The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-03-13
HIS PRICE.
The Value Which Loving Father Places
upon His Boy.

The value which II Loving rather Piaces
upon His Boy.
Consider me not avariciOus, my
friends, if tell you 1 have set q price
on my boy. This is necessary, from
the fact that 1 live in community that
puts price upon the boys, the girls,
the youth, the manhood and the wom-
anhood of that community. Then
judge me not harshly until you have
compared my price with that fixed by
the community in which live, and OF
which you and form part.
But before giving you my price, per-
haps brief description of the boy may
not be out of place He is now Just
entering upon the teens, the same dear
little boy whom we have nursed and
handled upon our knees, who has been
the object of our love and devotion
from his babyhood up to the present,
and is now the pride of his father and
the hope of his mother. He is in good
physical health, with mental faculties
all alert, quick to discern between right
and wrong, easily imbibing correct
moral principles. In short, he is
fair specimen physically, mentally
and morally of the youth of this
community, which, in its organized ca
pacity, treats him and all others as
proper subjects for barter and sale.
Perhaps you may ask me by whom are
they put in the market? who are the
buyersP when, where and how is this
Internal traffic carried on against the
laws of God and man? Well, I'll tell
you who, when, where and how, on
one condition-that is, if you will do
all in your power to put Il stop to it.
They are put upon the market by the
law-making power of this country,
this State and this municipality, by fix
ing price, valuable consideration
license fee-upon the payment of
which man is permitted to do, is Ii
censed and granted the privilege to do
that which he had no right to do until
he bought the privilege. Now, it is
clear that something is sold by one par
ty-the community of the law-making
power-and bought by another party,
the individual who intends to use what
he has bought; and that is the privilege
to sell intoxicating liquors as q bcver-
age. The permission to set up bar
and sell liquors in this way means the en-
ticing, ensnaring, enslaving, the moral
degradation, the mental wreck, the phys
zeal ruin and death of somebody's boy in
the vicinity where it exists 1t means
a chance at a hundred boys, with GER
tainty that more than one will be en-
shared and degraded. When the Ii
cense is granted the grantcrs know this
fact as well as they know that day fol-
lows night, and yet for the considera-
tion-the permission is granted-the
license is given. Is not this clearly a
sale of somebody's boy-together with
his health, his integrity, his intell1-
gence, his moral scnsibilities, his very
| life and all there is of him or in himP
And while it is a sale of somebody's
boy, who is to be sacrificed to fill the
capacious NAV of this monster which
thrives upon misery, degradation and
woe, it is the establishment of shoot
ing alley in my neighborhood, and my
boy (being human, and no better or
| stronger than thousands who have
| fallen) is set up as target, at whom
this skillful, fendish archer is permit
ted to shoot his poisoned arrows, with
an absolute certainty of bringing some
one down.
And am asked by Christian COM
munity-at least by the lawmakers
of what is called Christian people
how much l want for my consent
to this bargain, my assent to this con-
tract, my signature to this compact
with Satan and agreement with hell?
how high shall the license be? what
shall he the fee? Oh, shame! that in
this enlightened age such a question
can be asked! l answer, o We rum
sellers, 90 gather in your ill-gotten
gains for a thousand years, pile up
your gold until it is so high that it
casts dark and dismal shadow over
the highest mountain-peak, and lay it
at my feet, and you have not tempted
me. Go, bring from among your kim
bred as many victims as you have made
in ours-as many desolate homes, as
many bitter tears, as many heart-sobs
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, blood
for blood, soul for soul-and you have
only strengthened my resolution not
to sell. You don't wish to bay at such
price? But wait, | have not told
you all. Before you get my signature.
to this hellish compact, you must, at
the peril of your life, sever my right
arm from my body, disconnect it from
my heart and brain, before these fin
gers will sign your league with death.
This is my price, Mr. Rummy, and
these are my terms. No sale, you
say9 Very good. No sale, no saloon.
Exchange.