The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-04-20

Dr. efNC III
ton with the young and with nom
churchgoers, and its allurements
create and reinforce appetite until
and conscience are silenced.
Doubtless, if all men were worthy
members, none would be dram
sellers or drunkards. The same rca-
might be used with reference to
burglary and murder; but you do not
shut up your goals and dismiss you
sheriffs, relying upon the church for
protection in those directions. 1t is
the simplest dictate of common sense,
that practical methods of self pro-
lection and needed reforms should not
rely upon the church to do for the great
mass with whom she has nothing to
do except to oppose them, that which
she does for her members who accept
her teachings and share her spirit.
The church is equally powerless in
withdrawing the dram-shops' patrons.
Cardinal Manning said in a speech at
Bolton, England, a few years ago
1T is mere mockery to ask us to put
down drunkenness by moral and re-
ligious means, when the Legislature
facilitates the multiplication of incite-
ments to intemperance on every side.
= x x If you will cut off the sup
ply of temptation, | will be bound by
the help of God to convert drunkards;
but until you have taken off this
perpetual supply of Intoxicating
drink, we never can cultivate the
fields. 4 X 4 This is my answer
to the bland objurgation of those who
tell us the ministers of the Gospel are
not doing their work. Let the legis-
lature do it's part and we will answer
for the rest Quoted by Judge Pit
man in Alcohol and the State, p. 81.
This is a point about which good
people fond of the church, and really
hating the dram-shops, are often in err
ror anda 5 it is important that correct
ideas should obtain, L give one more
weighty testimony drawn from a source
unusually qualified to speak. Be
fore the committee of the English
House of Lords, in 1850, Rev. John
Clay, the experienced chaplain
of the Preston House of Cor
r%ection, speaking of the pass
age of the beer bill, exclaimed
insanity tpsODO Ntuo Mtlt ODtllttl,
each of which breeds more immortality
and sin in a week than a be coun-
teracted by the minister of religion in
a year.
3. Another insufficient protection
against the dram-shop is the election of
an upright county commissioner, and
town agent for the sale of liquors.
1t is proper and useful to have these
officials so that whoever wishes to buy
liquor for proper use, and there is
such use in medicine and the arts, he
will not have to go to tipping house.
But with what mirth, not to say de-
rision, does the dramseller, freely vio-
lating law, look upon the deliberations
of an able convention assembled to
provide for sales according to law?
4. The dram-shop will not be cap
tured by licensing it, or attempts to ele-
vate it in any other way.
1t is only the emphasis of truth,
though savoring of hyperbole, to say
that the more you improce the
saloon the 1corse you make
it the more resrectable the
dramseller, the more dangerous his
mork and the greater his guilt, and,
ought 1 not to add? the more reputa-
Die the drinker the grsater the ecU Of
his jnfuentid3 example.
The crisis at once successful to the
dealer and fatal to the drinker,
is the BEGINNING Of appetite.
Do not let the young
man, in his flush of joyous vigor. get
Il glimpse of lettering knees, hollow
cheeks, bleared eyes and gibbering
tongue, of rags, of disgrace; let the
doorsill be low and near his accus-
toned path or get some alluring Access
series, not in the dram-shop, perhaps,
but in easy communication; greet him
with all friendly compliment; use only
the gentlest touches; now he has force
of will, self-reSpect, some conscience
and thought of home, possibly of God;
don't take much notice of the first
cups, let them be almost by the
merest chance, there. he comes again,
his thirst is more defined and impera-
tive. The victory is wonl The knell
of almost certain doom has struck.
Your fly delicately kisses the pellucid
stream. feathering in graceful circles,
then the barbed hook strikes quick and
fast and you land the quivering trout
at your leisure.
This is only half the story: perhaps
not that such a shop having made tie
drunkard must not finish him. When
symptoms of squalor and disease begin,
the victim must be turned over to the
doggery. Hence the impossibility of
the gilded dram-shop By itSeE.
Hence, too. the failure of all
licensing. The rich proprietor who
has paid his license does not care
how many sell without license. If
elegant in their appointments, they
only help him recruit the ranks of
profitable customers if low and
dingy, they furnish convenient and
necessary h~iding-places for their own
unsightly products.
Again, it is Il sad thing when the
sanctions of law tend. in any degree,