
man is drummer and has money in
his possession. He has fallen in with a
band of sharpers who have drugged him
with liquor and will not leave him I'M
til they have got his last ceut. He had
lust mind enough left when he started
to know that he ought to get away, and
this scamp has followed him to take
him back on the next train and fleece
him."
Facts such as these are our apology
for being here to-day. There is danger
that we all may have brothers and sons
who have "fallen among thieves" This
drummer was bright looking, well
dressed youth, evidently some fond
mothers pride OF sisters idol. Can we
do anything to save such a one from
Impending ruin?
Six months have passed since labor
ing woman, employed in large man.
ufacturing establishment, told mo that
it was no unusual thing for girls TO be
carried out from the building in which
she worked, intoxicated, and although
the rules were very rigid, yet under
the pretext of faintness, and from the
difficulty OF proving the oflense, these
girls seldom lost their places. The liq-
uor was carried into the room conceal
ed in their dinner pals. am glad for
the credit of our state that this factory
is not in Vermont, but, my sisters, facts
just as shameful are here. / was glad
also for the credit of our country when
the woman added, "Not an American
girl will work in that ROOM" But have
not these foreigners souls for which
Christ died? And shall we send mis-
sionaries to China and Japan and not
try to reach and renovate these Irish
and Germon sisters who have sought
our shores? "This ought We to have
done and not to leave the other I'M
DONE" Facts, dear fellow workers,
are sickening things, but if we cannot
work for the overthrow of Intemper-
ance until we are sickened let us now
and then take an emetic!
Only few years ago my attention
was directed to bright boy, then q
member of an academy. He had a
quick, active mind, and gave signs of
unusual promise. An interval elapsed
and heard that he had grown TO ma n
hood, had married an accomplished
girl, was engaged in good business at
q fair salary, and that he had one beau
tiful child; and then it was added in a
sorrowful undertone that every morn
ing on the way to his business he stop
ped at corner grocery and bought ten
cigars for the day at ten cents apiece, or
1865 per year, out of o modest salary,
spent for cigars, and it is not difficult to
predict the future of that household,
Facts like these have brought us TO-
gether. But what can we do? Shall
we utter our feeble protest and 20 home
to renewed impotence? 1t is but little
use to stir up the viper's nest If we can
not in some way divest him of his fangs.
The very least we can do is to erect a
signal near the spot, which shall be a
warning to the unwary. Facts, similar
to those already stated, are all about us.
1t is only little while since a gentle
man from a neighboring town told me
ne knew of ten different places in that
town of scarcely twelve hundred inhab-
itants, where liquor is sold. And yet
the general appearance of loyalty to Or
der and uprightness in that town is 80
great that there is thought to be no need
OF special temperance work. In view
OF facts like these we come together to.
pray for Gods blessing upon the means
already In use. and IL these nrova insnf