The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-09-10
AN EXTREME POSITION.

The Greenville Me,os gives the follow
| ing extract from speech made in. that
County by Rev. H. F. Chrietzberg on the
temperance question:
aNow the State of South Carolina
says it shall be unlawful for you to do a
certain thing unless you first procure a
license, and in order to get this license
you have to get six Of your nearest neigh
bors to sign a petition that you are 6 man
ofgood moral character. Did you ever see
moral bar-keeper? The good Book
says judge man by his fruits. Every.
one who has signed such 8 petition puts
his name to lie. Bar-keepers have to
sell their manhood, character and con.
science. a man before entering this
Infamous business has to take from him
self every feeling of human nature.
For ten cents he sells to his fellow man
damnation and sinks himself pretty low
in the human scale. Between the two,
the highway robber is the best, because
!. he takes your life in an instant and you
have your chance for entering Heaven.
The bar.keeper who deals to yon the
poisonous drug takes your life by degrees,
and sends your soul to hell.
"The liquor dealer is the. biggest liar
outside the kingdom of the devil. do
not respect bal-keeper as much as do.
hog. would drive by hog in a mud
hole and notice it with more respect than
would a whiskey dealer." 80 Z
When the Greenville Ne,us published
this extract we thought surely it must be
mistaken in its quotation, for the language
imputed to the speaker is very extreme.
1t has not, however, been corrected, and
therefore we presume it vas correctly
reported. Those who oppose the liquor
traffic should be more temperate in their
reasons than those presented in this par
agraph, or they cannot expectto accom-
plish any good. There are bar-keepers
whose lives violate no law of the State,
and who discharge the duties of citizen
ship with much advantage to the com7
munities in which they live. There are
many Of them who would spurn to tell a
falsehood, or do an act that violates the
laws of society. We think their business
is injurious to mankind, and that it
should be prohibited by law wherever
the people are ready for such prohibi-
ton, bu. where community sees prop
er to license bar. rooms, we fail to perceive
any propriety in such unmeasured de-
nunciation of the men who simply avail
themselves of the privilege which the
community gives then. There are, we
think, some very clever bar keepers and
some very mean ones, but this much
may be said of any other class of men.
We have no sympathy for the liquor
traffic. It ought to be abolished, but it
can never be accomplished by unreason.
able denunciation of men who conduct
business legaliaed by the laws of a
christian people. Mr.. Chrietsberg might
do great deal better work, we think, by
showing the evils growing out o. bar
rooms than by abusing tho men who
keep them. The people by their laws
permit them to exist. If the law will
abolish the right to sell whiskey, bar
rooms and bar. keepers will cease to exist.
The people are responsible for their
existence, aud it is not reasonable TO put
the whole of the attack upon the men
who only do what the law permits them
to do.