The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-10-13
hpostrophe to Rum.

Apostrophe to Rum.
Inarecent lecture on temperance, Pm
vate Dalzell, who years ago felt the curse
himself, thus closed with an address to
rum:
"Oh, issue of hell red with the fiery
wrath and curse of Jehovah, stand back
and answer the indictment bring
against you tonight. tits found on the
, inquest of every pure heart under the
whole heaven, and is signed true bill
by God as Foreman Of the grand inquest.
Serpent and adder fend and fury enemy
of God and man, move thYself arigh: In
the cup and blush crimson with shame,
but answer me tonight. What limo.
cence and purity have you bitten with
your serpent fang2 What hearts of love
and devotion have you stung to the
! death with your scorpion sting3 What
lives have you not withered with your
foul touch, what hopes crushed under
the loathsome pressure of your hideous
and relentless coil.
"Listcn to the cry of the orphan,
whose father you have murdered by
your slow, deadly poison. Listen to the
heart-broken lamentatlon. Visit the
happy homes which your 10 athsome and
polluting presence has changed to desc
lation, drunkenness, and despair, and
hear the cry that rolls up through the
sulphurous flames of hell! From every
gallows-tree and dungeon of darkness,
from every roof-tree and hearthstone,
blackene6 and blistercd by your Internal
power, accusing voices come to brand
you as the worst enemy of the human
race.
"Oh, listen to the clanking chains in
the maniac's cell, the shrek of violated
innocence, the dying moan of the VIC
tim of the drunken assassin tonight,
and tell mc-oh, tell it in the ears OF
all--what reas on or apology have you,
an hour, or minute, or second longer,
for corrupting the world with your poi
Sionous breath or polluting presence
BLESSINGS wait upon all other
creatures under the shining sun but you,
while only curses follow you in this
world and the next. Good there is in
! all things else but you, even in the mean
est insect that crawls ugon the earth or
the smallest island builder of the sea,
,, or tin;est speck that floats in the IL
Iimitable and all embracing azure fields
of space, all the countless worlds be-
tween, but for you, in you, from you, by
you, through you, there is not, there
never was, any good. Evil and only
! evil-born of the devil, coming from the
devil, leading to the devil, damned of
God, damned of man, an evil and curse
forever end forevermore! I curse you,
| curse you last tonight! Murderer and
| assassin, Liar and villain, thief and rob-
Der, slanuerer and Dlasphemer, seducer
and vagabond, flee from the earth and
resume your station in your native hell.
Without you, oh, how happy this world
might be, and how it would blossom
again with the beauty and peace Of the
Eden of God!
"War would cease, murder be un-
known. Poverty would be only remem-
bered as horrid dream of your reign on
earth, and oh, how many men now bound
in your tolls would fall on their knees
and lift their faces to God in thanksgiv-
ing for their deliverance! Oh, how many
mothers, mourning all the weary weak
ness of the night, while their deluded
sons wander with you in the darkness
now; how many wives and trembling
little children in rags and novels, too,
would fill the whole canopy of heaven
with their acclamations and rejoicing if
you-the enemy Of their oil and all they
have-would only descend into hell and
there remain, spitted and roasted forever
for the objectionable wrongs you have
done the world in the long thousands Of
years that you have tormented and cursed
the human race.n