The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1883-08-09
DIR. PEABODY'S REMEDY.
BY NEAL DOW.

Dr. HoaDOQy on 1ntemporanc6 ana It's cure.
The doctors remedy is to make drunken
ness a greater crime by the law and to
punish it with greater severity. 1t is in
truth, great sin, shame and crime, and
the drunkard is a traitor to God, to his
country, to society and his family. What
then? The problem is how to prevent it
and to protect the community from the
tremendous evils coming from it? DR..
Peabody, shut up in his cloister and know
ish the drunkard with such severity as to
reform him. Let us see how it is.
Drunkenness is a tremendous crime
against society, but it is never committed
except by conspiracy, in which at least
two must engage, viz, the drunkard and
he who procures him to become such. In
law, those who conspire to commit a
crime are held to be guilty more or less in
proportion to the temptation by which
they are impelled to it, and in proportion
to the intent of the several parties. A
starving man who SHOULD be offered food
by another, on condition of his commit
ting a felony, would be held less guilty
than he who procured the crime to be
committed, and who tempted the poor
wretch to do it.
For many centuries the heavy hand of
the law has been laid upon the drunkard,
while the other party to the crime, the
tempter, has not been punished. The
victim has been fined and imprisoned; he
has been ruined in reputation, character,
health and fortune; his home has been
confScated and his family driven out
from it by the lash of the law, and at last
a shocking, shameful curse has been in
not thereby warned to resist the wiles of
the tempter, who is specially authorized
by law to conspire to convert sober citi-
Zens into drunkards, which is usually d
greater wrong than it would be to murder
them outright, and so an end. Law
makers know this; everybody knows it
that drunkenness is worse than death, to
the Individual, to his family, to society
and the country. There can be no drunk
enneSS without temptation to it, and
facilities for it. The law expressly au-
thoriZes men to extend these temptations
and to multiply these facilities, to which
everybody knows that thousands and
thousands of men will and must fall vic
Tins, thus inf1icting upon the community
"a greater evil than all which come from
war, pestilence and famine combined,
those three great scourges of mankind -
We are earnestly seeking remedy for
this tremendous mischief protection
from it, to the individual, the family, So
ciety and the country. DR.. Peabody has
not been much known in temperance cir
cles; his name has been associated with
those of many other nice men who do not
approve of the principles and methods of
temperance workers, but he comes in now
with his proposition to cure the fearful
evil of drunkenness by what the respect
able theological paper calls "Dr. Peabody s
Remedy" What is his suggestion? To
let alone the drunkard's drink in what
ever form? No. To withhold the au-
thority of law from the drunkard making
business? No. 1t is simply to punish
ha Of cfoh1 hod
drunkard-making business.
"Dr. Peabody's Remedy" is as reasonable,
and has as much common sense in it, as a
proposition to punish children who should
fall into unprotected wells, expressly au-
thorized by law to he dug in the high
ways, and to be left without safeguards
or warnings to those who pass by night
or by day.
Drunkenness is a great crime; do OBJ
ject to Furnishing it as matter of right
No. Then why do object to "Dr. Pea
body's Remedy? Because it would be as
vain as to put abundant food before
starving men and to punish them for eat
ing it. The drunkard and the drunkard-
maker commit the great sin against God
and the great crime against society under
special temptations. The drunkard is i'm
PEELED to it by temptation greater than
any other to which man can be exposed
| He will and does sacrifice to it all his
hopes and expectations in life-reputa-
tion, fortune, friends, family and even life
itself. He rushes to his ruin in frenzy
of excitement like that of a madman ut:
terly bereft of reason. The drunkard
knows his doom, he sees it clearly, but is
powerless to avoid it. Though certain
death should instantly follow the taking
a glass of "the drink" he would not hesi
tate moment, but would take it.
The Bishop of Huron, Canada West
told me this. He sent one day for resi-
dent of his parish, an incorporate man
He and the Bishop were in the library
where I was, and the Bishop was doing
ishoner-an Englishman of family an(
culture, an Oxford man-to abstain from
drink. He had a charming family, which
he was reducing to poverty and crushing
with shame and sorrow. All this th
Bishop was earnestly urging upon him
when his friend suddenly interrupted
him. and said, "There is no use in you
talking about the results of my way O
life; know it all better than you do O
can, If there were glass of brand,
there quitting his hand upon the corne
of the table, and knew that the mOmen
after taking it should go to hell,
should take it all the same" DIR. Pea
body's Remedy purposes to punish such
man as that-all men like him-beln!
sure-Dr. Peabody is-that penaltie
would make sober men Of them. Th
temptation to the other party in thi
shameful, wicked conspiracy is the eigh
cents profit on aten-cent drink. 1t seem
not to have occurred to DR.. Peabody tina
legal temptations to drunkenness shoul
no longer be tolerated.
l see by the papers this morning tina
an inventor proposes to sell the paten
! for perpetual motion for 100000 pro
: vided the purchase Is made within sixt
days; after that the price will be 81 900
/. 600. I am reminded of this in connectio
/. with DR.. Peabody's Remedy. The ID
r knows so little of this matter that b
: really offers this scheme as original, Will