Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-20

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thai. mhaieinS 70 see If something cannot be done;
b,sn Sareir boys once with honest breath, that
cIesr , nov always disguised; their eyes once
ta1- now nlthy or bloodshot; the good hours
tney Kept exchanged for the rafting of the
lag hdght Key long after the city watchman
~ mas go9 gS19e ny to see that everything
Is sAieIy locked up. And the high exo
pectation that the son would do some
tnlng as artisan, or merchant or Yro
Iesslonal man, and would be an honor to the
family name long after the mothers wrinkIaG
hands had been folded from her last toll
tins expectation exchanged for a startled
look at night when the door-bell rings LEST
something has happened, and the wish that
the scarlet fever OF twenty years ago had been
fatal. for then he would have gone safely to
the Saviour's arms. But, Door old soul, she is
left to see the truth of what Solomon said:
"a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother"
what funeral it will make when that boy
Is carried home dead! She will say: SIS this
the boy used to f0ndle and sing TO all night
long when he was sick? Is this the bOv held
TO the altar of baptism? Is this the boy for
whom | toiled until the blood came out Of the
tips OF the fingers that he might have a good
starting and homeg Lord, why hast fhou
pot, kept me alive to see this? Surely those
that used to wander over my face while ]
rocked him to sleep. Surely that bloated
prov Is not the one that l so rapturously
Kissed. Poor boy! How tired he iooksI I
wonder who struck him there on the temnle
wonder II he uttered dying prayer? Wake
n up, my son! Cant YOU. hear me? No! no!
D0du' o0du ueau! u AOSOlom, my son, my
son, would to God had died for thee! 8
Absalom, my son. my sonpn
am not enough of a mathematician to esti-
mate. Is anybody here quick enough with
ngufeS TO tell how many such mothers are
waiting for something to be done for their re-
hefF How many wives are waiting for do
mestie Teseue2 He promised something bet
ter than this when after long acquaintance
ana careful scrutiny of character the hand
ana heart had been offered and accepted.
nat neil on earth 1t is for woman who
has drunken husband! How lovely
ART tn0u, y death, and how soft and warm
tiny skeleton hand if thou wouldst only come
Tor her! The sepulcher on a winter midnight
is a Kings drawing-roO compared with
Ha %naI no" she suffers. The blow on her head
does not hurt so much as the blow on her
ne9rI. Inc rum -hend opened the door of
that once beautiful home, and said: ssI curse
TINS dwelling with unrelenting curse. 1 curse
that husband into maniac. | curse that
wire into pauper. | curse those sons into
vagabonds. l curse those daughters into
prohlgacy. Cursed be bread-tray and cradle
and chair and couch and family Bible with
its record of marriage and birth, Cnrse unon
curse, curse upon curse!" How MANY wives
are waiting to see if something cannot be done
TO snake the frosts of this second death off the
orange blossoms?
! ca, God is waiting; the God who works
through human instrumentaities, and who
gives every nation an opportunity, and if it
Is not improved He wipes it out OF existence
ana lets another nation try. God is also
waiting for the church, and il it do not do
its work He will wipe ont the church as He
did the Church Of Ephesus, the Church of
Thyatlra, the Church of Sardis. The Protest
ant and Roman Catholic churches to-day
stand impOtent before this great evil of inteni-
perance. Why? Because men love their par
tlsanshiDs more than they love their God
They would rather have the Democratic or
Republican party in authority at Washington
than nave drunkenness thrust of the doorstep
OF TINS nation. 1t seems they dare not move,
though God shows a clear path to victory over
the mightiest evil of all the ages What ia the
state OF things this hour2 We have an evil
that costs the nation over $l,000, 100000 a
year to support over $50, 900 criminals, 3O, 900
idiots, 100000 paupers, and bury 5000 drunk
ards. Protagoras boasted that of his 60 wears
OF life he had spent 40 in despoiling youth.
The arch fiend of the nations-alcohol-can
ooast 9{ tnat al his years have been spent in
that way, and without any exception.
