The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-01-24

10 tttU - Nnn3AN q tAtVe
The Temperance question, like every
other question worth talking about, has
two sides. The grand army OF fanatics,
many persons of undoubted sanity, and the
vast majority of married women are in
favor of abstinence. They insist, with
some show of reason. that the habit of
drinking is the fruitful source of all our
social evils. They say that it produces
poverty, crime and disease. and they pro-
iiuce statistics that go far to prove their
assertions. While all that they claim may
be true, we shall examine the other side of
this controversy before arriving at any con-
clusion. The advocates of intemperance
have their arguments to present, and
surely it would be unfair-not to say un-
christian-to deny them a hearing. They
base their position on the broad founda-
lions of patriotism. The institutions of
our beloved country, they say, must be
sustained and preserved. They must not
be insidiously attacked under the pretence
of reform. And what are the institutions
whose usefulness If not their existence
is threatened by the apostles of abstinence
Our criminal courts are one of them. What
would become of these tribunals if all men
were to take to quafing water? Our police
department is another. Who would ever
think of maintaining it if drinking were
abolished? In the popular Imagination the
chief, if not the sole, function of police
man is to go forth and collar drunken
man. And if there is no drunken man
around to be collared, Of what earthly use
is it to send forth the policeman Obvious
", therefore, the abolition of the drunkard
means the abolition of the sscop," and thus
a large class of our fellow citizens, who
could never make an honest living in any
other way, would be thrown out of en-
ployment, their families would -starve, and
there would be the devil to pay generally.
Another of our beloved country's most
cherished institutions is the county jail
It is the Temple of Rum. 1t is the home
of the tippler. Every brick and stone in
its structure lis the equation of drunk.
Every corner in it is shrine of alcohol.
Every current CT air that sweeps through
its cells and corridors is laden with the
fumes of the grand 'sOld Stuff Its war
den, and its keepers, and its butcher and
its grocer and their sweethearts, and wives,
and little ones make cheerful living and
thrive and grow rich out of the pathological
action of drink upon the human system.
Then there are the aims house and the
lunatic asylum. They, too, have claims
upon the public consideration. To rashly
prohibit drinking would have a most per-
nicious effect upon them. They would be
speedily deserted and would fall into decay,
and thus the hundreds of thousands of dol
lars spent annually upon them would be
practically SO mnch money wasted.
Probably if there were no criminal
courts, no police, no county jails, no luna
tic asylums, no aims houses there would be
no drunkards. But it is the fact that these
institutions have been established by the
wisdom Of our forefathers. Now what
should man do about them2 Is he to
let them crumble before his very eyes?
Liquor may be poison to him but it is meat
and drink to those glorious old institu-
tons. Shall he then for the sake of his
own health plunge his soul into the
recreancy of colo. water2 And what If he
does drink himself to death Even as a