Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1886-10-18
temperance.
THE SALOON MUST GO.

THE SALOON MUST GO.
Public sentiment is well-nigh ON
nipotent. 1t enacts the laws it speaks
through the judges charge; it gives
eyes to policemen it governs the
crowd on the street and like subtitle
atmosphere pervades all things, and
with commanding power. And pub
lie sentiment IS rising up against the
saloon. Every day enlarges and IN
tensifes the conviction that the dram
shop Is an altogether useless and ire
deemably wicked thing, that it is
burdeusome barrier equally in the way
of the highest civilization and of en-
lightened Christianity. Though toler-
ated in the past its baleful, dreadful in
duence has always been felt and pro-
tested against by the noblest philan-
thropists, as well AS by the wretched
widows and orphans from whom
it has taken the husband and
father. Nay, many time the poor
inebriate himself, the victim of APP
petite, has cursed the saloon as
the occasion of his downfall, his
evil habits, his loss of character,
his broken health, his rags and blasted
hopes. The hour is drawing near
when the very idea of a man made in
the image of God running into a cor
ner GROCERY to take a drink of rum
while standing on his feet will seem
utterly preposter Gus and absurd. 10
be sure such proce dure was once
the fashion and so was the gaudy
dress made up of the colors Of the
magpie and the harlequin in which
Oliver Goldsmith used to strut about
! to his own infinite delight but at which
the world now jeers as fantastic and
ludicrous. There never was any nee
essity for a man to stand up to bar
and to pour alcohol down his throat !;
and henceforth such a habit will be
deemed inexcusable because undigni-
fed, unmanly, dlsreputable, as well
as morally pernicious in example, and
tending only toward the degradation
of humanity and the destruction of
human happiness.
Men may differ widely about the
questions, whether taking glass of
wine is sin per Sc, whether total alb
stinence, or the use of thing with
self restraint embodied in the word
temperance shall be the Christians
law, whether the absolute prohibition
of the manufacture and sale of ardent
spirits practicable or otherwise, etc.
but surely there is or ought to be NO
ground of difference among all good
and thoughtful men on the demand
THAT THE SALOON MUST GO. 1t has
wrought mischief enough without evel
doing one iota of benefit. To attempt
to put into language even a few o
the awful crimes that have issued di
rectly from the saloon would seen
like the outburst of rant. And vet
no words can begin to convey an,
just conception of the various forms
of vice and misery of intellectual a
we'll as moral debasement caused by
the saloon. 1t is infinitely pathetic
, and harro wing for us to imagine jus
one nights doings in the saloons o
this broad land. Who can bear t
think of the profanities of the maiig
nant curses, of the demented wits, @
the violent and angry words of th
bloody encounters of the murders, c
the scalding tears and bitter agonie
:, and unspeakable remorse which wer
:, produced by the saloons during jus
= the last twenty-four hours. An
what shall we say when we remembe
how these things are multiplied du
/ ing all the seven days of the wee
If and the fifty wo weeks of the yeal
It There is hardly family among OF
s. sixty millions of people which h;
# not been struck somehow and som
t. where by the saloon devil and Their
Ill fore it is certainly wise and just fl
D. all our families to combine for
r. overthrow. Let us a9itate to make Il
!; saloon disreputable, to secure amp
u legislation against it, to help juds
:, and jury and policemen to feel al
a do their duty with regard to it
er create public sentiment rendering
g dlsgraceful to peddle out standil
IL drinks and equally disgraceful
II swallow standing drinks-in shol
ct let us be loyal to humanity and
IN Christian civilization and to God
I'd crying and acting on the cry, ''Dov
with the saloon !'-Christidn at Wo2