Now, what is being done to confront this
evil? Take lighted candle and put on yOur
most powerful spectacles and look through
the Two great political platforms and find one
word II you can, deploring this evil. Some
thing against MormOnismg Oh, yes; it is safe
to denounce that organized nastiness 1000
miles away. But not one word against drunI-
enness which, il it go on, will turn this whole
nation into bestial Salt Lake City. Resolu-
tions against political corruption? Oh, yes:
but nothing against drunkenness, which, un-
arrested, will rot the nation from soaip to
heel Resolutions about protection against
foreign competition, but not one word about
protection Of families and churches and ma
a gCalQIun
blasting, all-consuming, damning taTiff ON ali
individual, financial, moral, religious. ma
tlonal interests. The Democratic party wers
IN IN power most of the time for fifty years
What dld they do as party to arrest this
eYllY Nothing, absolutely nothing appaIlinpIy
nothing. The Republican party has been in
power nearly quarter of a century. What
have they done to arrest this eyile Nothing
absolutely nothing, appallingly nothing.
l look in one more direction. The church is
the mlghtlest, most magnificent organization
on this subject? No. Not long ago at a meet
ing OF one of the great ecclesiastical bndips
resolutions were offered demanding tina arrest
OF this evil, and some ministers with wine In
thelr cellars and on their tables defeated il Nv
threatening GreSches. They did nnt want ~
give up their own lusts. To.day-marlr w vo,T ~
no not IN the millennium, but to- o-day-the church
oo oa,,ST TOu ltd notus the balance Of power, and
o1i6 cou5u eXterpate this evil if it would march
soIld TO the front. over 100000 churches and
sunday schools in Christendom What might
Ghey noE 60 II they would march shoulder to
sn0ulqer Tor God and sobretyi
And that day of gospel consolidation is com-
ing men ana women OF America cour-
iageously do your duty. Go from your
knees Sa 70 the ballot-box. Ask God
now you snail vote, and then obey Him. some
OF me clergy of America aud some of the re-
llglous newspapers have this summer and
autumn autumn IAade pitiable spectaeles Of them
selves Dy announcing themselves now on this
side, now on that, not remembering the fact
that there Is but one issue in this Campaign
snail the gFog shops of America rule or shsu
Christian sObrictyl
Never IN a national election has such yori
letY OF choice been put before the people as
TINS autumn: Yoa can have almo.t anv kind
OF virtue ana almost any kind of sin. AS for
u aaYSell. snail look over the whole field and,
II can't ind what / want in character in
any more recent time, / will vote for Paul,
the chlef Apostle of the Gentiles, But, If /
can ma among the nominees man who has
held high public trust and not a farthing of
other peoples money has stuck to his fingers.
q poor man, though he might have stolen hun
ureds OF thousands, and who has ALWAYS had
respect Tor Womanhood, and been clean and
VINO IL a sworn and open and out -and-Out an |
tagonlst OF alcoholism, the areh-flend OF the !
centuries, though ahl IN a minority of one,
so help me God will vote for that man,
oahg men OF America, pass over into the |
ranks Of teetotalism. Let whisky, good for |
preserving corpses, never turn You into a |
corpse. Tens of thousands of Young men |
to ruin by the deyilish stufI Don't |
summer before last occurred this scene: A |
young man coming In here to religious SER !
wee. HIS friend, passing along the street,
Island oe sGg sGenG come sa0ng with me to Geney
young man, II am going IN here to the SER |
vice." "Oh, pshaW.Y said the other. scome |
with me; thS dag is bright and we shall have
! glo1eio0s sunday at COney Island.h Joe |
turned back and the twain pent the day at |
the beach drinking end carousing. In the |
evening, coming up on the Brighton train, |
Joe, II ans 1nt0XlcatiOn, fell off the train /
ana was crushed. The train was stopped. |
AS Joe was lying upon the grass
and they were holding the lantern
over him he said to his friend: II am diving.
!, want you to tell the boys when YOU see
hem tomorrow that rum and Sabbath .
breaking did this; and John, while you are 1
telling them l will be In hell, and i IS your
'ault." Is it not time for me to pull out from
his great organ of Coda word, with many !
banks OF keys, tkS stop tremOlo: 'sLook not !
upon the WlAo When It is red, when it giVeth |
lis color in the cup, when it moyeth itself
Alright. At the last it bteth ike a serpent
ana 1t stlngeth like an adder" Yea, pull
)ut the trumpet stop OF the text: Awake !
If wine."