The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-10-22
!. SOUR MASH"

Rev. De Witt Talmage Finds Only One
Honest Label for Whislxy-He IndIcts the
Rum Fiend as "the Fratricids, the Pat
ricide, the Matricide, the Uxoricide, the
Regieide of the Century"-The Sin of
Treating.
Look moment at the evil of drunk
enness. Whether you live in Brook
lyn, or New York, or Chicago, or Gin
CHINA. or Savannah, or Boston, or in
any of the cities of this land, count up
the saloons on that street as compared
with the saloons five years ago, and
see they are growing far out of pro-
portion to the increase of the popula-
ton. You people who are so precise
and particular lest there should be
some imprudence or raShness in at
lacking the rum traffic will have your
son some night pitched into your front
door dead drunk, or your daughter
Will come home with her children be-
cause her husband has by strong drink
been turned into a demoniac. The
rum fiend has deSpoiled whole streets
of good homes in al our cities. Fathers,
OLOOACloJ OOilO VII OtlC DlIG VI
strong drink! Fasten tighter the vic
Tins! Stir up the flames! Pile on the
corpses! More men, women and chill
dren for the sacrificed Let us have
whole generations on fire of evil habit;
and at the sound of the cornet, flute,
harp, sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer
let all the people fall down and wor-
ship King Alcohol. or you shall be
cast into the fiery furnace under some
political platform.
indct this evil as the fratricide, the
patricide, the matricide, the uxoricide,
the regicide of the century Yet under
what innocent and delusive and mirth-
full names alcoholism decelves the peo-
pie! 1t is cordial" 1t is "bitters."
1t is an 'eye-opener." 1t is an cap
petizer." 1t is "digester." 1t is an
',invigorator 1t is settler" 1t is
a "night-cap." Why don't they put
on the right labels: Essence of per-
dition;" Conscience stupefier;'' Give
drachms of heart-ache;" 'Tears of
orphanage;" Blood of SOULS" ''Scabs
of an eternal leprosyi" Venom of the
worm that never dies?" Only once in
while is there any thing in the title of
liquors to even hint their atrocity, as in
the case of sour mash. That | see adj
vertised all over. 1t is an honest
name, and any one can understand it.
Sour mash! That is. it makes a mans
disposition sour, and his associations
sour, and his prospects sour; and then
it is good to mash his body, and mash
his soul, and mash his business. and
mash is family. Sour mash! One hon
est name at least for an intoxicant'
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 a ratio OF the human
race.
Some are ruined by the common and
all-destructive habit of treating Gus
toners. And it is a treat on their
coming to town, and treat while the
bargaining progresses, and treat
when the purchase is made, and treat
as he leaves town. Others to drown
their troubles submerge themselves
with this worse trouble. Oh, the world
is battered and bruised and blasted
with this growing evil! 1t is more
and more entranced and fortified.
They have millions of dollars sub
scribed to marshal and advance the al
coholic forces. They nominate and
elect and govern the vast majority of
the office-holders of this country. On
their side they have enlisted the might
lest political power of the centuries.
And behind them stand all the myrmi-
dons of the neither world-Satanic, and
Apollyonic and diabolic 1t is beyond
all human effort to throw this bastile
of decanters or capture this Gibraltar
of rum jugs. And while l approve of
all human agencies of reform, would
utterly despair if we had nothing else.
BIT what cheers me is that our best
troops are yet to come. Our chief
artillery is in reserve. Our greatest
commander has not yet fully taken the
field. If all hell is on their side, all
Heaven is on our side. Now "Let God
arise, and let His enemies be scat
torod - Doo, ~ No Uyaff TpoJa,,,oo