The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-05-30
PALlIATIYES.

There is IN the CITY OF New 1ofK aA
institution known as the Christian
Home" which, at great expense, res
ceives from fifty to sixty men, drunk.
ards, who 90 thither to be cured of the:
appetite for rum. 1t is full all thes
time, some OF the inmates going out,
radically cured, others to relapse into;
the habit. 1t is an excellent institution.
founded by philanthropic men, and haSs
accomplished some good.
Every city in the country has these
reformatories, maintained by the victims
of rum, and the private contributions OF
good men and women.
The public has provided reformatories,
likewise. There are Houses of COrrecs-
ton for the young victims OF rum. the
children of drunken parents, who IN
herit not only the appetite for llquorr
but also the thousand vices of which
rum is the parent. In these are h,eld
for restraint and reformation probably
about one in ten thousand of those who
need the discipline. There are penis
tentiaries for those whona rum has
driven into crime, there are insane
asylums for those whose minds rum has
destroyed, and asylums for the idiots
that rum is, in nine cases out of ten.
answerable for.
1t will be observed that these institu-
tions are, all of them, provided TO take
UP men and women where rum has left
them. They are institutions for salvage.
purposes, to save what is possible out
OF wrecks. Except in q few States
there are no provisions to restrain con-
seienceless men from making drunk
ards, thieves, prostitutes, criminals,
idiots and lunatics. All that law has
done. thus far, is to care for about one
in ten thousand of the victims of rum.
Rum is permitted to 90 on mabafacturs
ing these unfortunates, and the people
tax themselves, publicly and privately
to care for hundreds out of the millions.
. This israttempting to stay a torrent
with teaspoon. 1t is attempting to
pump out the overhowed lands of the
Mississippi with a syringe, instead of
mending the break in the levee.
Where there is one reformatory to
care for criminals, lunatics, idiots and
paupers, there are thousand rum and
beer shops manufacturing them. The
city of Toledo has one House of Cor
rection, one jail and one jnfrmary to-
care for the victims of rum, and eig1t
hundred rum and beer shops busy night
and day, week days and Sundays, man.
ufacture subjects for them. Philadel-
phia has the same proportion of re-
formatores; and forty miles of rum
and beer shops, were they put side by
side, and twenty feet front allowed for
each. The county seats and country
villages preserve about the same proper
ton. A boy is corrupted in q beer
shop; he is taken to reformatory,
serves a time, comes out only to fall
into the same trap again, landing the
next time in a jail, and the next in the
penitentiary.
Would it not be well to commence at
the other end of this business? Instead
of trying to dip out the stream would
it not be well to try drying up the.
source? If society has the right to- re-
strain the criminal has it not the right
to put its strong hand upon the crimi-
nal maker? If the drunkard is danger
Gus as criminal, or expensive as q
pauper, has not the community the
right to prevent the manufacture OF
QfuuKdfuS.
There is no other way under the SUM-
So long as the breweries are commits
sioning their creatures to put boys i'm
training for the penitentiary or the poor
house, SO long will penitentiaries and
poor-houses be inadequate to the de-.
mand made upon them.
There is but little use in attempting
to reform the drunkard; the only way,
to root out the giant evil is to prevent
the making of drunkards. There is
but little use in trying to patch up the
man or boy who has the habit fxed7
the proper thing to do is to prevent
men and boys from getting the habit.
1t is better to prevent the storm than to
patch the wreck. The christian
Home" in New York harbors fifty men
who are trying by its help to save them
selves. Thousands of beer-shops and
rum-mills in that city are making thou
sands of drunkards day. Such Lilli-
putian remedies can not cure such
giant diseases. Toledo Blade.