The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1883-07-28

4 Lecture on Liquor by VIZ. Cruzan-"h lou
Let IL Alone il Won't Hurt Yen"

At the Fort street church on Wednesday even
ing. after HYMNS had been sung and a prayer de-
Iivered BY the Rev. Mr.. Bingham, Mr.. Cruzan
smoke AS follows: 1t l. said that % the Devil Is
the father Of lies aud there i. perhaps, no one
thing about which he tells 50 many As his favor
tie business, liquor-selling. He tells men that
liquor IS food, that it makes them healthy, that
1t will make them warm, that it will make them
cool, that It viii increase their strength, that il
will make them manly, and many other things
equally false and absurd. But perhaps the most
common Of all lies about lIquor-selling, and the
one that Is often heard On the lips Of temperance
people, l. this. Liquor won't hurt You If you
let it alone" 1t Is not true.
/. Liquor hurts individuals who let it alone.
A wealthy Christian business man in St. Louis
was urged to aid in a series Of temperance meet
ings. He declined. On being further pressed,
he said. Gentlemen, it is not my business.
Liquor won't hurt me-. let 1t alone!' A few
days after his wife and daughter We're coming
home on a lightning express train. He rode TO
the depot in his carriage 70 meet them. On his
way he heard something about an accident. 1t
is his business now. With white face and
anxious brow the man paced the station to and
fro. In vain he tried to get an engine to take
him to the scene Of the disaster. Ia q few hours,
which seemed to him like centuries, a train ar
rived. Ia one car he found the dead body Of his
wife, in another his laughter, horribly and NOR
tally injured. 4 quart Of whiskey, bought a
hundred miles away, and drank upon the engine
BY employees, was the cause of the accident.
Who dares say Of liquor-drinking: IT'S none
Of my business. 1t won't hurt me, because l let
it alonez" You say: I'VE have no railroads.
No, but We have quite a little fleet Of inter-island
steamers. Are all the employees Of those steam
ers, upon whose flithfulness and efficiency de-
pend the safety and the lives Of hundreds Of pas
seugers, strictly temperate? Do they always
leave Honolulu fit for duty? How many of the
hundreds Of express drivers in Honolulu are
temperate man2 Very many, 1 hope, but not
all. Liquor-drinking constantly, in many ways,
puts those who never touch the vile stuff in
peril.
But in another way liquor hurts thousands
who never touch it and who hate it utterly.
Drinking men do not stand alone. Every man
that drinks involves others with him. Probably
FIVE sufferers to each drunkard would be stating
it very low. Many a wife has seen her home
sold over her head, and been compelled to slave
at the wash-tub TO support herself and her worse
than fatherless children, because her husband
drinks. She let's liquor alone, but doesn't 1t
hurt her and her little ones? Many a mother,
like Rachel, has wept tears Of blood because of a
drunken son. Many a father, like David, has
wept for a lost Absalom. They hated Iiquor,
but it broke their hearts.
2. LiquOr-drinkiug Injuries communities, and
hence every Individual in such community,
whether he drinks or not. The state of morals,
the prevalence Of crime, the rate of taxation, the
degree Of protection of life and property in a
community affect the well-being, prosperity and
happiness Of every resident of that community.
Liquor-selling and liquOr-drinking are a con-
slant menace TO the best interests of society.
They debauch the morals, increase pauperism
and crime, render life and property insecure,
and increase taxation. Hence they injure every
person, no matter if he does not drink. Listen:
/ do not wonder that every thoughtful man is
preiudiced against this stuff that is called alco-
hol. Iutemperance cuts down youth in its vigor,
manhood in its strength, and age in its weak
ness. 1t breaks the fathers heart, bereaves the
doting mother, extinguishes natural affection,
grasses conjugaI love, blots out flial attachment,
blights parental hope, and brings down mourn
ing age in sorrow to the grave. 1t produces
weakness, not strength; sickness, not health;
death, not life. 1t makes wives widows, child
rem OEpuduSr lAlncIS menus, anu III VI
paupers and beggars. 1t covers the land with
misery, idleness and crime. 1t fills your jails,
supplies your almshouses and demands your
asylums. 1t engenders controversies, fosters
quarrels and cherishes riots. 1t crowds your
penitentiaries and furnishes victims for your
scaffolds. 1t is the blood of the gambler, the
element of the burglar, the prop of the highway
man and the support of the midnight incen-
daryl" Who said it? OH you say, d" some
raying temperance fanatic! NO. Col. Robert
G.. IngersolI. Did he tell the truth? Then is
not the monster who does all this the bitter
enemy and relentless foe of every person in that
community Does it not injure every man,
whether he uses it or not2
After his concluding remarks several of those
present gave their ideas on the subject of tenn
perance, generally upholding those of the lee
turer. All agreed that to accomplish anything
in this great work, their efforts must be united
to destroy this monster from among them, and,
to bring about any lasting and successful reform,
the world must be Christianized.