The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-11-04

diphtheria. The blasphemer challenged
Almighty God, and God accepted the chal-
lenge.
But l come later down and give you
fact that is proved by scores of witnesses.
This last August of 1886, man got pro-
voked at the continued drought and the
ruin OF his crops, and in the presence Of
his neighbors he cursed God, saying that
he would cut his heart out il he would
come, calling him a liar and coward, and
knave. And while he was speaking his
lower jaw dropped, smoke issued from
mouth and nostrils, and the heat of his
body was so intense it drove back those
who would come near. Scores Of people
visited the scene and saw the blasphemcr
in the awful process Of expiring.
Do not think that be cause God has been
silent in your case, o, profans swearer!
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? But these cases I have
noticed, believe, are only a
few cases where there are
hundreds. Families keep them still to
avoid the horrible conspicuity. Physi-
clans suppress them through professional
confidence. 1t is very, very, very long
roll that contains the nam,s of those who
died with blasphemies on their lips;
and the crime rolls on, up through parlors,
up through chandeliers with lights all
ablaze, and through the pictured corridors
Of club rooms, ETC., out through busy ex-
changes where cath meets oath, and down
through all the haunts of sin, mingling
with the ra:tling dice and cracking bi |.
lard balls, and the laughter of her who
has forgotten the covenant of her God;
and round the :ity, and round the earth a
seething, boiling surge filings its hos spray
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. 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 il it were
about time for God to arise.
Then look o 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 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 attackin, the ru 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 victimsi Stir up the
flames! Pile on the corpsesl 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 aud 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. 1t is
cordial" 1t is "bitters." 1t is an "eye.
opener" 1t is an "appetizer." 1t is
"digester." 1t is an ''invigorator." 1t is
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, u,
"Tears of Orphanage," "Blood of souls,'
"Scab Of an Eternal Leprosy," "Ven ,m of
a 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-
tised all over. II is an honest name and
any one can understand it. Sour mash!
That is, it makes q mans disposition sour,
and his associations sour, AMI his pros
poets sour; and then 1t is good to mash his
body, and mash his soul, and mash his
business, and mash his family. Sour
mash! One honest n,me 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
all-destructive habit of treating custom.
ers. And it is treat on their coming to
town, and treat while the bargaining
progresses, and treat when the pur-
chase is made, and treat as he leaves
town. Others, to drown their troubles.
submerge themselves with this worse
trouble. Oh, the world is battered, AMI
bruised, and blasted with this growing
evil! 1t is more and more entranced and
fortified. They have millions of dollars
subscribed to marshal and advance the
alcoholic forces. They nominate, and
elect, and govern the vast majority of
the office holders of this country. Ga
their side they have enlisted the mighti-
est political power OF the centuries. And
lehind them stand all the myrmidons of
the neither world. Satanic, and Apol,von.
&c, and diabolic. 1t is b,yonl all human