San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1884-02-14

lEsrKnxD AT THE POST oryIox AT BAN MARC
TEXAS AZ SECOND GLASS MATTER.
The Late Murder In q San Marcos 3
loon-.-Some Further Application
with Regard to the Subject.
sour Sermon" oflast week, thong
well considered, was hastily commi
ted topaper; and hence some poin,
were overlooked which should hav
been touched upon. These omil
sions we now propose briefly to SUI
ply.
We make no apology for returning
to the subject We have notfelt sal
isfied to let it pass without due not
and comment. Such dark ant
damning crime irresistidy challenge
attention to itself and to its moving
cause, and we should be totally want
ing in onr duty as public Journalist
not TO speak out and point the mora
which it 80 impressively teaches
We feel it to be duty wo owe both
to the living and the dead. If the
immortal part of James NJ. Kone yet
enjoys conscious existence and is
cognizant of what is passing here,
who can doubt that his desire is
above all things that his young associ-
ates, and all whom he ever knew
should be saved from the temptation
and sin which made shipwreck Of
his promising career on earth! Who
can doubt, if his voice could
reach them, that 1t would be heard in
most earnest warning to shun the
path which led him to temporal de-
struction' Then in holding up this
subject topublic attention we feel that
we are but discharging duty.
''Worthy the living, grateful to the dead.
II would almost seem that some
such fearful result as this murder
was necessary to rouse this commu-
nifty from the apathy into which it
had fallen in regard to the evils daily |
emanating from the traffic in and use
of intoxicating drinks and their &C
compartments, as exhibited in drink
ing and gaming saloons If such
a deed can be passed by and speedi-
ly forgotten, then indeed is the pros
pect for reformation hopeless. But
no; we feel that such cannot be the
result. The blood of the victim cries
from the ground and summons this
unholy traffic and its a5ettors to the
Judgment of investigation and the
of all that is good.
We however bear no ill-will towards
saloon-keepers personally nor, as we
said last week, do we consider them
worse than the communi-
hes which sustain them. Certainly
1t any rate it will not do for the self I
respectable gentlemen
who lend the saloons their patronage
and countenance, to put on any airs of
or to say to the saloon q
keeper "stand aside, I am holier than s
thou." In the eye of reason and of i
Justice they all rank in the same cat 8
egory. r
We say that the solemn appeal t
made by this dreadful result of sa- L
Don life must be met. All who have c
my influence, (and who has not?) are
consequently bound to speak out. It ,
Will not do ask, with Cain, Sam I my ;,
,rother's keeper!" It is an infexible
aw of God that no man liveth to
himself alone; the thing is quite i'm P
No man can stand by with b
olded arms and witness wrong
lone to theslife or liberty of another,
however humble, without endanger- '
ng his own safety through the fatal +
PRECEDENT thus set. We are all sin
he same boat" 80 to speak, and an q
outrage perpetrated on any individu- q,
j, should be resented by the entire a
community, which, if it fails to,do so,
atally imperils its own well being.
Especially, it seems to us, are min o
sters of the Gospel and protesting p
christians bound to take bold stand is
{ time like this. The sins of the is
7orld before the food do not concern S
IS now as do those which lie at our p
wn doors. 1t takes a great deal
nore courage to denounce the latter
han the former, yet no true Chris n
ian viii shrink from so doing. The :
rdinary routine preaching and y ?,
'raying, however good in itself, falls :,
N short of the mark, when the very =
xistence of society and religion is :
"When the enemy shall b
ONE IN like food, the Spirit Of the
ord shall lift up q standard against II
i'm" So it was sald of old, and so :,
will be today, if professed Chris .,
ians are faithful IN tbair trnst