The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-02-27

looms. doing. it has been estimated, an aver
age business of 81. 800 yearly. That is
twenty-six millions of dollars i'll a single
year. The valuation of all the real estate
in the city according to the Board of Re
vision is less than six hundred millions.
This sum at A per cent, (Which may be
assumed as the full net income after pay
ing taxes and repairs is only twenty-six
millions-so you see we are actually spend
ing in this city for strong drink the entire
net revenue of all cur real estate.
The entire valuation of all the church
property of the city is about sixteen mil
lions. but this is less than the amount
which is swallowed up in the form of
strong drink about once in every eight
months. y
The financial aspect of this question, i'm
portant as it is, and appealing SO forei-
bly, to self interest, is, after all, the very
lowest standpoint from which we should
view it. There are social, moral. and re-
ligious considerations of far greater impor-
lance. X
The great question now is what can we
do towards wiping out this great sin, to-
wards lifting the cloud of shame and sor-
row which hovers over the land and is
crushing out all life and gladness in so
many homes.
The church, and the school. and the press,
and various other instrumentalities are do
ing much. and still we find ourselves con-
tronted by an evil whose magnitude seems
never to diminish.
Perhaps the friends of temperance were
never so aroused as they are now, never
more in earnest. From the Pine hills of
Maine. from the valley OF the Ohio, from
tile borders of the great lakes, from the
prairie States, from the rice fields Of Geor-
gia, '.and even from the far Northwest
where rolls the Oregon, we have most en-
couraging tokens. The temperance forces
are everywhere being mustered for the i'm
pending conflict. On the other hand the
liquor interest was never so thoroughly or
ganized or more determined and law-de-
fiant, and they nave the advantage in fl
nancial strength. \ great general once
said that the Almighty was on the side of
the strongest battalions. We believe that
the Almighty is on the side of Truth and
Right and Justice, and ''They always win
who side with Him" y <
Our first work must begin at home. We
cannot be effective champions of Temper
ance, or Of any other good cause, unless we
are good examples at home. | read a
speech of Johu Bright, in which he said he
had been a householder for thirty-siX years,
and in that time he had never used any
wine or liquor in his house. lie did not
own a decanter, he did not know there was
even a wine-glass i'll his house. He said
he frequently had friends to dine with
him who were accustomed to their wine
my Lord so and so-and he would say to
them, that tor once in their lives they
would be obliged to take dinner without
wine. He is thus setting an example
which it would be safe for any one to fol-
low.
We read in the Scriptures about the light
which was placed in the candle-stick. Its
first purpose was ''to give light to those
who were in the house. There are many
great luminaries, some of them shedding
light throughout a wide circumference, but
every man should strive to be a light in
his own house. If every Christian home
in this city were illumined by the light of a
consistent example, the church would be a
unit and a force which would make short
work with the rum power in Philadel-
phia. = = =
The instruction of the public school chill
dren throughout the State in physiology
and hygiene with special reference to the
nature of alcohol and the effects of alco-
holic liquors on the human system. is a
matter of very great Importance, and one
which is now being pressed upon the at
%tention of the Legislature. Every one who
desires to see children so instructed that
they may be warned against the sin and
shame of the intoxicating cup should aid
the Womon's Christian Temperance Union
in the efforts they are nov making TO Sc
cure the passage of their bill in the I.egis-
lature. What the next generation of men
shall be depends upon the training of the
children of to-day.
But we must not lose sight of the poor
drunkard-of him who is already bound
with the chains of a captivity which he can
rarely of himself throw off. While not a
hopeful it is by no means a hopeless work
If we have tried it and failed ninety and
nine times, and shall succeed in r%escuing
but one as the fruit of all our labor, We
have not lived in vain. We shall not adj
vance very IA pidly IN our work, however,
if we look only to rescuing the fallen. The
rumseller can make a hundred ~drunkards
while we are rescuing one. Prevention is
a hundred times better than cure. To pre-
vent intemperance we must put ont of the
way the thing that causes it. We must
destroy the Liquor Traffic.
Some good people who on most other
topics seem to be sane and intelligent tell
us that the way to suppress ~intemperance
is to license the liquor traffic. Why we
have been doing that for two hundred
years, and the evil only grows upon us.