Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-10-22


the Tattlinz dice aud cracking billiard
ball and the laughter OF her who
hath forgotten the covenant Of her
God, and around the city and around the
continent and around the earth a SETTLING,
boiling surge filings Us hot spray into the
face OF long-sutfering God. And the ship
captain damns his crew. and the merchant
damns his clerks, and the masssr-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
shoe or tho defective time-piece that gets
him too late to the railway trains Iarraigu
profans swearing and blasDhemy, two names
for the same thing, as being one Of the gigan-
tic crimes Of this land, and for its extirpation
1t does seem as If 1t were about time for God
to rise.
linen look moment at the evil Of drunk
ennesS Whether you live in Brooklyn. or
New York, or Chicago, or Cincinnati, or
Savannah, or Boston, or In any of the cities
Of this 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 to the increase OF the popula-
ton. You people who are so precise and
particular lest there should be some impru-
dencs or rashness in attacking the rum traf-
hc, will have your son 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 q demoniac. The rum fiend has de-
spoiled whole streets of good homes in all our
cities. Fathers, brothers, sons on thu fu-
neral pyre of strong drink. Fasten tighter
the yictimsl Stir up the fameSl Pile OF
the corpses More men, women and children
for the sacrificed Let us have whole genera
tions on fire Of evil habit; and at the sound
Of the cornet harp, sackbut, psaltery and
dulcimer let all the people fall down and
worship King Alcohol, or you shall be cast
into the fiery furnace under some political
platforml
indict this evil as the fratricide, the pat.
ricide. the matricide, the uxoricide, the
regicide OF the century. Yet under what in
nocent and deiusive and mirthful names al
coholism deceives the peoplei 1t "cor.
dial" 1t is "bitters." 1t is an 'eye-opener.
It is an 'sppetizer."' It is "digester. II
a "nightcap." Why don't they oy' put on the l
right labels: Essence of perdition," Con
science stupefer," "Fve drachms Of heart
ACHE" "Tears of orphanage, "Blood of
SOULS" "Scabs Of an eternal leprosY,"
venom of the worm that never desN Only
once In while is there anything in the title
of liquors to even hint their atrocity as in the
case of sour mash that see advertised all over.
1t is an honest name and any one can under
stand it, Sour. mashi That is, it makes q
Ndu uiSPOolblOh bOut uhu las thcoOSiotLOhS
sour and his prospects sour; and then it is
good to mash his body and mash his soul and
mash his business and mash his family. Sour
| mashl One honest name at least for an in
toxicant But through lying labels Of many
of the apothecarieS' shops good peop'e who
are only little undertone in health, and
wanting of some IMMIGRATION have unwit-
tingy got on their tongue the fangs of this
cobra that stings to death so large ratio OF
| the human race
Others are ruined by the common and all
| destructive habit of treating customers And
| it is treat on their coming to town and a
treat while the bargaining progresses, and o
| treat when the purchase is made, and treat
as he leaves town. Others, to drown their
troubles submeTge themselves with this
worst trouble. Oh, the world is battered
and bruised and blasted with this growing
evil. 1t is more and more entrenche1 and
fortified They have millions of dollars sub
s,ribed to marshal and advance the alcoholic
forces. They nominate and elect and gov
ern the vast majority Of the ofice-holders
| of this country. On their side they have
enlisted the mightiest political power of the
centuries, and behind them stand all the
myrmidons of the neither world, satanic, and
appollyonic, and diabolic. 1t is beyond all
human effort to throw this bastile Of decan-
ters or capture this Gibraltar of rum jugs
And while approve OF all human agencies
of reform l would utterly despair If we had
nothing else But what cheers me is that our
| best troops are yet to come. Our chief artil-
| lery Is in reserve. Our greatest commander
has not yet fully taken the field. If all hell
is on their side, all heaven is on our side.
Now "let God arise, and let His enemies be
scattered"
Then look at the impurities of these great
cities Ever and anon there are in the news
papers explosions of social life that make the
story Of Sodom quite rsspectable--for such
| things, Christ says, were more tolerable fol
Sodom and Gomorrah than for the Chorazins
and Bethsaidas Of greater light. 1t is no I'M
usual thing in our cities to see men in high
positions with two or three families, or re-
fined ladies willing salemnly to marry the
very swine of society If they be wealthy
Brooklyn, whose streets fifteen years age
were almost free from all sigr of the socia
evil, now night by night rivaling uppsl
Broadway in its fiamboyant wickedne IS
The Bible afams with denunciatior
against an impure life, but three
fourths OF the American ministry ut
tering not one poirt-blank word against
this iniquity, lest some old libertine throw III
his church pew. Machinery organized i'll al
the cities Of the United States and Canals
by which to put yearly in The grinding mil
of this iniquity thousands of the unsuspect
ing Of the country farm houses, one procures
confessing last week in the courts that she
had supplied thu internal market with l5t
souls ia six months. Oh for five hundred
Pail MaH GazetteS in America to swing
open the door Of this laZar-h ouse OF socia
corruptionl Exposure must come before ex
tirpation, ,.
sin from the prison to the police courts morn
ing by morning, it is full time, if we do no
want high American life to become like tina
Of the court Louis XIV to put The millionaire
Lotharios and the Pompadours OF your BROW
stone palaces into van Of popular indigna
ton aud drive them out of respectable as
sociations. What prospect Of soc al puriaca
ton can there bs as long as at summer
watering places 1t is usual to SEQ youna
woman of excellent rearing stand and simpe
and giggle and roll up her eyes sideways be
!, fore one of those flrst-class satyrs OF fashion
! able life and on the ballroom floor join hin
In thu square dance, the maternal chlperor
meanwhile beaming fro n this wall on tn
scene. Matches are ma1o in helven, the
. say. Not such matches, for the brimston
Indicates the opposite region
The evil is overshadowing all our citie
By some these immorals are peccadiloe
gallantries, sccentricities, and are relegate
to the realm of POPULARITY, and few effor
, are being made against 1t. God bless tt
white Cross" movement, as it Is called, tn
excellent and talented Miss Frances Willard
,, its ablest advocate on this side Of the sea, a
organization making a mighty assault O
this evil. God forward the tracts on tn
subject distributed by the religious trat
, societies of the world God help parents
the great work they are doing In trying
) start their children with pure principles
God help all legislators in their attempt
.. inhibit this crime.
But is this alli Then 1t Is only questio
OF time when tho last vestige of purity an
, home will vanish out OF sight Human arm
human nAna human NnicaS human italian