The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1882-12-15
Temperance Lecture,

cred very interesting lecture in Corvallis,
upon the subject of temperance. 1t was
not only interesting but also very applica-
BILE to the question under consideration.
The lecture was delivered in the Dr's. pc
culiar style and treated of the prohibition
branch of the temperance question. He
took for the subject of his remarks text
from the Holy writings found in Exodus
Chapt. XXI and verses % and 20 thereof,
which he read as follows:
eff an OK gore man or woman, that
they die; then the OK shall be surely stoned
and his flesh not eaten; but the owner of tho
OK shall be quit" Again; shut if the OK
were wont to push with his horns in time
past, and it had been testified to his owner
and he hath not Kept him in, bit thst he
had killed man or woman; the OK shall
be stoned, and the owner put to DEATH
The lecturer argued that this was one of
Gods commands for the preservation of hu-
man life; so prescous did he regard the life
that he had given unto mankind that every
safe gaurd should be thrown around to pre-
serve the life which, if taken by man, could
not be returned again. He also very appro-
priately and truly took the ground that the
same impulse and desire to protect human
life was implanted in the breast of every
man and that human laws were based upon
the same principle in carrying out the pur-
pose announced in the text. By way of il
Illustrating his course of reasoning he asked
if vicious dog should run out upon the
street and bite child which was passing
that way, if the owner of the child would
not likely shoot that dog, and if the owner
of the dog had previously been warned that
the dog was in the habit of biting people
and that at the time of his biting the child
in question, if the owner of the dog was
then kissing him ON to the echild, would not
the owner of the child after shooting the dog
turn around and administer obstruction to
dogs owner. DIR. Watts took the position
that such would likely be the result, if not,
it would be the principle which would acu-
ate any and every human beast if he did not
90 80 far as to 'perperate the dead.
He then inquired if some evil disposed
person should bring large box full of rattle
snakes and place them on the street corner
and when the sunny days of spring came
along and warmed them up 30 that they
commenced to snap at and bite the people
passing thereby, would not the people dis
troy every snake and the owner too, if nee
cessary, to preserve their own lives from the
uncroachment of such snakes.
He said if a merchant of Corvallis should
visit San Francisco for the purpose of pur-
chasing new supply of goods and he should
find store in which the clerks had therein
broken out with smallpox, and thereby had
infected the stock of goods Herewith, and
the owner thereof should offer such goods
to the Corvallis merchant for ten per cent.
on the dollar, for reason of their poisonous
qualities and such merchant should buy
them and bring them to Corvallis the law
would send him to the penitentiary, for
thus endangering human life. He also
stated that the law for the purpose of pre-
serving life and health prevented men from
starting soap factories, slaughter houses and
other noxious trades in the midst of our
thicklY populated towns. That the law for
the same reason prevented men from duel
ing and applying the same principle to saw
ing mems property so that they may not
become beggars and charges upon society,
the law prevents gambling by making it an
offense. -s
The speaker also contended that the law
had in every other respect thrown safe
guards around human life and property for
the purpose of preserving them with severe
penalties for any violations thereof except
in the matter of the sale, use, and evil
effects of alcohol upon human life. He con-
tended that as God had decreed that the OK
should be slain for taking human life and
his master also if he should have been FORE
warned, and as the natural impulse i'm
planted in man was to kill the vicious dog
who should bite his child and the owner
thereof, also if he should set the dog on to
The child, and by thes same impulse we
would kill the snakes which had been placed
by the way side, endangering the lives of
the passers by and as the law prevents and
Furnishes the man who endangers life by
bringing smallpox into the community and
Is the policy of the state is in every re-
'pecs by law to throw safeguards around
aumanl life and property, SO should the state
BY law destroy all alcohol made to use as a
beverage and prohibit it's being used for
'ueh purposes. He eontended that with