The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-10-15

visited the scene and saw tbs blasphemez
in the awful process Of expiring.
Do not think that because God has beef
silent in your case, o, profans swearer
that he Is dead. Is there nothing now II
the peculiar feeling Of your tongue. OF
nothing in the numbuess Of your brain that
indicates that God may come to aveng'
your blasphemies, or Is already aveng.
ing them? But these cases I have
noticed, I believe, are only q
few cases where there are
hundreds. Families keep them still to
avoid the horrible conspicuity. Physi.
clans suppress them through professional
confidence. It Is q very, very, very long
roll that contains the names Of those who
died with blasphemies on their lips;
and the crime rolls on, mp through parlors
up through chandeliers with lights all
ablaze, and through the pictured corridors
OF club rooms, ETC., out through busy ex-
changes where oath meets oath, and down
through all the haunts Of sin, mingling
with the rafting dice and cracking bill.
lard balls, and the laughter of her who
has forgotten the covenant Of her God ;
and round the city, and round the earth q
seething, boiling surge filings its hot spray
into the face of q long suffering God.
And the ship captain damns his crew,
and the merchant damns his clerks, and
the master builder damns his men, and
the hack driver damns his horses; and
the traveller damns the stone that bruises
his foot, or the mud that soils his shoes 8,
or the detective time.piece that gets him
too late to the railroad train. arrange
profane swearing and blasphemy, two
names for the same thing, as being one of
the gigantic crimes Of this land, and for
its extirpatiOn 1t does seem as If it were
about time Tor God to arise.
Then look moment at the evil Of
drunkenness. Whether you live in Brook
lyn, or New York, or Chicago, or Cincin.
natl, or Savannah, or Boston. or in any
Of the cities of the land, count up the
saloons on that street as compared with
the saloons i've years ago, and SEQ they
are growing far out of proportion. You
people who are SO precise and particular
lest there should be some imprudence or
rashness in attacking the run traffic, will
have your son some night pitched into
your front door dead drunk. or your
daughter will come home with her children
because her husband has by strong drink
been turned into a demoniac. The rum
fiend has despoiled whole streets Of good
homes In our cities. Fathers, brothers,
sons, on the funeral pyre of strong drink !
Fasten tighter the victims! Stir up the
flames! Pile on the corpses! More men,
women and children for the sacrifice! Let
us have whole generations on the fire of
evil habit; and at the sound Of the cornet,
flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer
let all the people fall down and worship
King Alcohol, or you shall be cast into the
fiery furnace under some political plat.
form!
indict this evil as the fratricide, the
parricide, the matricide, the uxorcide, the
regicide Of the century. Yet under what
innocent and delusive and mirthful names
alcoholism deceives the people. It is q
"cordial." 1t is "bitters." It Is an "eye-
opener" 1t is an appetizer" It is q
"digester." 1t is an ''invigorator." It Il
a "settler." 1t is "night-cap." Why
don't they put on the right labels-"Es-
sence Of Perdition," "Conscience Stupe-
fer" "Five Drachms Of Heartache,' y
"Tears Of Orphanage," "Blood Of Souls"
"Scab of an Eternal Leprosy," "venom of
a Worm That Never Dies" Only once in
awhile is there any thing In the title of
liquors to even hint their atrocity, rs In
the case Of sour mash. That I see adver.
tised all over. 1t Is an honest name and
any one can understand it. Sour mash
That is, it makes mans disposition sour,
and his associations sour, and his pros.
poets sour: and then II is good TO mash his
oody, and mash his soul. and mash his
business, and mash his family. Sour
mash! One honest name at last for an in.
toxicant! But through lying labels OF
many of the apothecaries' shops good
people, who are only little undertone in
health and wanting Of some inauguration,
have unwittingly got on their tongue the
fangs Of this cobra that stings to death 50
large ratio Of the human race.
Others are ruined by the common and
habit Of treating custom.
ers. And it Is treat on their coming to
town, and treat while the bargaining
and a treat when the pur.
chase is made, and treat as he leaves
town. Others, to drown their troubles,
submerge themselves with this worse
Oh, the world is battered, and
bruised, and blasted with this growing
evil! 1t Is more and more entrdncei and
They have millions Of dollars
to marshal and advance the
alcoholic forces. They nominate, and
elect, and govern the vast maj ority Of
the Office holders of this country. On
their side they have enlisted the might.
est political pc wer Of the centuries. And
behind them stand all the myrmidons Of
the neither world. Satanic, and ApoIiyon.
Ic, and diabolic. It is bsyond all human
effort to throw this bastile OF deca n tiers or
capture this Gibralter Of rum jugs. And
while I approve of all human agencies of
reform, would utterly despair il we had
nothing else. But what cheers me is that
Dur best troops are yet to c,me. Our chief
artillery is in reserve. Oar greatest Com.
nander has not yet fully taken the field.
II all hell is on their side. all Heaven is on
Dur side. Now
Let God arise, and let His enemies be scat.
tered
Then LOOK at the impurities Of thes i.
great cities. Ever and anon there are in
he newspapers explosions Of social life
hat make the story of Sodom quite re-.
,pec.able; for such things, Christ says,
we're more tolerable for Sodom AMI Go.
norrah than for the Chorazins and Beth
'aidas of greater light. 1t is no unu sual
hing in our cities to see men in high posi-.
lion with two or three families, or ref ned
aides willing solemnly to marry the very
swine Of society II they be wealthy.
Brooklyn, whose streets fifteen years ago
we're almost free from all sign of the social
Evil, now night BY night rivals upp er
Broadway in its hamboyant wickedness.
The Bible all aflame with denunciat ion