Morning journal and courier., 1885-05-18
1nSersoll on Alcohol.

Colonel Robert Ingersoll was lately em- ployed in case which involved the manu- facture of ardent spirits, and in his speech to the jury he used the following language, from which one would infer that he actually believed in 8 devil and God:
 'I am aware there is 8 prejudice against any man engaged in the manufacture of all cohol. believe from the time it issues from the coiled arfd poisonous worm in the distil- lery until it empties into the hell of death, dishonor and crime, that it is demoralizing to everybody that touches it, from the source to where it ends I do not believe that any body can contemplate the subject without being prejudiced against the crime. All we have to do is to think of the wrecks on either side of the stream of death, of the suicides, of the insanity, of the poverty, of the de- struction, of the little children tugging at the breast of weeping and despairing wives asking for bread, of men of genius it has wrecked, the men struggling with imaginary serpents produced by this devilish thing; and when you think of the jails, of the aims houses. of the asylums, of the prisons and of the scaffolds on either hand, I do not wonder that every thoughtful man is preju- diced against this vile stuff called alcohol. Intemperance cuts down youth in it's vigor, manhood in its strength and age in it's weak ness.
 s'It breaks the fathers heart, bereaves the doting mother, extinguishes natural affection, erases conjugal love, blots out filial attach ments, and blights parental hope and brings premature age in sorrow to the grave. It produces weakness, not strength sickness, not health; death, not life. It makes wives widows, children orphans, fathers fends and all paupers. It feeds rheumatism, nurses gout, welcomes epidemics, invites cholera, imports pestilence and embraces consump- tion. It covers the land with misery, idle ness and crime. It engenders controversies, fosters quarre1s and cherishes riots. It crowds your penitentiaries and furnishes vic tims to the scaffold It is the blood of the gambler, the element of the burglar. the prop of the highwayman and the support of the midnight incendiary. It countenances the liar, respects the thief, esteems the blas- phemer. It violates obligations, reverences fraud. honors infamy. It defames beneve- lence, hates love, scorns virtue and innocence It incites the father to butcher his helpless offspring and the child to grind the parrici- dal axe. It burns up men, consumes wo- men, detests life, curses God and despises heaven. It suborns witnesses, nurses perfi- dy defles the jury-box and stains the judi cial ermine It bribes voters. disoualifes votes, corfupts olectloAs, pollutes Cur lnstitu- tions and endangers the government It de- grades the citizen, debases the legislator, dis honors the statesman and disarms the patri- ct. It brings shame, not honor, terror, not safety; despair, not hope; misery, not hap piness; and with the malevolence of fend, calmly surveys its frightful desolation, and unsatiated with havoc, it poisons felicity, kills peace, ruins morals, wipes out national honor, then curses the world and laughs at it's ruin. It does that and more-it murders the soul It is the sum of all villainies, the father of crimes, the mother of all abomina- tion, the devils best friend and Gods worst enemy"