Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-03-22
Pete Hadiey on whisky.
LIMESTONE, March 9th, 1882.

| LIMESTONE, March 9th 1882.
Me- EDITOR l saw short communion
ton in tue CHRONICLE some time ago, in
which the writer intimates that l am afraid
to say anything on the subject of temper
ance 1 have said great deal in my hum
BILE way on this subject, in the last few
| years, but with all our talk, we seem to ac-
complish but little good. We have the
world, the flesh and the devil to contend
with in this contest. The lawyers are the
world, for through intemperance they get
a large portion of their employment; the
poor drunkard is the flesh, and the whisky
dealer is the devil, incarnate.
We have heard great deal said during
the last few years, about the settlement OF
our State debt. If the money that has been
wrung from the toiling farmers of our State
to feed and prosecute criminals made so
by whisky, had been used III paying our
honest debts, this harrassing question would
have been promptly settled long ago. but
our legislators either do not want 10 do SO,
or they haven't the moral courage TO lake
hold Uf this abomnlable evil aid crush it out
Iney won't even give the people the hberty
TO say by their votes whe lher or not WHISKY
SHAH be sold III their CT Communities. O.hr
States are passing and Ell forcing prohib4toIy
laws, and If We don't soon do somethn <
our beloved State will become an as1 lulu
for tue ottscourmSs of ali creation. Sixty
cents invested i'll whisky cost one coun,y
two valuable lives aud ten thousand dollars
III money, besides untold misery. And TINS
Is about the per cent. that whisky gem
orally pays. SO much for whisky as d tnan-
claI evil
Bob Ingersoll says that whisky has de-
moralizlng influence upon every body with
whom II comes III contact, frOnl the time 1t
comes from the cooled worm until it enters
into the hell of crmes-upon the mau that
makes It, upon the man that sells II, upon the
man that buys it and upon the man that
drinks it, and l believe MIR. lngersoH Is
about correct
| heard of one man who drank up valua-
BILE farm, aud brought his faithful wife and
helpless children to abject poverty. His
/ poor wife was stricken down III sickness and
died of broken heart Her kind neighbors
met and bought her some decent clothes In
which to bs buried, and while they were
! out at dinner her husband went INTO the
room where lay his dead wife, and stole her
| burying clothes, took them and sold them
for whlAky aad lay drunk during the entire
day of the funeral-a lit subject for hell
and fit companion for demons, made so
by whisky, and the man that sold it to him
was, if possible, ten times worse than he.
Oh the demoralizing, degrading influence
of the accursed stuff. The highwayman
that takes his gun AID goes into The noun
| tain passes and shoots down the unsuspect-
ing Traveller and gets his money occupies an
honorable position, when compared with the
man that stands in these sinkholes of hell
and deals out damration to his neighbors
and neighbors' children. He is curse to
the family, a curse to the town, a curse 10
the county, curse TO the state. a curse to
the nation and curse to the whole civilized
world, and humanity demands that he should
be suppressed by law or held in everlasting
contempt by all good people, until he re-
forms and ceases to ply his hellish vocation
and | do hope that our good people will take
| the matter in hand, and at our election next
fall secure legislature that will have the
nerve to take hold of this matter and give
us some relief. Poor whisky cursed and
repudiating TENNESSEE I would become a
candidate for the leg islature myself but
do not want it thrown up 10 my children IN
the years to come that their dad was a
member of the Tennessee legislature at this
period of her existence.
Next time I write l will give the ladies a
piece of my mind on the temperance SUBJ
ject, if Hornet" has no objections.
Yours sadly. PETE HADLEY