The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-10-14

that he is dead. Is there nothing now in
the peculiar feeling of your tongue, or
nothing in the numbness of your brain that
indicates that God may come to avenge
your blasphemies, or is already aveng-
ing them? Bu5 these cases 1 have
noticed, l believe, are only a
few cases where there are
hundreds. Fam lies keep them still to
avoid the horr le conspicuity. Physi-
clans suppress t. I'M throu IN profess onal
confidence. 1t is a very, very, very long
roll that contain the names of those who
died with bla,phemes on their lips;
and the crime rolls on, up through parlors,
up through ch ndeliers with lights all
ablaze, and tbco l5h the pictured corridors
of club rooms, ."., out through busy ex-
changes wherr meets oath, and down
through all tn of sin, minglin r
VITA the rattling cracking bill =
lard balls, and the I,us4.-r of her who
has forgotten the Covenant Of her God ;
and round the ,itY, and round the ell t' .
seething, boiling surge filings its no. spr
into the face of a 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,
or the defective time piece that gets him
too late to the railroad train. l 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 it does seem as if it were
about time for God to arise
Then look a 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 salo ms five years ago, and see 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 rum traffic, will
have your son some night pitched into
your front door dead drunk, or YOU
daughter win come home with her children
because her husband has by strong drink
been turned into demoniao. The rum
flend has despoiled whole streets of good
homes in our cities. Fathers, brothers,
sons, on the funeral pyre of strong drink!
Fasten tighter the victimsl Stir up the
lamesl Pile on the corpses! More men,
women and children for the sacrificed 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 cen ury. Yet under what
innocent and delusive and mrthful names
alcoholism deceves the people. 1t is a
cordial" 1t is "bitters." 1t is an "eye-
opener" 1t is an appetizer" 1t is
"digester." 1t is an "invigorator." 1t is
"settler." 1t is q "night-cap." Why
don't they put on the right labels-"Es-
sence of Perdition," "Conscience Stupe-
fer" Give Drachms of Heartache,"
''Tears of Orphanage," "Blood of Souls,'
"Scab Of an Eternal Leprosy," "Venom of
Worm That Never Dies" Only once in
awhile is there any thing in the title of
liquors to even hint their atrocity, as in
the case of sour mash. That see adver-
ised all over. 1t is an honest name and
any one can understand it. Sour mashl
That is, it makes a mans disposition sour,
/, and his associations sour, and his pros
poets sour; and then it is good to mash his
body, and mash his soul and mash his
business, and mash his family. Sour
mashl One honest name at last for an in
toxicantl But through lying labels of
many of the apothecaries' shops good
people, who are only little undertone in
health and wanting Of some invigoration,
have unwittingly got on their tongue the
fangs of this cobra that stings to death so
large ratio Of the human race.
Others are ruined by the common and
alI-destructive habit of treating CUSTOM
ers. And it is a treat on their coming to
own, and a treat while the bargaining
progresses, and a treat when the pur-
hase is made, and treat as he leaves
wn. Others, to drown their troubles,
lbmerge themselves with this worse
rouble. Oh, the world is battered, AMI
uised, and blasted with this growing
"ril! 1t is more and more entranced and
rtified. They have millions of dollars
Inscribed to marshal and advance the
lcoholic forces. They nominate, and
ct, and govern the vast majority of
he office-holders of this country. On
heir side they have enlisted the mighti-
st political power of the centuries. And
ehind them stand all the myrmidons OF
he neither world, Satanic, and Apollyon-
lg, and diabolic. 1t is beyond all human
cfort to throw this bastile of decan ters or
capture this Gibralter Of rum jugs. And
while 1 approve of all human agencies of
eform, would utterly despair if we had
nothing else. But what cheers me is thai
our best troops are yet to come Our chic
artillery is in reserve. Our greatest Com
mander has not yet fully taken the fiel
II all hell is on their side all Heaven is on
our side. Now
Let God arise, and let His enemies be scat
tered.
Then look st the impurities of these
great cities. Ever and anon there are In
the newspapers explosions Of social life
that make the story of Sodom quite re-
spectacle; for such things, Christ says,
were more tolerable for Sodom and Go
morFah than for the Chorazins and Beth
saidas Of greater light. 1t is no unusual
thing in our cities to see men in high posi-
tion with two or three families, or refined
ladies willing solemnly to marry the very
swine of society if they be wealthy
Brooklyn, whose streets fifteen years ago
were almost free from all sign of the social
evil, now night by night rivals upp'
Broadway in its hamboyant wickednes
The Bible all ahame with denunciatii
against an iInpure life. but many of III