The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-03-21
An Appeal to a once Respected Citizen
upon his Application for License to
sell Liquor in Pennsylvania town.

SIR Hitherto esteemed reSpeclaDle Clll-
zen. YOU have deemed it advisable, for the
sake of what, in the nature of things, must
be very paltry gain, to add to your laudable
calling of merchant, that of bookkeeping,
and, as we are informed, you have applied to
the court of -- for license for the sale of
spirituous liquors. You therefore stand before
this community as the acknowledged ex-
ponent of the rum traffic, and as such, you
will be called upon to meet the determined
and unyielding warfare which will be waged
upon the traffic through you.
Have you counted the cost, and do you
know what to depend upon? Every true
temperance man-every person who has the
welfare of the community at heart must OF
necessity be your unfinching enemy SO long
as you continue to be the enemy of sobrlety,
peace, good order, domestic happiness, ana
true religion. To be anything else would be
to be false to all that is good and manly and
true in the advocacy of the temperance cause.
The fact that you, with your former good
name enter into very bad business, makes
that business none the better, makes its effect
on the neighborhood none the better. Our
young men will become demoralzed just as
rapidly by the allurements held out by your
hand as by those of another. Boys will de-
yelop into rude disturbers of the peace under
the influence of drunken seniors, just as read
lily as though the liquid poison found on your
bar had been dealt out by person heretofore
debased by many years of rum-selling. Our
mechanics will change from self-reliant sup
porters of themselves their families and their
government. into abiect curses of their kind,
just as speedily through yow means, as
through any other destroyer of soul and body
Our once wealthy farmers may take refuge
in the asylum prepared by the county for her
paupers, as easily from poverty induced by
yoa as by any other dealer in ardent spirits.
Women can fly unprotected from homes,
turned into the abode of maniacs or demons,
or go unmourned to dishonored graves, or,
worse than either, linger on through life of
wretchedness, contaminated by the undiscrib-
ed vileness, which pertains to the presence of
the habitual drunkard, and this will come
Just as speedily through the snare you set for
some weak husband and father, as though the
meshes were laid by more accustomed en-
ticer.
Are you willing, looking into the cup you
extend to the prematurely trembling hand of
some such husband and father, to take an oath
of allegiance to the power you think of serv-
HOY do
moralized, 1 will demoralize; where others
have blasted reputation and happiness and all
the sanctities of life, 1 will do no less; where
others have sent husband and wife and little
child to the grave, I will not pause. The fac
that in all probability, I am to become an
actual, if not legally recognized murderer,
shall not appal me. This thought and the
claims of humanity, country and Cod shall
all be balanced by-ten cents glass" Sir,
if you have brought your mind to this, if you
are still determined to prosecute your inteh-
ton, be assured that neither your apparent
responsibility, your desire to conciliate favor,
nor your family connections, will in the slight
est degree shield you from the unwayering
hostility we shall ever MANIFEST towards the
traffic you see fit to engage in. We shall con-
centrate our moral power to stand between
you and your purposed victims, and, taking
every available means to Illustrate your wishes
and your expectations, with the blessing of
God we shall hope to succeed in turning aside
your destructive agency. In every new per-
son who opens hotel for the sale of spirituous
liquors we acknowledge only another sup
porter of grevious wrong against the COM
munity, and let him be who he will, he must
meet us in contest in which we have no
choice but to stand steadfast, so long as there
shall be need for the exertion of our powers
Therefore we shall never yield, and in the
end you will have to retire from the struggle
Hoping you will have the grace to reconsider
your choice and before it is too late turn from
the course you have marked out for yourself,
we are very sincerely your friends.
(SigneD ........................
The investigation by committee of Con-
gress into the cause of the recent election riots