St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-05-28

y
men in all such places who are leaders
among the employees. These are mill
wrights, foremen, and young men of
ingenuity whose resources and skill
are equal to all the exigencies and
emergencies of a great lumber mill, far
higher intellectually than the labOrers,
choppers and teamsters. 1t requires
different resort to allure these. Liquor
selling is a most profitable business
and repays outlay in extending it. So
taste and skill unite to fit up a room
attractive to that kind of young men.
Newspapers, scientific journals and the
like lie convenient to the young me-
chanics who may drop in. Billiard
tables, card tables, backgammon. chess,
and checkers, lie all ready for the
pleasure of an evening.
OF course all these are but side
shows the real thing is the bar and
the sale of liquor the main object. The
responsibility of such a place of resort
is enhanced if few men who are con
sidered temperance men can be Undue
ed to lend their cOuntenance by fire.
quenting it, making it a place to meet
other men on business, and the like.
The saloon keeper spares no cost, be-
ing sure of large profit, and has his
agents among the working men who
lay hold of every new conner. 1t re-
quires more moral courage than most
young men have to resist the allure
ments of bright warm room, the COM
pany of lively young men, and the at
fractions of billiard and card table,
in "A new place where nothing else of
fers a pleasant resort. 1t takes the
kind of moral courage that, realizing
the danger, and ones own possible
weakness, avoids the temptation.
Thousands of Young men become
drinking men, because the charm of a
popular resort invites them, and in
their self-cOnfdence they think they
can frequent the saloon and breathe
it's air laden with the perfumes of Ii
quOr, and yet not become drinkers.
The saloon keeper knows better. He
never urges the new conner to drink.
His politeness and geniality seem like
real friendliness to the homeless stran
er, and thus the first steps on the
downward road are made pleasant.
Some day something goes wrong about
that young mans work. There is an
accident in the mill or the logging
camp, and the cause is traced to him
he has drank too much at last, and
must seek a new place and smaller pay.
The respectable saloon is no place for
him, and lower and still lower grades
of rum-shOps invite him.
Thus the respectable saloon is the
most dangerous because it draws to
destruction a class of yOnng men by its
attractions who might otherwise be
spared to the benefit of society. There
is something about liquor selling that
hardens every man who deals in it. In
a certain village in northern Michigan
the past winter there was a great tenn
perance revival, under the lead of DR..
Reynolds. The man who kept the
principal salOOn-there were dozen
or more-at first laughed at the move
ment, but finding that his customers
were leaving him, devised a scheme to
hinder the work. He had several of
his hangers and lOafers attend the
meetings, sign the pledge, and join the
Red Ribbon club, with the purpose
that they should make trouble and
break up the organization. The saloon
is IA delusion and IA snare because it
offers a false comfort, a sham friendli-
ness, and a hollow pretense of hospi-
tally, enticing only to destroy.
1t is easy enough to speak against a
prohibitory law in Maine or Vermont
because those who want liquor con
tinue to get it. But half the evil is
gone when the saloon with its allure
ments is closed. When yOu remove
open and aggressive temptation from
the path of young men, the evil isl
shorn of much of its power. But in
the Northwest, as things are now, a
prohibitOry law would do little good,
because there is no strong force of
moral support behind it. There must
be IA moral force behind the law. At
present this force is divided by those
who would use the reform as means
of political advancement, weakened by
men who want nOtOriety, and failing
to get it elsewhere become noisy dem
agogues, and shOrn of it's force through
the apathy of religious organizations.
1t will not be so always. The time
will come when the evil will be seen in |
its real strength, and moral and relig- |
ious forces will join hands in fierce
struggles with the evil. These reflec-
tiOns are drawn from personal Obser-
vatiOns i'll several of the Northwestern
states during the past year. F. P. w.
Gen. Stannard at Gettysburg.
In the swale down below the Gene |
terry wall, where Hancock held the |
center land in the last day beat back
Pickett's $1,000 men as they reached |
our lines after their seething mile rush
acl oss the valley. Maj-Gen. Stannard,
IA little old man with an empty sleeve,
is telling his story. "My VermOnters
were in the line here" he says, "wait-
ing for the attack. had come forward |
a little to take this little rise, for l
knew if the rebels got it they could
reform their lines behind it. The day
was so hot that one of my regiments