The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1885-04-04
SCHOOLS FOR BOYS.
why Are saloons Guarded
Against?- Secret Rum MINIS.


Against? Secret Rum BHiIIs.
Toledo Blade.
| We have before us dozen or more
advertisements of schools for boys. 1t
is a singular fact that every one con.
tains the statement that "no saloons
are permitted in the village" and this
fact is held out as an inducement for
parents to send tbither their children
to pc educated. .rat.-
Why is this? If saloons are to be
permitted to exist, if they are so much
of necessity to the world that they
must be protected by law the same as
other kinds of business, why are teach
ers at such pains to advertise that
they are not permitted to exist near
the boys entrusted to their care?
Do principals of boys schools ad-
vertise that bakers and shoemakers
are not permitted near their insLitu-
tions? If there is not difference be
tween baker and a saloon-keeper,
why this discrimination against the
saloons!
The fact is the teacher adyertises as
be does because be knows that no
parent would knowingly permit his son
to attend a school, the neighborhood
of which was contaminated with a
whisky or beer shop. Even a brewer,
distiller, wholesale or retail would not
send his son where lie would fall un-
der the deadly influence Of his own
business. A man whose conscience is
sufficiently scared may sell rum to
others, but it Is badly scared if lie will
permit any Of his own family to come
under the Influence. Every one
knows that the whole world makes
safety from intoXicants the greatest
colnmendation of training schools for
boys. Railroad companies do not
permit the poison to be sold on their
property and for the same reason. The
moral safety of the boys forbids its
nearness to schools, and the safety Of
life prohibits its use near railroads. A
drunken steamship captain could not
hold his position a minute, nor can
man addicted to its use hold place of |
trust anywhere.
Inasmuch as the whole world brands !
the traffic as an unmiXed evil; mas
much as the whole world is constantly |
trying to escape from it in some way; |
inasmuch as every man, even though |
he may trife with it himself, wants
his children kept from it, what is there
in it that prevents the whole world
from arising and killing it outG If it |
is not safe to trust in the neighbor-
hood of boys, it is not safe to trust it
within the reach of men. If it has
power to destroy one class it has power
to destroy another. If it is a standing
menace to boys, why permit it to re-
main in existence at allG Why tolerate
an enemy to the human race9
Everybody knows exactly what it is,
and everybody knows the danger it is
to the world. Advertising that there
are no saloons" in the vicinity of
school is no safeguard to the boys sent
there. There are no saloons that the
know of, but there are
saloons all the same. The brewers are
not SO stupid as to permit an hundred
boys, with money, congregated in one
place to escape them. They use the
teachers advertisement as tFapto
mass boys for them to operate upon.
That parents may not take alarm they
10 not openly expose their poison,
They have shops into which they are
but they are concealed. The
oolder boys are inducted into the
mysteries of lhe back passages, and
hey in turn instruct the weaker ones.
There is a charm about this sort of
hing, and despite the teachers watch
'ulncss and care, the stuff Is sold to
he pupils, and the foundation for a
ife Of misery is there laid.
There are but few schools in the
United States that have not secret rum
Mills near them. There are a class of
men who open such places near
chools for the trade of the boys. The
cal purpose is always concealed, for !
publicity would ruin the game. la &
Jack rooms, securely guarded, the boys |
re trained ii drunkenness and the
accompanying vices, and the most 2
PROMISING young men arc ruined ~ !
be very places where they should be !
he most secure from harm. Brewers /
nd distillers are very sharp business !
ncn, and as making drunkards is 7
,psiness with them, systematized !
usiness, they do not miss such profit
Bile openings as schools with hum
reds Of boys whose parents are liberal T
,ith money. The hawk is alwaysE
oEering over the pigeons