The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-03-10
Drink the Chief Cause of Crime.

'S, OuuSO iGuidA says vi
"drink as the chief occasion of crime:"
1. Drunkenness itself is, by statute
and by reason, crime-a social nui-
sance.
z. Drink excites the evil passions !;
how much or how little it takes to do
1t is question of temperament and
circumstance.
3. 1t fortifies for crime.
4. 1t throws off the reins of pru-
dence. Recklessness is one of the first
: fruits of drink. Reason teaches that
crime is folly alcohol clouds the
reason.
D. 1t tempts to crimes, especially to
lust and robbery, by putting the vic.
/, tim in the power of the criminal.
6. And emboldens to crime by rem
dering its detectier i ,y,lsp; yhap lie II
necessary witness is wholly or parti-
ally insensible.
Z. ldleness and poverty are prolific
agencies in the production of crime !;
but intemperance is the main cause
of these.
8. Iruancy Is regarded as one of the
most common proximate causes of
crime. But among the causes of tru-
ancy that which so far transcends all
others as to be properly considered
the cause of causes is the immoderate
use OF intoxicating liquors.
.. lntemperance is the efficient ally
of other vices. Wine has been well
styled "the DEVILS water power"
Without it much of the machinery of
evil would stand still. 1t is the life
OF the gaming house and the 6rotheI,
andsurely these are hot beds of crime.
The Board of Police Justices of the
city of New York, whose testimony
Is valuable because of their daily OBJ
Servations of crime and criminals, in
their annual report say: "We are
fully satisfied that intoxication is the
one great seading cause which rem
ders the existence of our police courts
necessary.
Hon. George P. Sanger (ex.Judge
OF the Court of Common Pleas, and at
present the United States Attorney
for the District of Massachusetts,
speaking from his experience as the
prosecuting officer of the same dis
trict, says: "There are few criminal
cases into which the use of intoxicat-
ing liquor does not more or less en-
ter"
,, The authorities all agree on insan-
ity resulting from drink. DIR. Ray,
one of the first authorities in this
country upon insanity, says in his
"Mental Hygiene :" "a potent
agency in yitiating the quality of the
brain is habitual intemperance, and
the effect is far oftener witnessed in
the offspring than in the drunkard
himself. His habits may induce an
attack of insanity when the predispo-
sition exists; but he often escapes
with the loss of the natural vigor
and hardihood of his mind. In the
offspring, however, on whom the
consequences of the parental vice may
he visited. to the third if not the
fourth generation, the cerebal disor-
der may take the form of intemper-
ance, or idiocy, or insanity, or vic
ious habits, or impulses to crime,
or some minor mental obliquities."
AS to pauperism from drink, Bish-
op Ireland, Of Minnesota, who lec-
tured in Chicago recently, agrees
with all good authorities that "three-
fourths of the inmates of poor-houses
and asylums, three-fourths of all who
are recipients in any way of public or
private charity, have been reduced
to poverty through the intemper-
ance of their natural protectors. The
men who babble about social reforms
without pointing to the saloons as the
first cause ofpoverty and degradation
talk in the air."-Chicdoo Inter
Ocean,.
The saloon license question is occa-
sioning considerable excitement in
Iowa. Council Bluffs proposes to
exact a fee of $500, Waterloo is wa.
voring between $500 and $500. Ottum.
wa and Charlton have already fixed
upon 81 900. Fort Dodge charges $500,
and the number of saloons has been
cut down from twenty-five to five
Humbolt has few saloons at $500
each. Jefferson has only two, and
charges them $1,000 each Creston
has eight, with the highest fee of all
81 800; and Boone expects to limit
her saloons to five.
} A Pittsburgh pawnbroker has OBJ
served that ninety-nine per cent. of
the money he lends is spent on intox-
icating drink.
When a lecturer has worked the
ladies of his audience so near to the
weeping point that they have gotten