The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-12-28
WHO HAS AN INTEREST IN RUM I


question as one affecting only the man
who drinks and the man who sells. There
never was a greater mistake. Every
person in community has an interest,
a direct, vital interest in every man who
drinks and every man who sells the
drink. 1t is everybody's business
whethet liquor is drank or not. The use
OF intoxicants by any one concerns the
entire community.
Turn a mad-dog loose in the streets
and the entire community hastens to
destroy it, because its very existence is
menace to the community. A rum
seller in community, so far as pow
er for damage goes, is worse than a
dozen mad-dogs One dog may 90
killed and his power for evil ceases; the
rum-seller stays.
1t does make difference in a COM
munity whether or not man supports
his family deeently and properly.
Whether man is useful citizen or
burden upon other citizens is matter
OF interest to every one in the COM
munity in which he resides. Whether
a man brings up his children TO indus
trious and virtuous habits, or launches
them upon the sea of life as pirates, to
prey upon others, is matter of very
much moment to everybody.
When a man sits down to the business
of misunderstanding he has established
a school for beggary and crime. His
business is to implant in as many men
and boys as possible an appetite to graf
ify which not only takes the entire pro-
ceeds of their labor, but units them for
labor at all; an appetite SO powerful
that when labor will not supply it, it
compels its victims to resort to crime.
1t is a business which, inasmuch as its
victims can not support their families,
throws the burden of their support upon
tina community at large. 1t is bust
ness which not only makes courts of
justice necessary, but is the foundation
stones of the alms-houses and the jails.
Who ever knew drunkard to occupy
decent dwelling, or to pay rent
promptly for the miserable howell which
he invariably inhabits?
Who ever knew the wife of drunkard
to make purchases of any amount, of
dress goods for the clothing of herself
and children?
How many children of drunkards are
kept out of school for want of decent
clothingP and, for want of proper edu-
cation, what percentage of them grow
up into manhood and womanhood, ig-
norant, depraved and vicious?
From what classes come the deprayed
the thieves, the street ruifians and
the gamins who naturally graduate into
crime?
There can scarcely be found crlml-
nal who can not trace his education in
crime to rum.
There is scarcely case of restitution
that requires public interference that
rum is not the cause of.
The regular, almost universal, plea
of murderers in extenuation of their
crime is: 81 was drunk when did it. :"
The breweries and distilleries, and
their lieutenants, the keepers of rum
shops, are directly responsible for nine
ty per cent. of all this misery and DEATH
They do not wait for their victims to
come to them-they 90 out and seek
them. In the city of Toledo there are
six hundred regular rum-shops, and
counting the houses of infamy, the
gambling dens and other places of like
character that depend directly upon
rum as the foundation of their business,
the number will reach eight hundred.
As bad, as widespread as is the drink
ing habit, one hundred would fully sup
ply the natural demand for liquors.
How do the other seven hundred make
livingP
They create trade in the horrible
stuff they deal in. They go out and
pull in victims. They stop the labor
ing man on his way home. They en-
tice him out of house evenings, they
search out boys and initiate them in the
habit, knowing full well that once fixed
it is almost impossible to break it, and
that once in their hands they have
mortgage on him forever.
There are exceptions, honorable ones,
but they are few in number. The
whisky business, as a rule, is in the
hands of class who are utterly regard
less of the effect of their hideous trade
upon others. AS rule they sell in
differently to the drunken man who
can barely stand before the bar, and to
the precocious boy or drunken woman.
They sell to whomsoeVer has money to
pay, even though they know that the
tumblerful swallowed at eight is to
eventuate in murder at nine.
And this same reckless disregard of
the public good runs through the whole
business. The brewers wagon stops
with the same regularity before a muir
der-den or a thieves resort as before a
respectable saloon, and the vilest of
them can secure their supplies from
wholesale concerns. The only question
asked is concerning pay. 1t is bust
ness from first to last without a con-
science. 1t is business that ruins the
drink-buyer, soul and body, and leaves
the seller almost as badly wrecked. 1t
is soul-searing, pity-eradicating, feel
ing-hardening business, one which
knows neither remorse nor shame. 1t
is a business based upon the most soul
less cupidity, which is total stranger
to every sentiment that ennobles and
every instinct that is good. 1t has no
more pity than a shark and no more
remorse than a tiger. What it wants is
money. and it cares not how it gets it.
Every citizen has the right to say
whether the horrible traffic in mems
bodies and souls shall be tolerated, and
if so, on what terms Communities
have the right to protect themselves
against vice. for they have the burdens
of vice to bear. 1t is nonsense to say
that community which has to support
the widow and orphan may not control
the trade which makes widows and or
phans. 1t is nonsense to say that COM
munity which has to pay the terrible
cost of the crime committed within its
borders may not restrict and restrain
The cause of almost all the crime It is
worse than nonsense to say the one
trade which sets morals at defiance,
which is allied to everything that is
bad, and which has nothing whatever
of good in it, shall not only be above
law but shall make the laws. Toledo
Blade.
A DRAM-sHoP is said to be a place
where q poor man spends what he can
not spare, and gets what he does not
need Chicago Inter 0cedn,