The Morehouse clarion., 1884-06-06
}BAsTRoPtt LOUISIANA FRIDAY, JUNE 1884
The Liquor Question Again.

Editors ClarlOn.-In your last
issue is published an article from
the pen of Mr.. Sawyer, who took
this "scribbler'' and high license
for a text. His article I have
read carefully and in it find moth
ing TO convince me that prohibi-
ton, so-called, in Morehouse, will
be either sensible or feasible.
contend it is neither.
But before l proceed further /
wish to put myself on record as a
bitter foe to intemperance in all
things. 1t is not only in the use
of intoXicants that people can
make beasts ofthemselves. Thous-
ands Of people ruin forever their
digestive organs by over eating.
Intemperance is a vice that all
sensible people should shun, ard
it is the duty Of the press and the
pulpit and school room to teach
Temperance in all things. There
are other kinds Of 'intempcrance
practiced right here in Bastrop
besides that of drinking, which
should be denounced and anathe-
matized in thunder tones by all
people who feel Interested in the
physical welfare Of the. yonth of
The land. Among certain classes
Of people tie habituai, but clande-
stinc, indulgence in opium; IS an
evil and a crime compared with
which whiskey drinking IS azpre-
ciious virtue. The .lsssll s1rswoman
who sntemperately uses opium is
ten Thousand times more unfortu-
nate than the yeriest whiskey sot
in the parish. Yet we hear moth
ing said Of intemperance in the
use and abuse of opium. Why in
these United States there are
thousands and thousands Of bon
ton ladies who daily stupefy them
selves to drunkenness with NOR
phine and other opiates. Their
blanched checks and dreamy eyes
and haggard faces are lost sight
of by fanatical prohlbitionists in
heaplng ridicule and abuse and
imagi nary woes upon the. head Of
the man who chance to take d
glass of whlskey, when he feels
either dry or fatigued This is
the kind Of stuff that intelnaserate
soafaesa 20 MAKE aaseestss aass..ss.ss sre sfskaR
public swallow
I do not claim that beca.S.
opium eating is practiced by peo'
pie who denounce whiskey drink
ing chat whiskey drinking sisEig gist'
BY no means. In nine cases ot1
|. Of ten people who drink whiske,
would be infinitely haI pier health
ier and more useful if they would
never touch, a drop. But where
whiskey wrecks one human l1s.ine
opium. and snuff sap the energy
health and usefulness of at least
t,co. Mothers, by tue use ofopium,
transmit to &their chslds'e,s thai
.'depraved appetite complained
lof by, the learned Mr.. Sawyer, and
,thcgr are responsible, rin thousands
of instances, for the unnatura
thirst for stimulalts viii h We SCI
til TIE rising yeung 1neniof th.
| COUNTY,. SYet who tlassever hear(
lofaa legislative effort to .prohibi
!, she sale Of opium and spufsa -
/ ] have never held that tprohibi
Ition IN Is "a All err 81 cous method Of sup
pressing diJinkenhess except in 81
faraas it's a fat failare.I We're i
I'm a crime tos,make whiskey ii
1the United States, very littlewoult
ever find its way into this parish
/ But here we are surrounded on al
sides by towns that keep liquors
for sale. Daily communication il
available with Monroe. Pass
prohibition law in Bastrop ant
the mail stage between that cit,
! and this town would do q land
office business in the transporta
| tion efskegss and jugs Of whisk key
Men who now seldom ever kee
as much as a pint Of whiskey a
their homes and who never &c
Idl unk except when they come t
town, would buy it by the gallo
| and lie. at home drunk weeks at th
| time. This is the experience 0
1every community that has eve
ltried to suppress drinking BY Law
-lLct Mr.. Sawyer consult the az
,Ithorities o. any so'f Of the 81 tIzensste 6
our neighboripg town OF Hamburg
4 THE lsw Is evaded,' the EreYenne
aE1tleriyed from tiae traffic are los
land the peoplee#ne: wish and Rar
whiskey drink it as immrsod mrs derate!
and .injuriously than the
did when the traffic was q licensee
| business. v During the simmer 4
1 1881 Ispent senaonth aar | more, i
n glAlabama.A An adjoining town lwWs e
lin a'spfohibitioan" county. Dali pa
Itrains passed from, the poll We
at fc' this adjoinfng town. Ever
teNening, whilst I remained, u fro
slten to- fifteens packages Of liqutl
were sent down to this antisWhlsk
town. People for miles serou1
l. ltwere on hand when the hquors a
{ rtrived to receive and gulp it dow!
: Young men would "throw in, pu
chase a. demijon of whisky al
/ unite in a general brawl ,'over3
:. Men who were never known to g
beastly drunk before would walle
5 like hogs in the filth Of debauc
! ierv. Children who never saw the
| ethore lrink hnfnrf. witnaSSt