Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-02-11
RATES OF ADVERTISING.
INTEMPERANCE.
Night Life in Our Cities.

whose lure is woe, whose sting is death ~
AS lascivious indulgence is more exces-
sive at Night, after the cares and difficult
ties of the day are gone, we make a few
remarks upon that part of this subject, be-
cause Intemperance, like the solitary seed,
is ever unfolding itself in countless stems
of infamy and wickedness, and which,
when fully developed, tyrannize over the
soul and terrify the drowsy conscience into
silence.
Night is sims harvest time. One Night
often destroys a whole life. The leakage
of Night keeps the day empty. More
sin and crime are committed in one Night
than in all the days Of the week. Both
observation and experience prove that this
is more emphatically true of the city than
of the country.
The tall, gaunt street lamps, like a file
OF rival sentinels, with torch in hand,
stretch away in long lines on either side
walk, and which wink and beckOn one on
into the treacherous shambles of immoral
ity. The gay colored transparencies are
ablaze with attractions; the drinking sa-
looms and billiard halls are brilliantly illu-
minated; music sends forth its winning en-
chantments; the festive company begin to
gather to the haunts and houses of pleasure
and dissipation; the cozy gambling places
are radiant with palatial splendor; the the
atres are wide open and inviting; the
greedy mills of destruction are fast grind
ing health, honor, happiness. hope, out of
thousands of lives. The very air seems
crowded with winged demons, from the re-
gions of despair, who laugh and scream in
anticipation Of the glorious feast of i'm
mortal souls awaiting them, and by whose
evil clutch many are dragged from
the paths of virtue and rectitude, and
thrust into those ways which take hold on
death.
The city, under dickering gas-ight, is
not the same as under Gods searching
sun light.
Streaming lights and sparkling chande-
liers lend a peculiar fascination to evil, and
cast a halo of innocence over the blackest
sin!
The allurements and perils and pitfalls of
Night are hundred-fold deeper and darker
and more destructive than those encoun-
tered during the day, for darkness wells the
hideousness of those dens of iniquity and
as a mantle of charity silently clothes the
gaping jaws of vice!
Amid the clashing of glasses, the excesses
of indulgence, the excitement of plays, and
the desperation of betting, all Night long
tears are falling, blood is streaming, souls
are perishingl
At almost every street corner one is con-
fronted by some gaudily -attired, loud
mouthed or extensively intrusive female,
upon her nightly round, begging for dis
honor, and the result of whose pleadings
place the unstable beneath the respect of
all-sink them deep into the burning
meshes of shame, degradation, and igno-
miny.
The choke-damp of our Cities, like the
stenchful belchings of hell, is strongly
savored admixture of evil tendencies, foul
bewitchments and festered immortality.
Night Life in Our Cities is dark prob
lem, whose depths and abysses make us
start back with amazement and tremble with
fearl
In this connection, we deem it pertinent
and admissible to give some matured ad-
xyioo f0,,t tha han 0f -lo -
yet the direct sufferers of those proclivities
and dissipations already considered.
Young man, if you value character and
reputation, never touch liquor. If you
prefer a useful and respected life, never
drink whiskey. If you crave a noble
manhood and brilliant distinction, never
taste that which units you for any posi-
tion. If you desire wife who is pure and
lovable, never visit those dens of contagi-
GUS evils. If you wish your kindred to be
proud of you, never mingle with contami-
mating drunkards. If you cherish an hon.
orable existence and peaceful death, never
enter those haunts of seething iniquity,
where the grossest immortality elicits the
loudest applause!
Young lady, if you prefer frugal and in
dustrious gentlemen as associates; desire
an honorable and respected companion;
wish your children taught about Jesus and
trained for heaven; prize cheerful home
and domestic happiness; crave pure and
spotless life; esteem a quiet and happy
death, we beseech you, in all earnestness,
have nothing to do with any man who
tastes liquor. Be seen in company with
no man of whom you could not feel proud.
Encourage the attentions of no man upon
whom you would blush to bestow your
heart and hand. Countenance no man un-
worthy the blessing of your confidence and
affection.
Does an hourly tippler-a man whom the
leeches Of vice are polluting-a staggering,
bestial drunkard, measure up to this cor
rect standard?
Parents, do not allow dime novels, OBJ
scene literature, or any publication of an
impure character to enter your homes.
Those exciting productions, over which
diseased soul has passed, leaving nothing
but Shiny footprints, only tend to demor-
alize and ruin your child, by creating within
him vicious desires for the accomplishment
of those deeds which make heroes of viz-
lainst
Do not permit them to visit those
theatres, where all the blood-curdling hor-
rors of atrocious tragedies are depicted io
glaring prominence, and which only serve
to awaken in your child those fierce, latent
passions God ordained for ones self-preser-
vation when human nature is pressed be-
yond endurance. Incorporate reading and
frenzied dramas invariably beget an insa-
table thirst for Incorporate drinking and
an ungovernable longing for violent occupa-
tiOnS.
Temperance means to restrain ones self
in all things, else degeneration into vice,
lasciviousness and villainy will be the re-
suit.
May the time soon come when the great
flood of Moral Reform, daily increasing
al, ,a,,oxro1 foroa Cbon o-o1~o,, Al - LoIF