The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-07-23
TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT..
EDITED By THE woMEN's CHRISTIAN TEN
PERANcE UNION.
OUR MOTTO: FOR GOD AND HOME AND
NATIVE LAND.
OUR STATE MOTTO: I'm DUE SEASON WE
SHALL REAP If WE FAINT NOT


OUR STATE MOTTO: I'm DUE SEASON WE
SHALL REAP IF WE FAINT NOT
A FATHERS PRICE-WHAT HE PAID FOR
HIS SON.
The following paper was read at the last
regular meeting of Central Council of
Royal Templars of Temperance, in Buffa-
10. N. Y, by Mr.. N. A. T. Carroll, and we
commend it to the consideration of all
waa have voted for license or license par
ties.
Consider me not ayaricious, my friends,
if I tell you have set price on my boy.
This is necessary from the fact that / live
in community that puts price upon the
boys, the girls, the youth, the manhood,
and the womanhood of that community.
Then Judge me not harshly until you have
compared my price with that fixed by the
community in which. and of which you
and I form part.
But before giving you my price, per-
haps brief description Of the boy may
not be out Of place. He is just entering
the teens, the same dear little boy whom
we have nursed and handled upon our
knees, who has been the object Of our love
from his babyhood up to the present, and
is now the pride of his father and the hope
of his mother. He is in good physical
health, with mental faculties all alert,
quick to discern between right and wrong,
easily imbibing correct moral principles.
In short, is a fair specimen physically,
mentally and morally, of the youth of this
community which in its organized capac-
ity treats him and all others as proper sub
jeets for barter and sale. Perhaps you
may ask me by whom they are put in the
market, who are the buyers, when, how
and where is this internal traffic carried
on against the laws Of God and man
Well, tell you who, when, where and
how on one condition that is, if you will
do all in your power to put stop to it.
They are on the market by the law-mak-
ing power of this country, this State and
this municipality, by fixing a price, a val
liable Consideration license fee, upon
the payment Of which man is permitted
to do, is licensed and granted the privilege
to do that which he had no right to do I'M
til he bought the privilege. Now it is
clear that something is sold lby one party
the community or the law-making power
and bought by another party, the indi-
vidual what intends to use what he has
bought and that is the privilege to sell
intoxicating liquors as beverage. The
permission to set up bar and sell liquors
in this way means the enticing, ensnar-
ing, enslaving, the moral degradation, the
mental wreck, the physical ruin and death
of somebody's boy in the vicinity where it
exists. Itmeans chance at hundred
boys with certainty that more than one
is to be ensnared and degraded. When the
license is granted the grantors know this
fact as well as they know that day follows
night, and yet for the consideration the
permission is granted-the license is CIV
en-. Is not this clearly sale Of somebody IS
boy-together with his health, his integ-
\ rity, his intelligence, his moral sensibili-
ties, his very life and all there is of him
and in him /? And while it lis a sale OF
somebody's boy who is to be sacrificed to
fill the capacious NAV Of this monster
which thriyes upon misery, degradation
and woe, it is the establishment Of shoot
ing alley in my neighborhood, and my boy,
being human, and no better or stronger
than thousands who have fallen, is set up
as a target, at whom this skilful, fiendish
archer is permitted to shoot his poisoned
arrows with an absolute certainty OF
bringing some one down.
And am asked by a Christian commu-
nity-at least by the Lawmakers of what
is called Christian people-how much /
want for my consent to this bargain, my
assent to this contract, my signature TO
this compact with Satan and agreement
with hell, how high shall the license be,
what shall be the fee. Oh shame that in
this enlightened age such question can be
asked / answer, oh! ye rumsellers, 60
gather your ill-gotten gain fer thousand
years, pile up your gold until it is so high
that it casts a dark and dismal shadow
over the highest mountain peak, and lay
it at my feet and you have not tempted
me. Go, bring from among your kindred
as many victims as you have made in ours,
as many desolated homes, as many bitter
tears, as many heart sobs-eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, blood for blood, soul fol
soul-and you have only strengthened
my resolution not to sell. You don't
wish to buy at such a price? But wait
1 have not told you all. Before you
get my signature to this hellish compact
you must, at the peril of your life, sever
my right arm from my body, disconnect il
from my heart and brain, before these fin
gers will sign your league with death. This
is my price, Mr.. Rummy. and these are
my terms. No sale, no saloon, that is pro
hibition.
Now, if there is high license man il
this hall, want him to take pencil ant
do little figuring. Count the number O
persons in your vicinity who are subject
to the evils of saloons you have allowed t.
| be established there for the sum Of $3.50
Divide this amount by the number of per
sons so counted, and you have got thu
price of each one of your boys and girls
| the price at which you are willing to risl
their health, their happiness, their live
their souls, as well as your own. Do yol
think the price is high enough? Is you
estimate of human life and happiness 81
1 low as to be satisfied with the figures yol
| have obtained by this operation? IT SO
let me remind you and your neighbors-
the very ones who are subject tothe curses
arising from the saloon-furnish the none,
| and ten times more, with which the liquor
dealer buys the privilege to do all he can t.
degrade you and your children. AS {
| business transaction, want you to turn
this over in your mind and tell me at oul
| next meeting if you are not tired of be
| ing cheated and swindled in this way. Ant
| if you are dissatisfied with it as business
transaction, how does it strike you as /
| principle of moral reform ?
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