Smyrna times., 1886-09-08
Rum and the Vicious Glasses,
BISHOP RANDOLPH S. FOSTER.

There is but one road to deliverance
from this pestiforous evil. 1t is not
obscure; it is the plain, straightforward
road of simple honesty in dealing with
a case of pronounced crime. The rum
seller is criminal sure and simple. he
must be treated as such in law and ad-
ministration. The brand of felon must
be put upon his brow; and he must be
made to take his place in the felon's
dock and in the felOn's cell, or on his
! glbbet. This kind goeth not out by
fasting. This is the position the
! Christian church must assume. and to
which the Christian States must be
forced by rightminded people. 1t
must be made impossible for legislators
and courts and the police, set for pub
! lie protection, to be complicated with
crime. There is no other road to sal
vatiOn. And on what grounds can we
| hesitate to take this? Whose rights
suffer thereby? What public interest
suffers thereby? What principle of
justice is violated thereby?
A felOn class has grown up among
us. Their criminal business is not
doubtful. Their practice of it is in
open day. The felony is clear. pro-
nOunced, the most dreadful. They are
robbers and despOilers of innocence.
! Their business is murderous. 1t has no
other quality in it. 1t threatens our
homes. 1t fills our jails and prisons
and pauper asylums. 1t creates de-
mands for armed police. II fills manv
OF our homes with miseries worse than
death. 1t has not one single relief.
1t is felony of the deepest dye, pure
and simple. 1t must be treated as
such. The felon's dock, the felon's
cell, and, if need be the felon's gibbet.
Is the only remedy for such a crime.
A sentiment must be vOcalized into
organic expression which will compel
legislation. The sentiment exists. It
mast be expressed in the only effectual
way, until a rumseller will no more
dare to open his house of death among
us than would dealer in deadly pesti1
lence; until he must, like other miscre-
ants-of which there is none greater
hide himself in the dens and caverns
OF night from the vengeance of hot
pursuit. Brand felOn on his brow.
huddle him with the gang in striped
garments. The business will then
cease, and the earth be delivered from
his deVilish sOrceries.
No man in his senses can saw that
there IS any other remedy, or that this
is too severe. All that is demanded is
concert of action. 1t will come. It is
at the door. There are men enough
not hopelessly debauched to vote such
laws. They will yet unite and rid the
earth OF this foul monster. 1t lives.
not because 1t can not be put to death.
but because we have not the will to
strangle it. Let Christendom arouse.
and in a single day Of brave work the
land will be freed of this vilest gang of
criminals that have ever cursed it. and
the prisons will empty, and the slums
will dry up, and the viscious classes
will vanish, and the miseries of poverty
and wretchedness will cease. If a
Christian nation so will, it can be done
III one day. If we will not, the Moloch
will devOur our homes and our chill
dren.
Moderation is counseled. Modera-
ton Who cOunsels moderation
Have we not tried temporizng policies
with this wild beast of nameless nos
session long enough? Have we not
sought to tame him with moral suasion.
TO melt him with the tears of broken
hearted WOmanhoOd and childhood bv
appeals to any latent humanity that
might yet be in him, by the homes he
has desOlated, and the victims bv mil
lions he has inundated? Have we
not resorted to measures of mild re-
preston only to see how futile thev
areF Have we not bound him with |
the withes of low license and high IL
cense, and hampered him with local
option and obstructive legislation ?
Have we not worn ourselves out with |
crusades and petitions and remOn-
strances? And have we not, DESPAIR |
ing OF any success with the beast him |
self, exhausted all possible methods of |
resculng his victims. only to find him. |
at the end of hundred wears of un- !
successful effort, still intrenched and
defiant?
1t Is seventy years since the great
Beecher stirred Boston and the nation
with his startling appeal. For half n |
century the impassioned Cough has |
gone up and down the land. creating |
by his appeals that would move q |
heart OF stone, moral sentiment |
Thousands of others have plead and |
Wept and prayed. For twenty years
women nave knelt on curbstones and |
entreated. The State still pampers
the beast, and turns him loose to de-
6auch and destroy. Where he had
novels he has now built palaces. The
low groggery has flOwered out into the
g-lded saloon. The scurvy miscreant.
once despised but patronized. has he.
come the acknowledged gentleman of
fashion. He has moved from his OBJ
scure quarters into the streets where
decent citizens live, and is toasted and
Jeted by well-bred men and women
lie has formed an Ostentatious league
ana banks milliens to defend his re-
spectacle profession. He calls conven-
tions, and sits, with parade, in deHber-
atlons of his rights and immunities.
and the public press busies itself with
reports of his proceedings md speaks
of him with respect.
Moderation, no! Who talks of
moderation in the coils of a boa con-
strlctor? We have temporized too
long. 1t Is time to talk and act like
men: a murderer, cold, heartless.
cruel, Is among us. Not the assassin
OF one or of family. His victims
count by millions. His butcheries are
daily and nightly within
sight of our dwellings. The screams
OF his victims, if we would but listen
would chase away sleep from our ewes,
lie knows the fact we know it. His
sole and only business for which he
lives, and by which he lives. is first to
debauch youth and innocence. and
then hurry the dishOnOred bulk awav
into a drunkard's grave, and pamper
and his family upon the price
Of his villainies. The teocalli of the
Aztec war god, upon which the ouiv-
ering hearts of thousands were laid. is
2 shrine of beauty compared with the
horrors OF this modern demon of de-
rum hole. We men
stand by and see it, and raise no hand:
nay, worse yet, vote the right, and take
The assassin of virtue and life bv the
hand and treat him as our equal. The
annals of human history furnish no
such parallel of stupidity and mon
strosity.
Moderation! No, no There is but
1ne way; it is plain and simple.
Treat the criminal as he deserves: let
criminal law do its function put him :
n the culprit's dock, which is the onlv a
place to which he is entitled; carry .
lim from the dock, by sentence of law
o the felon's cell or to the gang of G