Arkansas weekly mansion., 1884-01-05
WHO HAS AN INTEREST IN RUM

n
There are those who consider the rum
question as one affecting only the man
who drinks and the man who sells. There
never was greater mistake. Every
person in a community has an interest,
a direct, vital interest in every man who
drinks and every man who sells the
drink. 1t is everybodys business
whethe. liquor is drank or not. The use
of intoxicants by any one concerns the
entire community.
Turn mad-dog loose in the streets
and the entire community hastens to
destroy it, because its very existence is
a menace to the community. rum
seller in n community, so far rs pow
er for damage goes, Is worse than
dozen mad-dogs. One dog may De
killed and his power for evil ceases; the
rum-scller stays.
1t does make Il difference in COM
munity whether or not Il man supports
his family deccntly and properly.
Whether man is n useful citizen or
burden upon other citizens is a matter
of interest to every one in the COM
munity in which he resides. Whether
a man brings up his children to indus
trious and Virtuous habits, or launches
them upon the sea OF life as pirates, to
y
much moment to everybody.
When man sits down to the business
of drunkard- making he has established
a school for beggary and crime. His
business is to implant in As many men
and boys us possible an appetite to graf
ifv which not only takes the entire pro-
ceeds of their labor, but unfts them for
labor at ALL an appetite SO powerful
that when labor will not supply it. 1t
cOmpelS its victims to resort to crime.
1t is business which, inasmuch as its
victims can not support their families,
throws the burden Of their support upon
tha community at large. 1t is busi-
ness which not only makes courts of
Justice necessary. but is the foupdation
stones of the alms-houSes and the Jails.
Who ever knew II drunkard to occupy
decent dwelling, or to pay rent
promptly for the miserable hOvel which
he invariably fnhabits?
Who ever knew the wife of Il drunkard
to make purchases of any amount. of
dress goods for the clothing of herself
and children?
How many children of drunkards are
kept out of school for want of decent
clothing? and, for want of prope!' cdu-
cation, what percentage of them grow
up into manhood and womanhoOd, ig-
From what classes come the depraved
the thieves, the street rllifianS and
the gamins who naturally graduate into
crime?
There can scarcely he found crlml-
nal who can not trace his education III
crime to rum.
There is scarcely case of destitution
that requires public interference that
rum is not the cause Of
The regular, almost universal, plea
of murdcrcrs in eNtcnuation of their
crime is: Il was drunk when l did it.
The brewcrics and distillericS, and
their lieutenants, the keepers of rum
shops, are directly responsible for nine.
ty per cent. of all this misery and death.
They do not wait for their victims to
come to thcm-they go out and seek
them. In the city Of Toledo there are
six hundred regular rum-shopS, and
counting the houses of infamy. the
gambling dcns and other places of like
character that depend directly upon
rum as the foundation of their business,
the number will reach eight hundred.
AS bad, as widespread as is the drink
ing habit, one hundred would fully sup
ply the natural demand for liquors.
How do the other seven hundred make
a living?
They create a trade in the horrible
stuff they deal in. They go out and
pull in victims. They stop the labor
ing man on his way home. They en-
tice him out of house evenings. they
search out boys and initiate them in the
habit. knowing full well that once fixed
it is almost impossi bic TO break it. and
that once in their hands they have a
mortgage on him forever.
There are exceptions honorable ones,
but they ere few in number. The
whisky business, as n rule, Is in the
| hands of Il class who are utterly regard
less of the effect of their hideOus trade
upon others AS rule they sell in
differently to the drunken man who
can barely stand before the bar, and to
the Drecociou, boy or drunken woman.
They sell to whomsoever has money to
nav. even though they know that the
tumbler-full swallowed ut eight is to
eventuate in 4 murder at nine.
And this same reckless disregard of
the public good runs through the whole
business. The brewers wagon stops
with the same regularity before a MUIR
der-,en or a thieves resort as before
respectable saloon, and the vilest of
them can secure their supplies from
wholesale concerns. The only question
asked is concerning pay. 1t is busi-
ness from first to last without con-
science 1t is business that ruins the
drink-buyer, soul and body, and leaves
the seller almost as badly wrecked. 1t
is a soul-searing, pity-cradicating, feel
ing o-hardening business, one which
knows neither remorse nor shame. 1t
is a business based upon the most soul
less cupidity, which is a total stranger
to every sentiment that cnnObles and
everv instinct that is good. 1t has no
more pity than n shark and no more
remorse than tiger. What it wants IS
money. and it cares not how it gets 1t.
Every citizen has the right to say
whether the horrible traffic in men $
| bodies and souls shall be tolerated, and
| if so, on what terms. Communities
have the right to protect themselves
| against vice. for they have the burdens
| of vice to bear. 1t is nonsense to say
| that a community which has to support
the widow and orphan may not control
| the trade which makes widows and or
phans. 1t is nonsense to say that COM
munity which has to pay the terrible
| cost of the crime committed within its
| borders may not restrict and restrain
The cause of almost all the crime. 1t is
worse than nonsense to say the one
trade which sets morals at defiance,
which is allieI to everything that is
| bad, and which has nothing whatever
of good in it, shall not only be above
law but shall make the laws.-Io:edt
Blade.
A DRAM-sHoP is said to be plact
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