Lexington weekly intelligencer., 1886-06-05

| uOI SOluS " weary your IcdNcES VIII
a repetition of the familiar and wiu
statistics of the liquor traffic. The as
sessed value of all the real estate in thu
United States, and personal property
added thereto, does not equal the drinl
bill of the nation in % years; i. e, in q
years we drink ourselves out of the
value of our country, personal proper
ty and all. Thus the waste of healtl
and life produced by selling liquor is
appalling. Sixty thousand, perhaps
a hundred thousand die annually il
America alone from this business, anC
still larger number in Europe. I'm
these two countries Il human being
dies every two- -and-a-half minutes
from alcoholic poison. Arranged il
one long funeral procession, with Il
hearse and single vehicle for mourmcr.
for each, this vast army of drunsard-
would occupy twO-and-a-half wears il
passing given point, and would wind
twO-and a-halt times around this vasi
globe on which we dwell. Then, from
One-third to One-half Of the cases OI
insanity and idiocv in the land are
caused by this traffic. 1t does not
need an argument, ii seems To me, tu
BIoNC tibI man ~
i'm a business, that produces all these
terrible results. The rum seller has OH
hand a full supply of death-dealing
instrumentalities, an arsenal of deadly
agents, and virtually says to his VIC
Tins, "Come on now, | can produce all
the crimes known to the dark catalogue
of crime, all the diseases known to sni-
tering humanity, all the forms OF death
and destruction, and wretchedncss OF
which the human mind can conceive
No man has 4 right to do this and help
produce this vast waste OF life and hap
piness.
5lh. No man or set of men has a
right to license this traffic. A vast
wrong is always done, whenever or
wherever or by whomsoevcr license is
granted to such a crime breeding busi-
ness as the liquor traffic. Whenever
the protection of the law is thrown
around great crime and the producer
of crime and death, then a great wrong
is done. See poor woman, a drunk
ards wife, standing before the bar of a
saloon keeper, appealing to the hard
hearted wretch, and begging him not
TO sell any more rum to her husband.
"Come, see my bare walls" she says,
"my desOlate abode; we are cold and
hungry and naked. I,with my children,
have been driven often out into the
cold midnight storm, when he comes
comes home maddened and intoxicated;
oh do not sell him more. What does
the community and court that grants
license say to that vile rum seller ? 1t
says, ''FOr money TO replenish our
treasury and tighten our taxes We
will give you authority to rob that
mother and her children of food and
raiment, of home and comforts; you
may fire the brain Of her husband and
send him home to her at midnight to
drive her and her children out into the
streets and storm, to beat and bruise
and kick and kill her." This is just
what license means; and | say no
man, or set of men on earth, has the
right to grant such license. The
state has no moral right to license
crime or legalize the murder by degrees
of those who are SO weak that they
cannot resist the drink appetite. In
ancient times and among the Egyptians,
stealing was licensed by the govern.
ment, the salary of the chief robber
was fixed remuneration paid by the
government. Now, by as much as the
crime OF destl Dying the happiness and
peace of homes, of wives and children,
yea even the bodies and souls OF un-
counted thousands of human beings, is
greater than the crime of larceny by so
much is the crime and wrong of licens-
ing the liquor traffic greater than the
Egyptian practice Of licensing theft,
and the time will come when men will
look back with amazement TO these
times when good men advocate the
licensing this huge crime.
Thus have said, first, that no Imam
has right to drink Intoxicating liquor
as beverage; second, that no man
has right to sell it for such purposes;
and, third, that no man or set of men
has the right to license or legalize the
crime of selling it. And it is sufficient
proof of the correctness of these asscr-
tions. to simply state the tact that God
Himself had uttered woe against all
these three things. He says: "Woe
unto them that are mighty to mingle
strong drink" and lie says, WOE
unto him that giveth his neighbor
drink, that putteth the bottle to him
and maketh him drunken;" and lie
says too, on the same subject, "Woe
unto them which justify the wicked for
reward" which justify license to the
rum seller for reward. God Almighty
has recorded His terrible woe upon all
these three things, and thereupon |
know they are wrong. And now, let
us not be deluded as SO many Of our
fellow citizens are, and good men too
by the fallacy and falsehood, that we
must choose between two evils, the
least; that high license is better than
free whisky; that it is better for the
saloons to sell whisky, than the drug
stores to do it. Thereupon say they,
we are in favor of the licensed saloon,
as the lesser evil. This is the logic OF
many good men, but deluded men; and
ii is false logic. affirm to you that
we have no right to choose between
t~ o evils, the least we must reject both
We must 90 to God honestly ami
squarely and do right, fear God and
work righteousness, and choose within
a small or great evil, and if men will
not fear Him, or His woes, let us not
be found in partnership with them in
their rumselIing. High license is no
holier than low license, and for one |
will not choose it. III. Nj. X.