The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-11-26
Think of it, my philanthropic friends


and undeliled religion. Americas chill
dren, Americas women cry for bread
and yet fourteen hundred million dollar
worth of the bread that God gives to th
country is destroyed, and worse thai
destroyed every year.
"Our children cry for Bread" Sto]
your distilleries and breweries, let th
bounteous harvest with which God an
nually besses our country flow into le
gitimate channels, and while the worlt
stands it will never be said again of til,
children of American laborers that they
cry for bread. Bread enough and tt
spare, will be within the reach of every
man upon our soil who is willing to worl
eight hours day.
Suppose there was great store house
in Atlanta, large enough to contain
fourteen hundred million dollars wortl
of grain. and that the grain should bs
brought from the four quarters Of oul
land and deposited there. Then suppose
that the six hundred thousand men in
this republic who are engaged in The
liquor trade should band themselves
together, march down upon us, surround
that great store-house and burn it to
ashes. What would you call them
Saints. Good citizens Patriots. Would
you rise up and say, "these are the mer
we should send to congress? From these
men let us choose our governors, oul
legislators, our mayors, our councilmen,
our aldermen, our sheriffs and our tax
receivers. No, you would call them
vandals and tiends. Every man among
US, who has the blood of patriot i'll his
viens would rend the air with cry for
war. Our wives and mothers and daugh.
ters and sisters would call US to arms, and
in less than three months an army would
be raised strong enough to capture and
bring to the bar of justice every man
who had taken part in the burning of
the nations bread. My countrymen, the
liquor men of this land have done worse
than burned the nations bread They
have not only destroyed our bread, but
with it they have destroyed millions of
human lives; they have filled your
asylums with pauper children, crowded
your prisons with criminals, painted
your streets with blood, and draped your
homesin mourning. No less periodical
than the London Times has recently
said: "The liquor traffic produces more
idleness, crime, want and misery, than
all other causes put together )" and one
of the wisest men Of the English parlia.
ment declares that "if we add together
all the miseries generated in our time by
war, famine and pestilence, the three
great scourges of mankind, they do not
exceed those which spring from the
traffic in strong drink" Yet we are
asked 10 believe that the men who are
doing this mischief and bringing all of
this woe upon our country and our race,
are good citizens, patriotic men, good
enough to belong to the church, good
enough to be vestrymen, deacons, stew
ards and elders, good enough to have
control of our city governments. and our
legislatures. We are asked to 60 to the
polls on the 25th of November and by
exercise of the solemn right of suffrage
sanction the crimes which they have
committed against God, humanity and
country, and declare that they shall 60 on
in their works of destroying the nations
dread, and of adding to the nations pow
erty wretchedness and woe.
Women of Atlanta, what response do
you make to this monstrous proposition !?
On the 25th day of this month, the day
that shall be remembered in the years to
come as the most solemn epoch in Allan
ta's history, will you lay your soft, pure
hands on husbands, sons and brothers
and say: $50 forth to-day and stand by
the rum fend, and give him liberty for
two years more to corrupt and debauch
and destroy2" Or will you rise up in
the majesty of true womanhood, aud bid
them in Gods name to go forth and
strike down the demon and thrust him
back into the black hell from whence he
came?
If Chicago and New York should be
burned down tomorrow, the material
loss would not be equal to that which the
liquor dealers in1ict upon. this nation
every year; and yet, we are asked to be.
lieve that the nefarious business in
which these men are engaged is indis-
pensable to Atlanta's material prosperity.
Could you conceive of greater insult to
our common sense.
Again and again poor Ireland has been
stricken with terrible famines. To what
has it been due7 Not to a deficiency of
grain, potatoes and fruit, but to their
destruction in distilleries and breweries.
ireland became poor because she con-
verled the products of her labor and soil
into liquor, and then drank down the
liquor, aud so destroyed her capital.
Her distillers and brewers made pau
pers by the thousand; but what did they
do With their paupers7 Take care of
them7 Feed them and clothe them +? No,
they call upon the outside world aud
especially upon America to take the
burden from their hands.
Whisky has made three millions of
American paupers within the last five
years. Who takes care of them? The
men whu made them pnupers? No,
they turn them over to the State and
to Christian Charity. You who are
honest and virtuous have the bill to pay.
And yet we are asked 10 believe that the
men who lay the burdens upon US are
indispensable to Atlanta's prosperity.
We are asked to 60 to the polls on the
25lh of November and vote to these men
the privilege of going on in their work
of multiplying drunkards and orphans
and pauperism and starvation and crime.
Mothers and daughters of Atlanta, can
you look God in The face and say that We
10 whom the ballot belongs ought to do
it?
1t would he nothing more than simple
Justice to make the whisky traffic provide
for the pauperism it has produced, but if
we should do that; if we should levy q
tax upon the business sufficient 10 sup.
port those whom it has reduced to power.
ty and wrechedness, in less than two years
the liquor traffic would be numbered
among the things that we're. No man
could afford to engage in it. Year by
year these traders 10 iniquity increase
our burdens and multiply our woes.
Year by year the vampires get deeper
into our blood. Year by year these
ulcers eat deeper into our flesh yet we
are asked to believe that we cannot have
material prosperity without them and to
20 to the polls and vote them permission
10 go on with their work. Mothers and
maidens, of Georgia, we turn to you for
counsel. Shall We yield to their
demands?
I believe that every drop of the pure