The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-08-11
The Laugh as an Ally Of Intemperance.


OF the Temperance reformer; not even
the simpering, sneering smile of the
scoifer, but the involuntary litter of the
passer-by at the antics of drunken
man, or ofthe listener at Temperance
lecture, responsive to the ludicrous pre-
sentation of drunken mans plight.
Nobody means any harm, of course, but
all the same harm is done. The BUSH
ness man as he goes home at night
with a friend, passes the poor, stagger-
ing wretch, just turned out of some
highly licensed saloon, and the two
sober individuals. if, indeed, they be
entirely sober, exchange droll remarks
on his pitiable condition, and together
laugh over his folly and sin Suppose
the little son of one of them to be ac-
| companying his father on his homeward
way-what impression does he get of
the wickedness of the drunken manp
What lesson is taught him concerning
the unwisdom or the sinfulness of the
act or succession of acts by which q
man reduces himself to such a casep
What more than this: that it is matter
to smile at-a folly to be derided, not a
sin to be stunned?
The man at his home, to his wife ard
daughter speaks of meeting Jones
pretty full and then they all smile,
quite as if he had said that he met Jones
on the street ''courting a pretty girl"
Nothing worse than that, and Jones a
bachelor The boy looking and listen
ing, watching his mothers and his sis
ter's face sees simply this, and wonders
If to be reeling drunk is after all so
much of matteres his Sunday-school
teacher tried to make out on the last
quarterly Temperance day.
A large audience gathers to listen to
a gifted orator who discourses on the
various phases of the now absorbing
theme of Prohibition. He does not
mimic the drunkard-that is out of
fashion-that laugh" is out of date.
But in the midst of some finely-worded
description he interlards ludicrous
version of a young mans downward
course, or incidentally alludes to some
of the ridiculous postures and situations
In which the drinker is placed, or even
more subtly still reveals light esti-
mate of the evils of drunkenness by
chance word in which the small
boys find opportunity for amuse-
ment. That little laugh has
wrought more injury to his cause than
pounds of argumentative cure can now
accomplish. 1t has even established in
the younger minds conviction that
after all not even the speaker himself
believes the saloon such curse since
he can speak lightly of its work, and
with a twinkle in his eye, of the conse-
quences of drink. 1t is better ally of
intemperance for the occasion and
the place than the saloon keeper him
self would be, arguing on the platform
the personal liberty and right of man
to sell and to drink ardent spirits.
The laugh born of such parentage is
an enemy in our own camp--a traitor
to our best laid plans for educational
effort and permeation of the masses
with Temperance truth. 1t gives the
lie to our statements of facts, Smothers
our most imprisoned appeals ere they
are out of our mouths, and betrays us
to our own children.
Goethe says there is nothing in which
people show more plainly their true
characters than in what they laugh at.
Can it be that after all we have no true
appreciation of intemperance?-- Union
Ci(.a,nI
The Late George Crnikshank on In
temperance.
George Cruikshank had been all
through his life up to about 1848 a
very Incorporate man, when he sud-
denly became total abstainer, and be-
gan to use his powerful pencil in the
cause of Temperance. The first hand
grenade he flung at the tyrant rum was
a pamphlet of twelve pages about the
size of Harper's Weekly which he
called "The Bottle 1t represents
the career of happy mechanic who,
beginning with one glass of gin, de-
scends step by step through the various
stages of misery and crime till he ends
by Staying his wife with the instrument
of all his misery, the bottle. This was
very forcibly treated and took the town
by storm, selling enormously, and, of
course, turning large sum OF money
into Cruikshank's pocket. 1t gave
Douglas Jerrold an opportunity for
one of his sarcasms. Walking with a
friend, he met Cruikshank. "Hallo!'
he cried, "here comes Cruikshank;
hasn't been out of public house since
L uc DOullc was puDllSucu Dun tlllS
was not true. Cruikshank, l believe,
never relapsed, and was certainly most
sincere and earnest in the cause Of
Temperance when | visited him.
81 want to do something" he said,
"for the benefit of my fellow-creatures
before | die, and if | can put one spoke
in the wheel of this chariot of hell which
is carting its millions every five minutes
down to the dead sea of damnation, l
shall die little more contented. Five
minutes? Did l say five minutes? Every
two minutes. every one minute, like the
Paddington busses, this internal vehicle
makes trip, and it's always full, too,
always full. From Rum to Ruin, by
way of the Cross, Crime Crescent and
Perjury Square. fear have to great
extent frittered away whatever gifts,
physical and mental, God has seen fit
to give me, and now want to see if
can not take up few of the overdue
bills which owe the Almighty and His
creatures"
Here he paused, and making dash
at the picture began to point out some
of the parts which seemed to him the
most effective as moral lessons.
"There is no greater thief and ruflian
in the world than Gin - he went on