The Dillon tribune., 1885-01-17
Delusions Of High License.

Dclusions Of High License.
High license gilds the traffic with Ger"
tain air of respectability. And behind
gildcd vice tho most danger turks. The
more outwardly respectable you make the
saloon, the worse you make it. The assault
uy,on morals and manhood is then subtle,
insidious, treachcrous. 1t is not your open,
outrageous, infamous sinners that do the
most harm. A blatant, boasting Ingersoll
is tar less potent for mischief than a willy
and ingenius skeptic, wearing the guise Of
Christianity only to betray it. So it is not
the besotted and !oathsome drunkard,
swinging from his drinks to the gutter,
and crawling from the gutter again to his
drinks, who tempts wayward feet to the
lolly and filth Of intoxication. The sa-
looms that keep up appearances, that put on
pretensc, that claim to be decent in con-
duct and law abiding-it is these that play
the mischief with our young men.
High license tends to give the guise Of
rcspcctability. Five hundred Or one thou.
sand dollars paid to the Government for
doing certain thing gives to the one do
ing it kind Of dignity, and inevitably
stamps the thing done rs business Of
some considerably increased importance
and worth. High license may possibly,
though only temporarily, wipe out few
old doggeries. But it guilds the saloon It
authorizes. 1t gives it gloss and outward
decency. Not one inheren: evil Of the
traffic is smitten by it. On the contrary, it
places over the whole brood Of evils
broader brand of legitimacy. And paint
ing vice we all know is bad business. To
give respectability to an iniquitous thing is
to buttrcss it more securely. Reform BY
that road is down hill Revenue gotten on
such terns--thc blood OF duped and he
traycd victims will cry out against it.
High license induces the saloon-kceper
to resort to other evils TO make good their
loss by it. They are going to get back
their license fec. That thousand dollars
must come back int" their till. They have
not gone into this business on philan-
thropic princ;ples-for the good OF society.
They, therefore, adulterate their liquors.
They will vitiatc their stock. All, if they
would only water it--literaily water it!
But water is the last thing they or their
patrons want in it, Ehere is no sting in
water. Nothing to bring the dr;nker back
to his glass. So they ply the stock with
cheap drugs. They swell its dimensions
They make its bulk large by their vile de
coctions. And it finds its way down men S
lhroats at ten cents a glass-smooth and
pleasant to the sense, only to prove at last
the very poison Of death, often making Of
,neu physical and moral wrecks shattering
nerves, stealing away brains and deadening
conscience.
But this is not all. Under the pressure
Of high license, and to make the establish
mcnt pay back that large fee, saloon keep
ers are tempted to introduce other features,
TO marshal other forms Of vice, and to link
gambling and harlotry with liquor selling,
20 as to swell the receipts.
And this is no Wild guess or outbnrst Of
temperance fanatics. II is the frank state
ment Of our enemies, and out of peir own
mouths shall they be condemned. Last
autumn the State Protective Liquor Asso-
ciation Of Illinois held its annual meeting
at Quincy. And the report Of the Exccu-
tive Committee boldly charged that there
were "men in the traffic with whom the
sale Of liquors is only blind for gambling
houses and houses Of prostitution, and who
do not hesitate to advocate high license IN
the hope Of running the poor but decent ga
loon.keepers, and thereby attracting Gus
tom to their own establishments i men
will not hesitate to advocate high license
ON that ground, men will not hesitate to
,arnish their saloons with games and lcwd
women to make high liccnse pay. Carry.
ing up the license fee, therefore, may guild
with an outside responsibility while inside
the way is often made two fold more way
Of heli.-Rer. Hcyyick .3otsson.