The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-06-06
rata drinkers. nesnectable drinkers,

u candid with you, / shall have to
: charge you with being ever more
than the hard drinker, a moral con.
: tagion, y breeder of disease and death
a corruption Of the youth arOnnd you.
l This is . very severe charge, isn't 1t?
fl But please look at the facts. If you
are q man of social position and stand
ing your habits are all the more GER
tain to fasten themselves with fear
: full results upon those who surround
3 you. Your influence Ia u thousand
fold greater than the influence of the
: hard drinker. No n patterns after
the hard driuker. A man in the gut
ter has no followers. 1t Is the respect
able, honorable citizen, the moderate
tippler, who allures and captures all
: the boys and young meu of our land
who learn to drink. You all know
how this is. Ineed not enlarge upon
!, it Take away all the moderate
drinkers and there IL not a boy or u
young man who could be cnsnared.
DisprOve this assertion II you can,
my dear friends, or II you cannot,
then he frank enough To acknowl-
edge that you are the enemy Of the
best interests OF society, that you are
a corruPter of our youth, n breeder Of
moral pestilcuce and death, whose
influence is sure to fill vast number,
of our homes with sadness and woe,
to bring to drunkards' gre yes a num-
Der, large In exact proportion to your
respectahility, and the power Of your
influence in society. For many of
the young men taught to drink u
little by you will not have the will
power you have, the ability to keep
their appetite within proper bounds.
Many of your victims will become
drunkards and fill drunkards'
graves. And you should know
this, and you should know,
therefore that by your indulgence
in drink you are trampiing upon the
dearest interests of many around you.
Parents hearts will be made to bleed
and their gray hairs be brought down
to the grave in sorrow,
because their boy was encouraged to
drink by your example. Every per-
sou has an undoubted right to go out
upon the public street, and mingle
| freely with the crowd wherever he |
pleases. But suppose q man is broken
out all over with the small pox, has
he then a right to thrust himself up
on a crowd of people, to walk freely |
through our streets and m;ngle with
as many as he pleases, spreading pes
thence and death through the whole
town? Certainly not. There is no
| difference of opinion upon that point.
His disease is his misfortune. He
must stay at home. If you must
drink, if the diseased appetite must
be gratified then I plead with you,
drink by yourself alone. Buy your
liquor secret and let no one know
of it. Take it to the darkest part of
your cellar, and drink it there where
no human eye can see you, and no
other person on earth can be led
astray by your example.
Once more may L say your
employer objects and has a right to
object to your drinking whiskey.
And why should he not? For indul-
gence in drink gradually units a
man both in body and in mind for
doing the best and most efficient
work. And it does. There's no de-
nying it. The tens of thousands of
accidents occurring every year, and
the blunders made on the account of
drinking is too clear. The evidence
40 oNOA "AAOAA4AAS, Y dPpdllluS. l.
do not wonder the C.. B. & O.. II. r.
Co., one of the largest and most hon.
orable corporations in the country
several years ago passed a very strin-
gent rule upon this point, refusing to
employ any man who drank at all
even very moderately. The first
large corporation so far as I know to
adopt the rule, but it was soon fol-
lowed by others, and the rule will by
and by become universal. It must.
There is no half way stopping place,
no compromise that is tennable or
safe. The man who INDUCES in
strong drink will ere long find him.
self shut out from every kind of hon.
Orable employment. And friends,
the sooner this blessed day comes the
better for the drinking men them
selves. 1t will be their glory day on
the night that ushers in a golden
morning. For when they can't get
work they can't get drink, and will
have to quit the bad business from
sheer necessity. May "God hasten
it in his time"
Well, now friends, cur time has ex-
pired, and I have as yet called your
attention to but four parties whose
interests and whose rights are OPP
posed to your indulgence in drink
wife, your children, your
and your employer.
This is only the beginning of this
subject. There are other parties who
and have a right to object, 4.
parties, too, who have stronger claims \
and more vital interests at stake than 1
even the four already mentioned. l !
have not told you that your own body
has a right to object, and does offer a
most earnest protest against such in =
diligence on your part-a protest that :
comes from a system abused and
poisoned, and crippled, and prema-
destroyed-nor have [ time to
present the energetic and eloquent
protest of your reason and your judg-
ment and your conscience, and every
noble faculty and sentiment of
your higher nature, which are neg
lected and starved and shriveled
still up and shut out of sight. Nor the
more emphatic protest of your Maker 4
and your Reedemer, who most Sc
riously objects to your throwing Your
self away, selling body and soul for p,
time and eternity, at SO small a price g..
while all his claims upon you are en- 81,
tirely ignored. So too, all heaven
If the Prince of Wales ,
leave his home, come here to .
Glendale and throw himself away by ,
drinking and gambling utterly re-
to return to his home and F.,
proffered kingdom, the whole Eng I
.ish nation would object and mour [
lis loss because they want him for a
'uler and a king by and by and his =
would be difficult to fill. 1
Dear friend, God offers you a king
and crown. You are invited +,
% become a king and a priest unto I
iod, aud reign forever and ever. I
And all heaven protests against your
present course. They want you up =
here for a king and a priest. They q
iced you there. Your place will be {
.ard to fill. 1 pray you let not that
hief and rObber, that arch deceiver 4
nd fiend, King Alcohol, take away Z
our crown to bury it and you in a 8
and endless night. I