The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1886-07-10
The Demon Rum.

stroyer of health, happiness, char
aeter and property; the active
builder and furnisher of our aims
houses, penitentiaries and jails;
the originator and instigator of
contention, stife and murder, the
author of al the eoncomitant evils
and "nameless ills that render the
life of tho drunkard and his fami-
ly scene of awful suffering and
misery" What IL that great ma
tional sin over which we have
hitherto been Indifferent but
which has arisen up to Heaven
and called loudly for the walls of
Gods wrath to be poured upon MS?
The crime of rum-selling. What
is preying like deadly viper upon
the yitals of our constitutional lib
erty and threatening destruction
to our glorious Republic? The
evil of rum-selling. What has
polluted the holy sanctuary, taken
the minister from the sacred desk,
and converted him into raying
maniac, but the liquor traffic?
/ What means the Widows woes and
the orphans grief? Let the
graves Of its murdered victims
give the answer the rum traffic.
"Who hath woe? who hath sor-
row? who hath contentious ? who
hath babblings? who hath wounds
without cause? who hath redness
of eyes? They that tarry long at
the wine; they that go to seek
mixed wine. Look not upon the
wine when it is red, when it giyeth
its color in the cup, when it NOV
eth itself Alright. At last it biteth
like serpent and stingeth like al
adder" All caus al by this nefg
rious traffic.
| Shall we be accused in all d
of empty defamation? We he
seen everything holy in religio
exalted III intellect, and pure in
virtue, crumble to ashes under the
scorching influence of this dead
ly Upas
/ We have seen a young man out
rage the solemn rites of funeral
ceremony and insult the departed
spirit Of a pious mother by stag
gering and breathing the pe3tifer-
Gus breath of drunkard around
her coffin. We have seen the
drunkard, in his sober moments
convert his last days earnings in,
to rum, while at his poverty strick
en- home, his meek and suffering
, wife
Dealt her scanty stor,
To starving babes and wept 10 give no more.
We have heard terrified wife
and children supplicate for life
and shrek to a passing stranger
, to protect them against the savage
, violence of that wretch who hat
solemnly vowed to love and protec
, them. Who but the rum-seller il
, responsible for this hideous ant
: criminal traffic that produces st
= much misery.
Perhaps every one of You will
90 to you homes, where peace nnC
comfort smile, and nothing but
images Of beauty and loyeliness
shall meet your eye. But, ah
bestow one thought on the ten
thousand wretched families whose
, home of intemperance and vice
shelter the heads of their forlorr
votaries! Oh! how bitter the
winds IF poverty and wretched
, ness whistle around the drunkqrd's
! dwelling! How cheerless and
desolate his habitation! How its
: hapless inmates fade away and be,
come emaciated under the wither.
ing blight of want and destitution
The rum seller and his death-deal.
ing poison must be held response.
BILE for all this. Can we Innocent
ly see the brutal husband gorge
himself with that liquor which
causes his wife and children to be
come beggars and paupers? NO
. You will point the finger of bitter
rebuke TO that cruel homicide
which sells to him the "wine Of
. wrath" and measures it out by
r the pint, the quart, the gallon