The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-12-05

And that's how we got Ned to sign,
and we are all so happy now.-Dih-
mic II. Hayes, IN Royal Road.
-~ s-
HOW RUM AFFECTS BUSINESS.
che Liquor Traffic as Viewed from a Dol
lar-and-Cent Standpoint.
There is a business us well as a moral
end to the rum traffic, which is well
enough to think of, although it is the
least important considerations The
pocket nerve is, however, a very sensi-
tive one, and should be touched in its
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 pur-
chaser harm instead of good. 1t is not
only dead waste of what is spent but
it incapacitates the user from earning.
No drunkard is 4 good orreliable work
man. A drunkard can not perform as
good or as much labor as a sober
man.
Does any one know of a regular
drunkard living in a 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 a house that he lives in? What
stands in the way Of his either owning
Il house, or paying rent promptly for
decent one? Rum, nothing else
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 q devil-tsh, absorbs what
| legitimately belongs to them, and what
the drunkard's well-being demands
that he should pay to them.
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 do not
consume a quarter of what they shouldl
for they can't get it. They are comS
PEELED to live upon Just enough to sus-
tain life, and that of the cheapest and
coarsest. They do not live-they exist.
The butcher and baker are robbed by
the beer-shOps.
Does any one know OF a drunkard or
his family with decent clothingP 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.
As for the manufacturers and dealers
in what may be called luXuries, 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 drrmkard'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.
70 Illustrate, In Tol~lo are 500
whisky and beer shops. These pest
holes draw from the laboring men Of
the city something over IS, 600, 600 each
year This enormous sum of money
would b. 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 OF being sunk in
this infernalsm. 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 not
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.
And, finally, add to this wholesale
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 he 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 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, buG from dollar
md-cent standpoint the business man,
above ali others, is the one who should
do the most topulyerize the rum power.
-Ioicd9 D.alc.