The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-03-04
OUR AMERICAN KING.
BY REV. JAMES BoycE, D. d.
From Southern Christina 1dtlrocatc.

We read oil nOnarchleS and OF despoC-
isms beyond the seas, while we boast of
democratic institutions in America. We
fancy that we hare no king to reign over
US, that we are a free people, and have
no occasion TO unite with the multitudes
of the old world in saying, ''long li7e the
kingw We have been taught to be
respectful! to our superiors: to render
honor to whom honor is due, custom to
whom custom, fear TO whom fear; but
we do not propose to humble ourselves
before an American or any one else, with
oriental prostrations or worshipful cere.
monies. We imagine that we are un-
trammelled as to the doing of anything
that is right, or the relraining from any
thing that is wrong.
But will our readers allow us to say
that we have king, or what is equiva-
lent TO it, combination of influences
that exercise q kingly power over us.
This would be offensive to American
ears, and would elicit the cry from a
thousand tongues from the city und
country, from the mountain and valley,
where is he, with what comparison will
you compare him-wth what similitude
will you liken him? II We are allowed
to predicate personally of him, We would
be compelled to pronounce him one of
the most lorbidding and unsighty pictures
that was ever seen on the walls Of an art
gallery, with blood-shot, gouged eyes,
with rueful couptenance, with bloat-
ed, bruised face, with mutilated nose,
with teeth knocked out, with his arm in
a sling, with disheveled hair, and a gruff,
coarse voice. More like Satan, the god
of this world, than anything We ever
read Of, he is endowed with q sort of
ubiquity. At one time he is in the city,
then in the low country, then in the
mountains looking after his distilleries'
then in the metropolis, experimenting
his grog shops. At one time be is on
this side of the sea, at another time, he
is or the other side of the sea.
He holds his own with wonderful per.
sistence or tenacity. Drive him out of
one place, he will take refuge in another.
If he is invited out of the parlor he will
be content to remain in the kitchen As
to his surroundings he is not select.
Sometimes he is in high places, in Con-
gress, in Parliament, in political caucus
es, in courts, in festive parties, in literary
and scientific associations. Sometimes
he is in low, vulgar places, in bar, rooms,
drinking houses, hotels, military parades
and elections.
Being king, he has kingdom, but
more miserable one does not exist 1t is
miss ruled, au oppressive, demoraliz-
ing, impoverishing government. The
peoples where it prevails are ladened
down with its exactons, while multi
tudes are reduced 10 beggary. The cry
comes up from garrets, cellars, from pole
cabins, from tenement houses, to the
effect that poverty has come in upon the
occupants like an armed man, and that
for such visitation they are indebted 10
this Alcoholic government
In proof of tho assertion that this is
an expensive and an all consuming gov.
ernment, wo furnish few statistics:
The intoxicating drinks used by Ger
many, 1879, cost s65O,oOo,OOO. France,
the same year, s5soooO,OoO. Great
Britain, same year, s75O,0OO,0OO. United
States, same year, s72O,0OO,000.
The sum total Of these figures make
S2,7oo,ooo,ooo.
Now if these seven hundred and twen-
ty millions, the outlay of the United
States for 1879, were distributed among
the people of the several States, to be
expended on legitimate objects-on cloth.
ing, food, house building and house
repairing, on school and church enter.
prises-what a reduction of poverty, of
misery and of vice would there be, and
what an augmentation of comfort and of
virtue would there be
These s72o,OOO,O0O, may be affirmed
to be the taxes that the American peo.
pie pay to tho support Of this alcoholic
government.
The cry of hard times, of bankruptcy,
of financial stringency comes up from all
points of the compass. Our people are
ascribing their poverty and the straitness
of their circumstances to the unpropi'
tiousness of the seasons ian indirect and
oblique censure on providcuce) and to
the corruptions of the great money
centres or the world, while they seem
not to consider that if they would lop off
the expenses of the liquor trade, these
hard times would either be warded off or
their evils greatly mitigated.
Due West, S. C.