Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-09-10
RUM AND THE VICIOUS
CLASSES.
BY BISHOP Il. s. FOSTER.

4Auh Aoi uoulenJ tnaC tl1S chr1StendOm
eas authorized by law and sanction of the
Eate the creation of this frighful pest gang:
That 1t has provided for its creation. THAT It
is here, not in opposition to, but of her will:
that by formal and deliberate legislation.
brought about by Christian votes, she has
opened, in all her towns and cities, slaueh-
ter. houses of men, women, and children.
and of oil virtue, and employs a million
mnlons to do this dreadful work; that she
mas done this, and continues to do it with
her eyes open, and with full knowledge
and purpose; that she has prepared and
planned and deliberated in government
chambers for the production of these
desperate classes; that her employed
and licensed minions do this for pay.
For generation christendom has been
! hearing q low growl from the kennel,
where she is battening these wild beasts of
passion--a growl in the kennel as they
have crunched their victims. "What means
the roar to-day all along Trafalgar Square
and London streets?" 1t is the beast,
loose and shaking his name. Pamper him
little more on Government joints, aud no
kennel bars will hold him. Fitted for raven,
he will raven to the full. Rum engenders
poverty; poverty and rum engender crime.
From the Government rumshop the wild
beast hunts his prey. Is christendom
struck with Judicial blindness, that she
sleeps. Are her eyes holden, that she can
not see? There are armies marching and
counter marching, with banners on which
are emblazoned dynamite, anarchism, COM
munism, nihilism, labor league, no Sab
bath, down with the church and state, re-
cruited from the dramshop and
offered from the kennel. Are we
SO deaf that we do not hear the
tramp Of the gathering legions?
Nations that license murder for pay
will be murdered for plumber; nations that
batten the wild beast of passion will be de-
voured by the wild beasts of rapine and
ruin. The rum-hole must be closed, or the
rum-hell viii engulf christendom. What
shall be done with Christian rum is the
problem. What shall become of the
Christian world? Answer it with license, or
authorization, or temporizing policies, is it
difficult b see the end? Strike it down:
cage the beasts that vend the frenzy in the
only placb to which they belong-the crimi-
nal cell and the kennel will dispense.
There id but one remedy. We have had
experieN(e enough to have learned what
that is. The nation must put an end TO
Transforming men into beasts bv law, and
must put the beasts who do it into limbo
where their sorceries will cease. The con-
fiict is now upon us. It is life-and-
death strhggle. The government is on the
side of Ehe beasts: the people make the
governm INT. Shall the rum fend still
carry on his carnival of death? Shall the
rum min Ions at the still. behind the bar. at
the bar, in the gutter, or in the mansion,
rule? Or is there enough of manhood
among us to save christendom from the
damnins shame? The answer we make to
hot rra LOT foko
Christie unity has not power to save christen-
dom, VI here is our hope? With what face,
then, cen we go to the heather? There is
no devil -worshiper in Africa more degrad-
ed, more lost to all sense of shame, than
the demon worshiper of rum; no high
priest pf the sorceries of heathenism more
diabolized than the minions of Christian
states authorized to manufacture and vend
the poison. Paganism can muster no mis-
creapts from all her realms more debased
thant the rum army; no fostering pesthouse
net even the Chinese opium den-more
deadly to virtue than the Christian rum.
hole. Must it be endured longer? Mus
the race be doomed to go into the future
with this milestone fastened about its necl
by legislators of Christian states? Are
our tyrants too much for us? Then fare
well to hope.
Who doubts that there is remedy fol
this state of things? It is not unknown
The evil is rampant not of necessity, but
because we have not the courage or the de.
sire to apply the remedy. 1t is simply
needed that right minded people combine
Of CRYING evil, the church must lead in
the reform. This is her most peculiar
province. 1t comes in the line Of the great
class of moral issues of which she is the
recognized guardian. 1t cannot be effected
by moral suasion, by sermons, by prayers
or by the abstinence Of the well-disposed
It is case where the arm of the law and
force repressive is the only resort. It be.
longs to the department of crimes, and
must of necessity be met by criminal Law
faithfully executed. The rum seller is o
criminal, and must be held amenable tc
criminal law. The traffic must cease to be
treated as question of rights and liberty
of individual choice, as the pursuit of 6
legitimate calling, as much SO as
theft, or murder, or any other crime
1t belongs to the same category
and nothing but sophistry can give it any
other place. the rumseller is an unmiti,
gated enemy Of society, dangerous to pub
dye. He has been petted by the state
responsibility has been thrown around his
most atrocious crime; he has been protect.
ed in it by the law; he has been authorized
by moneyed license to practice it. He has
been permitted to live among us free, re-
spected citizen, pursuing legitimate call.
ing to hold up his head and walk the street:
as the equal of respectable men; has be-
come the boon companion of law makers
permitted to appear in court and sit on ju.
ries as a virtuous citizen. He has been al.
lowed to open his doors upon the public
streets, and drive his business in open day
the peer of honorable tradesmen. So long
as this remains, his business will flourish.
There is no moral power that can reach him
He will continue to be defiant and grow
more contemptuous of decency every day
There is but one road of deliverance
from this pestiferous evil. 1t is not OBJ
scure; it is the plain, straightforward road
of simple honesty in dealing with a case Of
pronounced crime. The rumseller is &
criminal pure and simple; he must be
treated US such in law and administration
The brand of felon must be put upon his
brow; and he must be made to take his
place in the felon's dock and in the felon's
cell, or on his gibbet This kind goeth moi
out by fasting. This is the position the
Christian church must assume, and tc
which the Christian states must be forced
by right-minded people. 1t must be made
impossible for legislators and courts and
| 81 10 IL