Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1886-10-28

crime. From the government rum
shops the wild beasts hunt their
prey.
Are the people of this Republic
blind; are their eyes holden that they
cannot see. There are armies march
ing and counter-marching with ban
ners on which are emblazoned dyna-
mite; anarchism, communism, nj
hllism; no Sabbath. These march
ing squadrons are recruited from the
dram shop and oficered from the
dens of iniquity. Nations that IL
cence murder for pay will sooner or
later be murdered for plunder Ma
tons that feed and fatten the wild
beasts of paphian will sooner or later
be deyoured by the wild beasts Of
rapine and ruin. I need not tell you
that the history of ali the nations of
antiquity prove those true. The rum
hole must be closed or the rnm-hell
will engulf the Republic.
There is little or no difference of
opinion between sensible people on
these subjects; and the only question
is, "what shall be done with Chris
tian (?) rum. The government is on
the side Of the beasts; the Christian
people of the land make the govern
ment. Shall the rum fend carry on
his carnival of death shall the rum
minions rule, or is there manhood
enough among US to save the Re-
public from the damning shame? The
answer we make to this question de-
termines fate.
Continue to answer with temporiz-
ing policies; with low licenses or
high licenses; with local option or
authorization of any sort, and you
cannot foresee the end. Strike it
down; cage the beasts that vend
the frenzy in the only place they be-
lonS-the criminal cell. There is
about one remedy. The nation must
put an end to transforming men in
to beasts by law, and must put the
beasts into the penitentiary, when
their sorceries will cease The con-
fict is upon US; it is life and death
struggle.
A feion class has grown up among
us. Their criminal business is not
doubtful; t!,ey practice it in open
day; the felony is clear, pronounced,
the most dreadful; they are robbers
and despoilers of the innocent; their
business is murderous T; it has no other
quality In it; it threatens our homes
it fills our jails and prisons and pau
per asylums; it fills many homes
with misery worse than death; it is a
felony of the deepest dye, pure, and
simple; it must be treated as such !;
the dock, the felon's cell, and If need
be, the felon's gibbet, is the only
remedy for such a crime.
There is no devil worshiper in
Affica more degraded that the de-
mon worshiper of rum; no priest of
the sorceries of heathenism more
diabolized than the minions of Chris
tian states authorized to make and
vend the poison; no fostering pest
house-not even the Chinese opium
den-more deadly to virtue than the
Christian rum-hole. Must it he en-
dured longer must our children 60
into the future with this milestone
fastened about their neck by the
Legislation of Christian states? No,
no; thousand times no. There is a
remedy; it is not unknown the evil
is rampant, not of necessity, but he.
cause we have not the courage, OF
the desire to apply the remedy.
Thousands in the churches are III
league with it, while other thousands
council moderation. Moderation
Have we not tried teinporizing policies
with this wild beast of nameless pos
session long enough; have we moi
isought to tame him with mora
suasion; to melt him with the tears Of
broken-hearted womanhocd; by ap
peals to any latent humanity tha
might yet be in him; by the homes
he has desolated, and the victims by
millions he has inundated; have VIZ
not resorted tor measures of wild re
presslon, only to see how futile the,
are? Have we not bound him with
the withes of low license and higl
license, and hampered him with loca
option, and obstructive Legislation
have we not worn ourselves out will
crusades and petitions, and remon
strsnces; have we not, despairing o
! any success with the beast himself
; exhausted all possible methods o
rescuing his victims; only to find him
at the end of hundred years of un
successful effort, still intrenched ant
defiant.
Thousands have pleaded and wep
and prayed; for twenty years wo
men have knelt on curb-stones an,
entreated. The state still hampers th'
} beast and turns him loose to ravel
) and destroy; where he formerly hat
} novels he has built palaces instead
) The GROCERY has lowered int
saloons; the scurvy miscreant
once despised, has become the gen
tleman of fashion; be has formet
= oofaptaf;orc laaruas snI bacL. vii