News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-05-01
THE HIGH LICENSE SYSTEM
WHAT A BROOKLYN CLERGYMAN
TO SAY ABOUT 1T,
MIR. TalmaGe will not Have GiIded Palaces
Mt the Expense of the Cheap LOgwOod
Factories.

''The Monopoly of Abomination" was
the title under which Mr.. Talmage at
tackled the high license movement Sun
day. Speaking from the text of Mat
thew, xvii, 81, cit is not lawful TO
cover them into the treasury, because it
is the price of blood" He said: "For
$15 Judas Iscariot had sold Christ. and.
disguised because he had not made a
more lucrative bargain, he threw the
pieces of silver on the floor. There was
a sentiment that the money could not be
used for governmental or religious pur-
poses, because it was blood-money. so
the first Potters' Field was bought for
the burial of paupers. We are at the
point in this country when it is proposed
to restrict or stop the sale of ardent
spirits by compelling merchants to paw
a high license of $500 or 81, 900. It is
thought this will have tendency to close
the small drunkeries, and help support
the poorhouses, filled by drink, and the
prisons, in which men are confined for
crime committed when drunk, and pay
the judges and the courts for trying
them, don't yon see? How any man or
woman could be so hoodwinked as not
to see that this whole high license move
ment is a surrender of the temperance
| principle, [ cannot understand. 1t
would make rum-selling highly respecta-
BILE, close the small stores and open the
| large ones. The small establishments
are only the rash on the body polite,
the large ones gather the pus and poison
in a huge carbuncle. There you'll
have lvered footmen, and pictures, and
mirrors, and velvet carpets like Turkish
harem, and divans to rest on when a
gentleman is taken mysteriously sick by
drinking too much champagne. High
| license strikes at hosts of the best homes
in America, and here in the presence OF
my God l stamp it as the monopoly OF
abomination. It is anti-American, anti
common sense, anti-demonstrated- facts
and anti Christian. How dare you pro-
pose for $500 to let one man sell sweet
ened dynamite, and deny the right to
the other because he can raise but 800
1 plead for the rights of these men who
are doing a small, provident, economical
business in selling extract of logwood,
strychnine and blue vitrol. High license
is the property qualification in its most
offensive shape. If rumselling is right,
let US all have the right otherwise
license is only a bride to Government.
Applause. I do not wish for any out
ward manifestation of approval for what
say" Mr.. Talmsge went on to ridicule
the idea by proposing high licenses fol
theft, blasphemy and murder, and al
luded to the profane address of the
Speaker of Legislature, the watering
of stock by officers of commercial com.
panies, and the difficulty of fixing the
crime ON murderers with money and in
f1uence, and then continued: CAN irony
aside, if rumselling is right, all should
have tiff it is wrong, five million dol
lars in hard cash ought not to purchase
immortality. 1t is time to keep home by
votes the dwelling pot-house politicians
of Albany and Harrisburg. Men could
earn 81 where they now earn but 50, bu
for the liquor traffic. 1t is antagonistiC
to the working classes. 1t is the swelter
ing and purifying curse of the Nation
High license has been tried in Missouri
and Kansas, and failed 1t is the white
flag of truce sent out by Alcoholism tc
Prohibition to make its army pause long
enough to allow. the former to get itl
army of decanters and bottles in better
order. Away with it, or I'll fire on it
Either rum must be defeated or the
Church of God and civilization will be
Better compromise with the panther il
his jungle, the cyclone in its 4ight, o.
with an Egyptian plague in its ravages
Let us fight it out on the old lines
Alcoholism is panic-stricken. After pay
ing 100000 to buy spectacles to enabl
the rul ers to see things in their prope
light, the liquor interest is now tryin,
to have the Constitution amended S.
that any prohibitory law passed by TIN
States may be declared unconstitutional
The temperance element is going to hol
, the balance of power IN This country
and L expect to see a President of tn
United States elected on Prohibitio,
, platform. Alcoholism is imperial,
conqueror; but will be broken befor
the Conqueror of earth and heaven.
'But it is said we can't get prohibi
ton and that it is better to take what W
can get. Some say half loaf of brea
: is better than no bread at all. Yes
: providing the half loaf is not poisoned
A half a pound of butter is better tina
no butter at all, providing it isn't olec
: margarine. A midnight express trai
speeds across bridge, one half of whic
has been swept away by storm and fiooc
the train rolls over into the torrent be
low and 200 souls are landed in eternity
Is half bridge better than no bridge
''But it is said that a prohibition la
cannot be executed. But there is not
law on the statute book that is perfectl
: executed. We have laws against murder
biasphemy, theft, yet murder, bias
phemy and theft abound. Then let I
have high license for theft. NaugE
teri. We must put down these sma
} thieves who make away with door-mati
postage-stamps and chocolate drops
Let us make the license high, sa
$4,000, so that only few can pay i
Then we shall put to flight the wha
rats, and all hail to the milliop-dolls