The Brookhaven leader., 1884-04-17

the blow, but j. guides the hand that
does
You are unwise to institute a com
pari son between the business of beer
and -four. Your business is not 80
legitimate as dealing in flour, be
cause it is not true, and never was,
Of you or any other msn, that one
can drink or let it alone as he
chooses. You know, or ought to,
that every drop of your stuff that
goes into a mans stomach diseases
il, and create an irresistible crav-
ing for more. You know that every
drop lessons the power to resist, and
that this sapping OF the will power
goes On steadily and irresistibly,
till tie victim OF it is entirel y in
capable Of turning from it; thnt be
becomes so helpless in the grasp of
the appetite that he will steal his
baby's shoes TO get the means to
crafty it. To commence is to con-
tinue, and YOU induce the commenc
ing. Your comparison is very un-
fortunate No man eats to the point
Of congesting his liver and eularging
his kidneys, nor can there be an
appetite for bread which requires
excess to satisfy It. Bread does not
create a diseased stomach which can
only be satisfied with bread, and
even if it did the glutton can only
injme himself Men do not get
crazy upon bread, nor do they com
nit murder under its effects. No
man ever starved or iroze his family
to get bread for himself. Bread is
strength-beer is weakness.
Any business that is based upon
canvass for drunkards, that has
for its foundation not only the sup
ply of drink to drunkards, but the
conversion Of sober men into drunk
ards, is not legitimate. Your bust
ness in not only not Legitimate, but
it is a curse to every business that
is. Every dime you take from your
victims is just that much lObbed
from the grocer, the shoemaker, the
butcher, the baker and the dry goods
merchant. 1t is that much taken
/ from the wealth of the world and
worse than wasted, for it net only
goes for nothing, but it destroys the
power of production in the man
using it. 1t is a robbery of the com
munity in a double sense. You are
not only absorbing the proceeds OF
la bor, but you are destroying labor
itself The drunkard not only does
not consume, but under your manip-
ulation, he cesses TO lroduce.
Your use Of him ends with his
incapacity for labor, and after you
have deprived him of the power to
labor you turn him and those de
pendent on him over to the general
public to support, and look about
for new paupers to take his place.
There are degrees in badness as
in goodness, and there are doubtless
honest men making and dealing in
liquor. But you know very we'll
that every prostitute in Milwaukee
bases her business upon alcoholic
stimulants. You know that beer is
the one staple in every thieves den
in your City. You know that every
gambler depends upon liquor as his
mainstay. You know that wherever
crime and degradation are, liquor is,
and that it is always first in the pro-
cession. There may be liquor with
out crime, but there is no crime
without liquor. 1t is the father OF
murder, the twin-brother Of every
species of crime, and the parent OF
every kind of evil. 1t stupcfies the
victim of the dives in your bad quar-
tiers, and nerves the arm of the rufilan
who kills him. 1t is the chief dc,
pendence of the pimp and prostitute
and the invariabIe help of the gam
bier and thief.
You claim 10 be a respectable
brewer. DO not your wagons stol
regularly in front of these low dives:
Do you not supply the gambling
hells and houses of prostitution, The
same as you do the respectable
places? Do not your agents canvass
these places for business; and when
one Of them is established is it not
foot race between You and your
competitors to secure the trade? And
you know perfectly well to what uses
your beer is to be put.
The business of manufacturing
and selling anything in which ther.
is absolutely no good, and which is
confessedly bad, cannot be properly
counted as legitimate. Whoever
embarks in such business does il
because he SO loves the almighty
dollar that he is willing to part with
the respect of good men and women
and for it's sake set at defiance
the opinion of the world Every
drop brewed is curse, and no one
on earth knows it better than you
You may drink it yourself, but We
venture to say you do not do it t.
any greater extent than is necessary
for the good of your trade. You
would not have your son to drink IT.
and would not marry your daughter
to a man addicted to it.
To say that the public which has
the legal right to kill mad dogs, and
restrain criminality, and all that
sort of thing, has not the right to