The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-11-27
HOW RUM AFFECTS BUSINESS:


and we are all so happy now.-Din-
ne II. Hayes, in Royal Road.
HOW RUM AFFECTS BUSINESSS
The Liquor Traffic as Viewed from Doll
lar-and-Cent Standpoint.
There is business as well as moral
end to the rum traffic, which is well
enough to think of, although it is the
least important consideration. The
pocket nerve is, however, very sensi-
tive one, and should be touched In It's
turn.
1t is perfectly safe to say that every
penny spent in intoxicants is that much
taken from the other trades, and it is !
worse than wasted, for it does the pJI,-
chaser harm instead of good. Is is not
only a dead waste of what is spent but
| it incapacitates the user from earning
No drunkard is good orreliable work.
| man. A drunkard can not perform as
good or as much labor as a sober
man. 1
Does any one know of regular
drunkard living in decent house?
Does any one know of a confirmed
drunkard who owns his own house or
who pays rent regularly for the apol-
ogy of house that he lives in? What
stands in the way of his either owning
a house, or paying rent promptly for a
decent oneP Rum, nothing else. I
The lumber merchant, the hardware
dealer and the builders are all de-
frauded of their just expectations by
rum. The beer-shop, with the merci-
lessness of a devil-ish, absorbs what
legitimately belongs to them, and what
the drunkard's well-being demands
that he should pay to them. f.,
Did any one ever see a beer-drunk-
ards family decently and BEAUTIFULLY
fed? Never. The wives and children
of the victim of the beer habit dc not
consume quarter of what they should,
for they can't get it. They are COM
PEELED to live upon just enough to SUs-
tain life, and that of the cheapest ana
coarsest. They do not live-they exist.
The butcher and baker are robbed by
the beer-shops.
Does any one know of drunkard or
his family with decent clothing? Was
there ever a drunkard' s family suffi-
GENTLY clothed? Never Rum absorbs
all that should be paid to the dealers
in dry goods, boots and shoes and
dress goods. t
AS for the manufacturers and dealers
in what may be called Injuries, that is,
articles not absolutely necessary to the
sustaining of life, but which in a state
of civilization are really necessities
books, musical instruments, newspa-'
pers, pictures, sewing machines and
the like-what drunkard's family ever
has them? Not one. His earnings all
60 for stimulants, and if his family get
enough of the poorest food to exist
upon they may consider themselves
fortunate.
To illustrate. In Toledo are 500
whisky and beer shops. These pest
holes draw from the laboring men Of
the city something over$3 900, 900 each
year. This enormous sum. of money
would be spent among the business
men of the city were there no whisky
or beer shops. This enormous sum
would be added to the legitimate trade
of the city instead Qf being sunk in
this infernalism. And this is not all.
The 800 beer shops destroy as much
more, in the capacity to produce. The
drunkard can not do a days work.
when he works at all, and he can nOti
put in half his time at labor. He be-
comes incapable of labor, and will only
work when the rum appetite can be
satisfied in no other way.
NJ IL
robbery of the community the entire
cost of the crime and pauperism which
is to be directly charged to this curse,
all of which is borne by honest labor,
and the sum total is something incred-
ible
We have not referred in this to the
moral effects of the traffic. We have
not referred to the misery it occasions,
to the ruin it spreads, to the manhood
and womanhood it destroys. 1t is not
necessary.
If the son of drunkard becomes a
good man it is because BIO has either a
very strong mental and moral organi-
cation, or because accidental or Provi-
Dental influences have put him out
side the influence of the father. If the
daughter of drunkard becomes
good woman, it is for the same reason
The chances are fearfully against both.
If there is a drunkard'S wife who is
happy, or whose life is not one round
of misery, misery so constant and acute
as to make death welcome, we have
never seen her. 1t is the one brutaliz-
ing influence ON earth, the one which
has nothing in it to relieve or mitigate.
There are humanitarian reasons for
killing the traffic, but from a dollar
and-cent standpoint the business man,
above all others, is the one who should
do the most to pulverize the rum power.
Toledo Blade.