The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-05-14

of New Hope, at the Law and Order meet
ing held at the Baptist Church, in this
city, few evenings since. 1t should have
appeared last week, but was unavoidably
crowded out:
THE CURSE OF RUM.
The question as to whether the traihc
in rum is a blessing or curse to the
country, is easily answered. liza blessing.
it would be productive of some good.
The advocate of the rum cause tells us,
that the traffic brings an immense revenue
annually to the government; but the
National Census Bureau statistics, in
dictate that the traffic costs the nation
seueB hundred million dollars annually,
while the New York Tribune has de-
monstrated the fact, that this ubiquitous
business costs the country eight hundred
millions egery gear. This is not only
national curse, but also local one, casting
its blight upon the homes Of the wealthy,
as we'll as the poor, and robbing the in
dividual drinker of character, money,
home, health, body aud soul.
1t is not necessary to convince the
judgment that this business is wrong.
That which is blight to society, an in
jury to business, a source of poverty to
families and the nation, is self-evident
curse, which even those engaged in the
traffic must honestly admit. venture to
say that without this traffic, we should rs
nation, be twice as prosperous, twice as
rich and infinitely purer morally, than We
are now. Every citizen, therefore, who
loves his country, its prosperity and pro-
gress, and every Christian man interested
in the moral welfare of the masses, should
l. inc
this gigantic wrong.
| OF all the causes of sin, misery, sorrow,
woe, pauperism and wretchedness, the
traffic of rum stands pre-eminent. 1t has
| injured us more than war, pestilence,
famine, tempest, fire or food. A Cincin-,
natl flood, with its accompanying destitu-
ton of hunger, nakeduess, destruction of
! life and property, homes and fortunes, is
nothing in comparison to the flood tide OF
| whiskey, which mandates the country.
| 1t destroys more property, wrecks more
| homes, blights more fortunes, destroys
more lives, and damns more souls, than
| all other causes combined. Yet the ten
der sympathies and benevolence OF nearly
every Eastern city, run to the relief bland
| rescue the suffering, while this greater
destructive agency, is allowed to do its
deadly work, almost without protest.
| The recent mob riot of Cincinnati was
but feeble expression of the terrible
| work Of rum. RUNS worst work, how
ever, is done when 1t disperses the mob
among the families of our villages, towns
and cities, where it slowly changes our
youth into such demons as make up the
mob. What then is our duty in relation
| to this awful traffic? Is it not time some
thing great, earnest and radical was done?
You cannot expect to do your duty as
citizens, in relation to this great question,
without encountering opposition, ridicnle
aud contention. You cannot smite hor-
nets nest and not expect the hornets to
respond. "'Tis their nature to- 1t is
not the "hot water we may get into,
that is to be feared; it is the lead of in
difference. The hostility of sin is less to
be feared than the indifference to sin.
Rum and the traffic in it embodies re-
bellion against all laws, human and di-
vine. You have local Prohibition in Lam
bertville but Prohibition unenforced, is
free rum. We can't even have the laws
executed. What is the alarming truth?
Simply this: that tie criminal classes
rule IN Lambertoille, as much as in Gin
cinnati. God grant that we may be spared
the disgrace of the fair city of the West.
w u6EG dEG tu6 DoiiCC, tbO Nhoyot ouu
the City Council ? Can't they have the
bars closed, the signs taken down and the
Infamous stuff taken out of the city Have
the authorities tho moral support of all
good citizens? Is the city doing all it can
to remove the curse and to suppress this
curse of rum? Why is it that our citizens
are not more aroused OH this question?
1t is because the sad results of this traffic
are not Immediately apparent. We only
see the immediate effects-the drunkard
on our streets but not the ultimate re-
suits of depraved character, abused wives,
wretched children, bodily diseases, miser
able deaths and an awful hell. young
man recently drowned himself. On his
person was found a note, saying: "a
wasted life ask no questions about me.
Drink was the cause let me die; let me
rot.'' This was sad, but more so when
the Coroner received over two hundred
letters from fathers and mothers, asking
description of the deceased. Are we
doing our duty in relation to this ruinous
curseP Our duty is to our fallen brother.
Our duty is simply that which Is within
our power. Men rise to noble life, not by
remarkable endowments, but by strenuous
efforts IN the line of duty. Let us be
self-sacrifcing and self forgetful in resca-
ing the men who sacrifice SO much to be-
come drunkard. There is no system of
suppressing this ruinous traffic, which
does not require eternal vigilence. It
was "while men slept" that the enemy
sowed tares in the field.