Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1883-02-12
Temperance.
THE DOOMED ARMY.

DUTIES one HuHuIeu anu IOTIy tHOuS-
and licensed liquor saloons. If FORM
ed into street with saloons on each
side, allowing twenty feet to each,
they would make a street two hum
dred and sixty-ive miles long.
Let US imagine them brought to-
gether in such a street, and let us
suppose moderate drinkers and their
families are marching into it at the
upper end. Go with me; if you have
the nerve and patience, and stand at
the lower end, and let us see what
the street turns out in one year.
What army is this that comes
marching down in solid column, five
abreast, extending five hundred and
seventy miles? 1t is the army of five
million men and women who daily 90
to the saloons for intoxicating drinks.
Marching twenty miles a day it will
take them more than twenty-eight
days to go by.
Now they are gone, and close on
their rear comes another army, march
ing five abreast and sixty miles in
length. In it there are three hun
dred and fifty million confirmed
drunkards.
They are men and women who
have lost control of their appetites.
who are in the habit of getting drunk
and making beasts of themselves.
Marching two abreast the army is
one hundred and fifty miles long.
Scan them closely. There are gray
haired men and fair haired boys. There
are, alas !. many women in that army,
sunk to deeper depths than men, be-
cause of the greater heights from
which they fell. 1t will take them
seven days to go by.
1t is a sad and sickening sight,
but do not turn away yet, for here
comes another army-one hundred
thousand criminals. From jails and
prisons and penitentiaries they come.
At the head of the army comes a
long line of persons whose hands are
smeared with human blood. With
ropes around their necks, they are on
their way to the gallows. Others are
going to prison for life. Every crime
known to oul laws has been commit
ted by them while under the infu
ence of drink.
But bark Whence comes those
yells, and who are those bound b,
strong chains and guarded by strons
men as they go by? They are ravins
maniacs, made such by drink. Thei
f eyes are tormented by awful sights
and their ears ring with horrid sounds
, Shiny reptiles crawl over their bod
les, and fends from hell tormen
them before their time. They ar
gone now and we breathe more freely
But what gloom is this that pei
vades the air, and what is that lon
line of black coming slowly down th
street? 1t is the line of funeral Pre-
cessions. One hundred thousan
who have died the drunkard's deaf
- are being carried to their graves
Drunkards do not have many friend
to mourn their loss, and we can pr
y thirty of their professions into
mile. We thus have a processio
1888 miles long.
3 1t will take a good share of tt
u year for them to go by, for funer
3 professions move slowly. Yes, mo-
/ of them do, but every now and the
N an unconfined corpse in a rough ca
3 is driven rapidly by, and we hear tt
Ii brutal driver sing,
''ouick. rattle his bones rattle his bones,
Over the stonesf
IL He's only pauper whom nobody owns"
s Look into the collins as they s
IS by. See the dead drunkards. Son
lie died of delirium tremens and Il
at lines of terror are still plainly mar
H. ed on their faces. Some froze
s. death by the roadside, too drunk
reach their homes. Some stumbl
We from the wharf and were browne
v. Some wandered into the woods al
of died, and rotted ON the surfa
tie of the earth. Some were roas
ne ed in burning buildings. Sol
We blew their brains out. Some we
at fearfully stabbed in drunken Draw
at Some were crushed to shapeless ma:
es under the cars. They died in '
"a rious ways, but strong drink kill
N them all, and on their tomb-ston,
he if they have any, may fifty be
mn scribed, ''He died drunkar
,,o DEATH
flo Close behind them comes anotl
.rv long line of funeral professions ;
fol know not how many, but they
.ar more numerously attended by mou
ing friends. They contain the
mains of those who have met de:
: through the carelessness and crue
las of drunken men. Some died of br,
is en- hearts. Some were foully m
The dered. Some were burned to de
in in buildings set on fire by drunkar
nv. Some were horribly mangled on
lch railroads because of drunken Ell
ac- neers or fiagmen. Some were bio
ter up ON steamboats, because DRUM
the captains ran races with rival boats
of But here comes another army
It children-innocent ones, upon WI
the has been visited the iniquity of Il
se. fathers. How many are there? I
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