The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-05-30
The saloon.Keepers Arraigned.

Alcohol we have said, is dangerous po-
ton, to be handled with extreme care From
whatever cause hundreds Of thousands have
for it an Unsuitable craving; If access to 1t IS
free and easy, they will swallow it to their
utter ruin and that of their families. Should
try, that, what with the dealers conscience,
aud the laws protective aegis, conditions
would surround the traffic to avert, as far as
prudence could consequences too disastrous!
Care is taken in the sale Of other dangerous
articles of commerce. There is a limit to the
supply, and strict rules are prescribed for the
statesmen. I will give the facts, known to
you as we'll as to me, in the case
Of alcohol-the facts as ordinary occur
renee shows them. Sal0on-keepers are
everywhere, wherever the craving for
alcohol exists, OF wherever it may be
created. The merchant finds them next door
to his store tho laborer across the street
from his workship during the day, near his
shRnty and tenement-house in the evening.
They track the crowd to places most sacred;
with peculiar prediction they erect their
stands near the schools, churches, and come.
teries The principle governing their trade?
To make money. Little they reck the misery
drink causes, If they are thereby enriched.
They deal it out to the tottering inebriate;
to the youth surely entering on life OF sin
and shame; to the workingman whose family
are enduring famine; to the woman,
whose virtue dies as she lifts the poi
soned cup to her lips. The saloon
keepers are aware that their customers
will be the next morning in prison cells, that
wives and children are invoking curses on
the heads Of those who rob them Of their pro-
tectors, but what does it matter them? The
glasses are still filed and the dollars rolled
into the till. Late hours at night, all day
Sunday, when all is elsewhere rest and
silence, they ply their business. There are
attractions of all sorts to draw men to the
saloon; there is excitement of all sorts to
awaken or increase the appetite for drink.
There are saloon.keeperS' organizations, the
leaders in which are the brewers and the dis
tillerS, for the purpose Of continually widen
ing out the drink traffic and breaking down
what opposition may be made to it.
| Eut are there not laws forbidding in this
traffic at least things openly nefarious, and
throwing some protection around the vic.
| tins? There are some laws; the saloon
keeper laughs at them. In America there is
class of men rebellious to all law, glorying
in their rebellion, defying the people to curb
their poger-the saloon keepers. And this
shameless rebellion against law is in order to
flood the land freely with alcohol, to make
drunkards, ruin families, fill jails and poor
houses. A newspaper, the organ of the
| LIQUOR dealers, pointedly asked the other day
| why temperance speakers attack men who
are doing bushes; just as others in the gro
cery or the clothing business. The reasons,
reply, are very plain. No other business
entails woe and sin, as the liquor trade, and
| no other business is lawless in its methods,
and defiant before the country, as the liquor
trafic.-BishoD Ireland.