Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1885-12-31
INTEMPERANCE AS AN EVIL.


1ntemperance means want of mod
Grafton or due restraint; excess in
any kind of action or indulgence in
any spirituous liquors, any habit that
Injuries the intellectual or physical
being may be considered evil or
| hurtful. Evil means having bad
qualities, have naturally bad moral
qualities. There may be good quail
ties i'll soldier, sailor, captain, ma
jor, colonel, Or general, but there is
nothing good in drunkards, tor all
moral is lost, all respect is lost. In
Temperance with him is like unto the
flying leaves of autumn. The annual
frosts blights the leaves and they are
blown from their homes of loyellness
and beauty, and no animated object
is left to weep or sorrow over them
But not so with the far sons and
daughters of Adam race who have
fallen into degradation cross keys
thunder castles and clabber alleys o.
lAQdes with thousands Of fathers
mothers, brothers sisters and rela
tions and friends to weep over then
III their evil that they are hourly ant
daily bringing upon this nation b.
the sin of intemperance.
By intemperance the rosy cheek
of the young and beautiful are fas
fading away; bad rum and ba
whisky hasten other evils and the
go down to the vile dust frol
whence they sprung, unwept, unhor
ored and unsung.'
Intemperanee causes man to forge
the duties God destined him to fu
fill, and it may be that he once d.
lighted to fulfill them, but alas! tt
I cursed evil of intemperance that bite
like rattle snake and stings like 6
adder has taken possession of hi
and he enters his own house Wi
greater evil than all the ancie
It plaques of Egypt and there beholt
the silent, suffering devoted wifi
whom he had solemnly vowed to su
- port and protect, and that miserat
ID wife and ragged children know al
- feel the evils better than the eloque
and learned ministers of this mode
age can describe. The evil of
mothers woe is complete whose o
spring is drunkard. Would to G
| that 1 could say that none of /
. relations or friends were ever beas
drunk, but alas, I cannot say it;
evil seems to be inferred in th
bones. It would be proud consu
nation if L could say 1t of mys
that 1 never IN my life used intoxic
- ing drinks Or corn-cob pipe fiji
with tobacco denominated the No
Carolina or Missouri Seal. Let
JN think for moment what it costs t
nation to be whisky-drinkers a
ltobacco-users. Let US figure Ii
~ and see how the evil runs. Supp
ing our population to be corre'
enumerated we have $4,000. 900
people in the United States; 1870
900 use intoxicants and toba
n amounting to $4,000 per day
~ two drinks and one cigar, not to
anything of the amount that old
and women use from snuff boxes
camphor bottles. This is
amount the great American ma
MI boasts of as their cacoethes and
~ evils that result from it. lntem
Ill ance blinds the eye that it cannot
deadens the ear that it cannot h
weakens the stomach that it cal
digest; destroys the mind tina
cannot think; deadens the limbs
)les they cannot move; fills cur asyl
with orphans and insane. 1t Is
the black angel of remorse kint
the fires of hell to destroy the II
!, piled evils of its own condemna
TOR Intemperance leaves the black to
- of remorse lies and SANDER I'll
Il drunken soul has spoken and a
liza that cruel vengeance has brough
action and Stayed the mother oi
; innocent children. 1t is the prir
90 factor of all the fatal crimes ait
oo licides that are being hourly and
W. perpetrated in all the large clti
.NE. the old and the new world. Blu
'res't. greatest of all evils that l have
R. toned, if we are to believe the
is that intemperance causes
dug thousands of graves yearly
sends millions of souls to he'll
nan emanate from the accursed evils
bacchanalian. Then hear y
fatal sentence, "The drunkard
kner not enter the Kingdom of He
- w. L. RAGsDl
The Signal Service has Is;
~, LIo4 on+,tlad HCold Wave