Smyrna times., 1881-11-16
To the "MornIng News"


The Morning News, is, evidently trying
to mislead and thereby get away from its
iirst mOnstrous proposition, that Cecil
county had no right to make a law that
would compel "her rowdies and sots to
come over into New Castle county to
obtain the essentials for drunkenness"
which law he pronounced a nuisance
BECAUSE to his own knowledge" it has
'eSulted in the above stated facts, and
hat Switzerland has the same right to
send her paupers to America" etc. If he
cannot see that the parallel exists in the
lefense, that any county, state or country
mas the right to make laws in harmony
with their civil and moral advancement,
am glad to know his readers do. But
now the Ne,rs says he can only under
stand the TINES communication upon the
ground that your correspondent thinks
he drunkard a bad man and the sale of
,lcohol crime, and all the murders COM
mitted in drunken brawls, etc, is charga-
Die to alcohol" He did not wait for us to
make this first charge, but loudly proclaims
hem bad" and protests that they shall
not be thrown upon the society of New
Castle. showing how lOathsome are these
= 'rowdies and Sots." But if he means to
say that by the word "bad," he would
contend that naturally they were no worse
than other men, we grant it; But that
their natural qualities are in any sense
better, we deny. know when man has
Sunken SO low that medical aid is applied,
it. perchancc, he can get it, if success fol-
lows and the once debauched animal is re-
stored, the contrast is so great that all Join
in the declaration ''What fine fellow T.
when gathered all about him are men
whose natural qualities are very superior,
but have done no wicked thing to bring
the contrast between now and then. 1t is
like fattening and grooming the horse YOU
have long known as bony and rough.
| When you see him thus, YOU stand and
admire and praise, when all along your
streets are better built and finer qualified
! horses, which are regarded with the matter
! 0f course-they never got down so low.
| You are right when you say that "Alco-
| mol is but the means in the hands of the
! lrunkard." Yes, by which murder, and
almost every crime, and nine-tenths of all
crime, either mediately or Immediately
are committed; and yet this very means
is furnished by the license system. But
| you say they inherit it, and if it is pre-
vented, other crimes would flourish im its
| stead" No, sir There is no such thing
| as inherent drunkenness, per see, all evil
prOpensiOns inhere in fallen humanity.
Drunkenness is only disease from habit,
md the habit will die out, or never be
contracted, with the disappearance of the
gsittering and seductive drinking saloon.
The disease will then cease Just as the ma
larial fever will stop when we remove the
! Impurities which are its cause, and there
need be nothing develope in it's stead
| Your theory, Sir, would make it dangerous
70 attempt to arrest consumption lest it be
OF the hereditory sort, and if checked
would bring on heart disease. What we
want Is the opportunity not to spend all Our
llVes in picking up drunkards, while the
state receives a revenue for making them
such, but with the disapproval of law foI
the vending of alcohol as a BEVERAGE. 10
| spend our lives in the cultivation of all
that is virtuous; and make him to under
stand that he is more than an animal and
must not take whatever he wants. if ht
can get it, without any consideration fol
the welfare or rights of others. / ayoiC
any allusion to man, except as an animal
ls this seems to be the highest poin
reached by the NetCs. He concludes witt
he case of the cow gorged to death in tn,
3Ornfield, and asks, would we therefor,
tbOlish the corn ?" No! we would hav,
prohibition like the farmers fence, and i
men will gorge themselves with rum, le
it be by breaking the law, as your COW die
the fence. If it should prove, however
that the farmer sold corn which would i'm
poverish the cows, and finally kill them
would it not be well to prevent such sal,
1y law? and let him find the legitimat,
use for such corn? Alcohol has its prope
Uses, and as it Is manufactured article
50, with out destruction, its supply will b.
regulated by the demand. SMYRNA.