The Cecil Whig., 1886-03-06
THE DELUSlONS OF HlGHLI-
CENSE.

THE DELUSlONS OF HlGHLI-
CENSE.
The Rev. Herrick Johnson, d. d.,
spoke upon this subject lately as fol-
lows: There are four things-four in
dutiabe things make high license,
as a remedy for the evils with which
we are cursed by the traffic in strong
drink, delusion and sham.
!. The first is that high license gilds
the traffic with certain air of 1rSbfc-
liability. And behind gilded vice the
most danger turks. The more out
wardly respectable you make the saloon
the worse you make it. The assault
upon morals and manhood is then sub
tie, insidious, treacierous. 1t is not
your open, outrageous, infamous sin
ners that do the most harm \ blatant
boasting Ingersoll is far less potent for
mischief than a willy and ingenious
sceptic wearing the guise of Christian
lty only to betray it. So it is not the
besotted and loathsome drunk ard,
swinging from his drinks to the gutter,
and crawling from the gutter back
again to his drinks, who tempts way
ward feet to the folly and filth of in
toxiCation. The saloons that keep up
appearances, that put on pretence Of
virtue, that claim to be decent in con-
duct and law -abiding-it is these that
play the mischief with our young men.
High license tends to give them the
guise of respectability. Five hundred,
or one thousand dollars paid to the
government for the privilege of doing
certain thing, gives to the one doing
it kind of dignity, and inevitably
stamps the thing done as business Of
some considerably increased import
ance and worth. High license may
possibly, though only temporarily, wipe
out few low doggeries. But it gilds
the saloons it authorizes 1t gives them
gloss and outward decency. Not one
inherent evil of the traffic is smltten by
it. On the contrary ii places over
the whole brood of evils i broader
brand of legitimacy. And painting
vice, we all know, is bad business. To
give respectability to an iniquitous
thing is to buttress 1t more securely.
Reform by that road is down hill
Revenue gotten on such terms-the
blood of duped and betrayed victims
will cry from the ground against it
2. My second point is that high Ii
cense indnccs Mr SaloOH-kccbe1S 10
resort to other e51ZS TO make good
their toss BY ii. They are going to
get back their license fee. That thous-
and dollars must come back into their
till. They have not gone into this
business OH philanthropic principles,
for the good of society. They will
therefore adulterate their liquors. They
will vitiate their stock. All, if they
would only water it-literarly, water it .
But water is the last thing they or their
patrons want in it. There is no sting
in water. Nothing to bring the drinker
back to his glass. So they ply the
stock with cheap drugs. They swell
its dimensions. They make its bulk
large by their decoctions. And it finds
its way down mems throats at ten cents
glass, smooth and pleasant to the
sense, only to prove at last the very
poison OF death, often making of men
physical and moral wrecks shattering
neves stealing away brains and deaden-
ing conscience.
But this is not all. Under the pres
sure of high license, and to make the
establishment pay back that large fee,
saloon keepers are tempted to intro
duce other features, to marshall other
forms of vice, and to Ink gambling
and harlotry with liquor selling SO as to
swell the receipts. And this is no wild
guess or foolish outburst of temperance
fanatics. 1t is the frank statement OF
our enemies, and out of their own
mouths shall they be condemned. Last
autumn the state protective liquor asso-
citation of Illinois held its annual meet
ing at Quincy. And the report of the
executive committee boldly charged
that there were "men lG the traffic with
whom the sale OF liquors is only
blind for the gambling houses and
houses oi prostitution, and who did not
hesitate to advocate high license in the
hope of running the poor but decent
saloon keepers, and thereby attracting
custom to their own establishments. If
men will not hesitate to advocate high
license on that ground, men will not
hesitate to garnlsh their saloons with
games and lewd women to make high
license pay. Carrying up the license
fee, therefore, may glld with an outside
respectability, while inside the way is