Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-01-16
For the SPECTATOR
INTEMPERANCE.

'This age that blots out life with question
marks. I..osf q - y
This nineteenth century with its knife and
l glass" r.f .rr - y
| A time worn subject is the most sig
nificant of all subjects. No doubt the
single quadrisy liable which comprises
the caption of this article has peen the
basis of more prolonged arguments, Ia
bored lectures, and ingenious sermons,
than any of our dialect, Because there
is 10 word in any language descriptive
of an evil so far-reaching in its enticing
influence, SO utterly devastating in its
puissant effect, 30 completely destruc
tive in its final result, as Intemperance.
L: Is the principal source from which
emanate all the heinOus atrocities, re
voting crimes, and startling felonies to
which humans are prone to commit or
are capable of accomplishing. Though
so often the topic of deliberate conver
sations, the question of protraoted dis
cussions, the subject of earnest prayers,
yet it has not, by any means, become
absolutely trite and devoid of absorb
ing interest, for the more one conteIn
plates it in its true form and light, the
more hideous does it appear. All its
Unborn loathsomeness, and the thoussI,d
attending evils to which it points and
tends, rise in distorted shape and crowd
around it, until 1t makes one feel as if
he were in pandemonium amid the
savage howls of tortured fsnds, the
soul piercing shrieks which are con
tinually uttered, and the painful agonies
of despair INCREASINGLY endured by the
lost, who were its poor, deluded and
frenzied victims and slaves upon earth.
We imagine the walls of q drunkard's
L. Ii fIn <>f
blackening oaths, and the whole do
main resounds with Unsuitable appeals
for drink, and the shrill echoes hud
ding In alright, laugh and in mocking
tones reverberate against the besmooted
walls of the yawniDg hiatus, drink
drink drink! Every day this colossal
and ichorOus monster is stealthy and
surely encroaching nearer and nearer
the vital portions of our glorious Com
monwealth-enlarging its already ex-
tended circuit and irretrievably en-.
gulphing some precious jewel of our
homes and the bright intellectual lights
of our country. Aided by Its self aug
mented and mighty influence it is on a
rapid and successful increase, for each
day more are applying for license, more
are engaging in Its manufacture, more
bar rooms are being opened, more are
being entrapped by its false and alluring
smiles, more are going down to an aw-
full perdition. For years it has been
gaining immortal life and perpetuating
greater force, widening and deepening,
embracing ands destroying every one
within its blistered path. Instead OF
extirpating it, age seems only to have
lent it more power and made it less
pregnable. Apparently, it is as sure
lived and exhaustless as eternity Is GER
tain and endless. for from its very
questionable birth the churches have
hurled their anathemas, the various re.
fOrmatory associations their influence,
and the hundred auxiliary institutions
their efforts in order to blight its
growth, impede its progress, rescue its
victims, and entirely exterminate every
vestage, trace, and particle of its pol
luted and damning presence from our
land, but yet 1t remains, seemingly, un.
scathed and unshaken, and welding
full control. All labor appears to have
been without any pereeptible effect.
Limited, If any, success has crowned
this clustering and concentration of ef-
fort, for it is still in our midst, cursing
and blighting every One-mOre potent
and Infamous than ever before. Its
consumption is not confined to any par
ticular class or position of persons. No
discrimination can be drawn between
its patrons, for every nation and race,
nobleman and peasant, rich and poor,
old and young are its worshipers. In
their eager pursuit all difference of birth
and rank are forgotten, and mingling
together bend gloatingly over the seme
sparkling bowl, into which they sink
virtue, honor, truth, reputation, manhood
and every refining instinct, all forfeited
in order that they may partially satisfy
their unquenchable thirst for beverage
and drink. Nothing to be gained by it's
possession, all to be lost by its cOnsump-
ton. To drink is an Unborn propensity,
and all it needs is brief fostering to
become a governing desire. Almost
every appalling disaster, brutal muir.
der, or frightful crime, can be, to a
greater or less extent, traced to the
presence and influence of rum as the
instigator and completor of the calam.
ity. Would that with q single stroke
of our pen we could paint some CHASTITY
scene or picture an awful life- like trag-
edy which would result in arresting
that surging mass OF human and &C,
countable beings. which jeering, shout.
ing, and cursing, move hither and
thither like the restless waves OF some
turbulent ocean, Forever erase the
great, immeasurable, and foul blot that
is upon our otherwise proud, free, happy,
and spotless States, and under the pom
derous weight Of which the whole up
heaving universe is groaning and
writhiDg In deathly commissions. Upon