West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1883-07-18

resulting from the use of in
toxicating drinks may not be
inappropriate at this time. The de-
structioD of life, the loss of proper
ty, the crimes and the sorrow it
causes are fearful to contemplate.
The Press is overtaxed and the
mails weighted down with the
news of its wrongs, mans down
fall, orphanage and mothers
tears.
THE FIGURES OF DRINK.
According to carefully prepared
statistics. there are in the United
States 10000 saloons. At these
saloons there are 100000 daily
customers, one in eight of the
whole population. Of these, $780,
900 are annually imprisoned for
crime at an expense of s100,0OO,0OO
and near 100000 60 down to the
drunkard's grave, leaving 100000
beggared orphans.
Grasp these fgures An army
Of topers, six abreast, a hundred
and twenty miles in length, rank
Of beggared widows and children
stretching across the State. A file
OF men one hundred miles in length
marching steadily down to the
grave, four every minute through
the year. This awful column in
its ceaseless tramp of death,
whence is it recruited? AS this
years 100000 goes down, another
100000 is pressing on to fill their
places, and another back of that,
aud still another, pouring dow n
from every hamlet and hillside in
che country, a reeling, shrieking
crowd of denounced men, speeding
by their own hands into eternity.
From the foregoing facts it
is seen that the drinking of in
toxicants is destroying the old, the
young, the talented, and the use
FIJI, and carrying poverty and dis
tress to the homes of thousands of
families. An evil so great, SO de-
hasing and so fruitful of crime, in
vokes for its suppression the aid
and cooperation of all good citi
gems.
The movement set on foot to ar
rest this monster evil by amending
the organic law and stopping the
manufacture and sale of liquors,
deserves to be encouraged by every
good citizen. To save the drum
kard from premature grave and
restore him to his family and make
OF him a useful citizen, is an OBJ
jet worthy the best efforts of the
best minds of our country.
The sin Of intemperance in the
United states is more destructive
aud wide spread to-day than ever
before and like some fatal scourge
it is hourly becoming deeper seat
cd and more malignant.
THE CURSE OF DRINK.
Go where we may, through the
leagth aud breadth ofthe land, and
hook where we will, and we see it's
curse and blight, not alone in the
vacant look and crazed stare of the
inebriate, but in the thousands of
ruined homes, broken families, and
orphaned children crying for bread.
The profane shout of the drunkard,
the wall of the widow, and the cry
of the orphan, are terrible remind
ers of the positive and growing
evils of the use of ardent spirits.
Our jails, our penitentiaries, our
almshouses and our insane asylums
unite in furnishing an unbroken
chain of evidence of the evils re-
sulting from the traffic.
THE WOES OF DRINK.
Drink tells tale of sadness and
distress which melts the hardest
hearts and causes eyes to weep
which never wept before for suffer-
ing humanity.
The broken hearted mother and
deserted wife, with her daughters
standing on the threshold of
womanhood, relying on a fathers
good name to introduce them into
society and make for them proper
alliances with worthy families, to
be cast off because of his intemper-
ance-here are some of the bitter
panoS and poipnant priefs which a