The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1885-11-05
A False Plea.

TN tACiatius ShC WHISKY S~'Sff
"thc pruhibitiopists are as unjust as
they are fanatical. My business is
strictly legitimate ; and I have as
much right to sell whisky as my
ueighbor has 10 sell family groce
ries. Sumptuary laws are not In
h. rmony with free institutions. As
sumo TO prescribe to me what i may
drink and the next step will he TO
dictate what / may eat and 'cedr.
It is hard to understand why the
world, or at least that portion OF it
to be civilized, has 20
long endured, in its midst, a traffic
so fraught with manifold evils. But
people, it would seem, can grow us
ell ~ almost anything, even to hu'
man slavery not only grow used to
it, but also become its eloquent
champions and valiant defenders
whose zeal and energy will always
be found in due proportion to the
money interests involved. Consider
for n moment, the immense amount
OF money invested in whisky and the
exorbitant profits arising from the
sale OF it and bear in mind, too, the
thousands and thousands of pitiable
victims who have travelled the down
ward road of the drunkard so far as
to make drink indispensable to their
depraved sppetites, and you need be
at no loss to account for the wild,
frantic, desperate opposition these
interested parties set up against ev-
cry humane attempt to stop the sale
and use of that destructive stimu
liant.
Under the law granting license,
the whisky traffic is legitimate in
the same sense in which high way
robbery would be, il similarly legal.
lied. A pursuit, wrong in itself, Can
not be made right by Fictitious Ii
cense. The whisky business is
made wrong by reason OF its ruinous
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES from
which the sale OF family groceries is
wholly exempt. One may buy and
use the latter all his life, without
the slightest detriment TO his appe-
tite; while the use of strong drink
arouses a fierce, consuming thirst
that soon humans the strongest and
sinks him to the lowest depths Of de-
pravity. Laws prohibiting the sale
Of intoxicants are enacted to pre-
vent the evils of drunkenness.
Suptuary laws, now obsolete, were
designed to check habits of extrava-
gance and enforce those of economy.
The two laws are about as nearly
alike as are the Insignificant dude
and the biood-thirsty drunkard.
The champion OF whisky is at liber-
ty to wear, eat and drink anything
he chooses, just so long as the thing
he chooses to wear, cat and drink,
does not bring mischief in its train
to others. The drinking Of whisky
certainly does bring such mischief
and that Is why the present move
mcnt against whisky was begun and
why it is now pressed by long sui
rering people with so much earnest.
ness that the whisky sellers and
their hangers.on call them fanatics
| Personal liberty and private rights
are possessions which every Ameri.
can citizen holds rs sacred and
guards with the utmost jealousy.
But, at the same time, there is q
limit to the exercise and enjoyment
OF this liberty and these rights, no
individual, in their name, being per.
mitted TO engage III a business
plainly hurtful to public welfare
One may do what he chooses, so long
as his doings work no mischief ts
Others, either directly or indirectly,
Gambling houses and lotteries are
almost universally prohibited on &C.
count OF their evil Tenderness shall
saloons he made an exception, in
spite Of the widespread harm they
do, under The flimsy plea of an in.
reference with private rights ? Pri
vate rights What rights to dole
out whisky at SO much drink
Rights to tempt the weak to their
ruin and to the sorrow and desola
ton Of their families ? Rights to
make young drunkards and kill old
ones :? Rights to cause poverty, in
sanity, violence and murder ? Rights
to debauch public morals, to fill our
prisons and to burden the commune
~ with costly prosecutions of crime,
instigated by their villainous wills
ky? Glorious private rights, for
sooth II these are private rights,
what, pray, are public wrongs ?