Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-11-05

Co.. sof!o. In cemetery in Sullivan
;I IN IN this State, are eight headstones
fao q me and all alike, and these are the
r yiu.a IN 1861 diphtheria ragged in the
sncos se, ana physician was remarkably
fident S;a IN curing his patients. Socon-
M ~. uiu ne become that he boosted that
him ,"se OF dlphtheria could stand before
nro5 ; ana nnally defed Almighty God TO
p p.tu o case of diphtheria that he could
tool, Yrs re his youngest child soon after
aftar a sne alsease and died and one child
OF OF dlphtheria. The blasphemer chal.
.enged Almighty God, and God accented
the challenge. 'AN >'oo "'oep'eo
~! come later down and give YOU
t"e! mat is proved by scores of witnesses.
U.s. h's ias1 August of 1886 man got pro-
r .UAea AZ the continued drought and the
~ ia.n y! ms crops, and in the presence of
LIS LIS nelgnnors he cursed God, saying that
ne would cut His heart out if He would
some' calling Him liar and coward, and
ii.as1lng knife. And while he was speak
ing MS lower jaw dropped, smoke issued
rom mouth and nostrils, and the heat of
~ MS oooy was SO intense that it drove back
nose VINO would come near. Scores of
people have visited the scene and saw the
o14s Phemer In awful process of expiring.
10 not think that because God has been
91ient IN your case, 0 profane swearer, that
.ie ~ oead. ls there nothing now in the
pecullar 1eeiing OF your tongue, or nothing
tnat God may come to avenge your bias
pnemles, Or is already aveneinp them? But
these cases l have noticed, believe, are
only few cases where there are hundreds.
famllles keep them still to avoid the horri-
D4e consplculty. Physicians suppress
!nem through professional confidence. 1t
is rs very, very, very long roll that contains
the names of those who died with bias
phemles on their lips; and still the crime
rolls on, up through parlols, up through
chandeliers with lights all ablaze, and
through the pictured corridors of club
rooms, out through busy exchanges, where
oath meets oath, and down through all the
haunts of sin, mingling with the rafting
dice and cracking billiard balls, and the
laughter OF her who hath forgotten the
covenant of her God; and round the city,
ana round the continent, and round the
earth, seething, boiling surge filings it's
hot spray into the face Of ong-suffering
God. And the ship captain damns his crew,
ana the merchant damns his clerks, and
the master builder damns his men, and the
hack driver dams his horse, and the traveller
eeAAAAo VIZ pSOAC t1uG DTulS06 Ills IOOt, or
the mud that soils his shoes, or the de-
fective time-p piece that gets him too late to
the rail train. l arraign profane swearing
and blasphemy, two names for the same
thing, as being one of the gigantic crimes
OF the land, and for its extirpation it does
seem as if it We're about time for God 10
| arise.
Then 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
population. You people who are SO pre-
else and particular lest there should be
some imprudence or rashness in attacking
the rum traffic will have your son some
night 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 de-
moniac. The rum-fend has despoiled
whole streets of good homes in all our
cities. Fathers, brothers, sons, on
the funeral pyre of strong drink! Fasten
tighter the victim! Stir up the flames!
Pile on the corpses! More men, women,
and children for the sacrifice! Let us have
whole generations on fire of evil habit:
and at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sack but, 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 platform.
indict this evil as the fratricide, the
patricide, the matricide, the uxoricide the
regicide Of the century. Yet under what
innocent and delusive and mirthful names
alcohol deceives the people. 1t is "cor-
dial;" it is "bitters," it is an "eye-opener;;"
it is an appetizer" it is "digester;" it is
an "invigorater;" it is settler" it is q
"night-cap." Why don't they put on the
right labels" essence of perdition," "con-
silence stupefier," "tive drachms of heart
ache" "tears of orphanage," "blood Of
souls, "scabs of an eternal leprosy, !"
venom of the worm that never dies?"
the title of liquors to even hint their atroc-
ity, MS in the case of sour mash. That 1
see advertised all over. 1t is an honest
name, and any one can understand it.
Sour mash! That is. it makes mans
disposition sour, and his associations 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 mash! One honest name at last for
an intoxicant! But through lying labels Of
| many of the othecaries shops good
| people who are only little undertone in
health, and wanting of some inauguration,
have unwittingly 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 a treat on their coming to town,
and treat while the bargaining progresses,
and treat when the purchase is made,
and treat as he leaves town. Others to
! drown their troubles submerge themselves
with this worse trouble. Oh, the world is
battered, and bruised, and blasted with
this growing evil! 1t is more and more en-
tranced and fortified. They have millions
of dollars subscribed to marshal and ad-
vance the alcoholic forces. They noni-
nate and elect and govern the vast majority
of the office holders of this country. On
their side they have enlisted the mightiest
political power of the centuries. And be-
hind them stand all the myrmidons of the
neither world, satanic, apollyonic, and dia-
bolic. 1t is beyond all human effort to
overthrow this bastile of decanters, or cap.
ture this Gibraltar of rum jugs. And
while approve of all human agencies OF
reform, 1 would utterly despair if we had
nothing. But what cheers me is that our
hest troops are vet to come. Our chief ar
tillery is in reserve. Our greatest com
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