The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-09-14
TEMPERANCE.
Is II A TRITE suBJEcT7


IS II A TRITE suBJEcT7
He Who Thinks So Has Not Yet Really
Heard the Story In All Its Significance
How 1t May Become FrightfulIy New.
A friend of mine asks whether we
Temperance people are not afraid of
becoming stale talking, preaching,
writing Temperance until the subject
becomes threadbare, utterly worn out,
Until nothing can be done but endless
" and monotonously repeat what has
already been told thousand times.
| answered no. We only regret that
we can not tell our story oftener,
more fully. and to more people.
Worn out! By no means. AS long
as rum is wearing us out, wasting life
and treasure, running us, body and
soul, there is no danger that the SUBJ
ject will become trite. Let no one
turn away from the Temperance book,
speech, or story, with the satiated
feeling, ''Oh, have heard that be-
fore" The truth is that the subject
presents so many aspects, social, moral.
scientific, economical, legal, political.
etc., ETC., that there is not any imme-
date prospect of the subject being ex-
hausted or worn out. 1t is only to
the most superficial and unre-
fecting that the subject seems trite
and stale. The studious and capable
investigator knows we'll that there
are many relations of the Temperance
question which are but imperfectly I'M
derstood by even those who have made
of them the most patient and careful
study; that it is only within recent
years that some of the grossest errors
respecting the value of alcohol as
remedy in disease have been fairly ex-
posed, while even yet the most emf
nent physicians and scientists are in
conflict as to the food and remedial
value of alcoholic stimulants in GER
tain cases. Even as beverage, some
eminent divines are found standing
side by side with winters and malt
sters, contending for the use of these
lighter stimulants as both innocent and
healthful. And as to its economic val
ue as a taxable, remunerative indus
try, not to be suppressed but only duly
restricted and within these limits to
he fostered, one has only to read the
daily political press to find out what a
muddle and conflict of opinion there is
among politicians and financiers. The
truth is, that while every body is be-
ing hurt by the rum traffic, only a
comparatively few know of it, and
those who do know are by no means
well agreed as to what is best to be
done to bring about the remedy.
Then, are there not constantly COM
ing, both from abroad and from among
ourselves, those to whom the subject is
new, and who need to be taught the first
principles of the doctrines, duties, and
ways of Temperance?
In nothing are men slower to learn
and harder to be persuaded than in the
things that pertain to their appetites
and social customs. 1t is here that
they need cline upon line, precept
upon precept, here little and there a
little" Nor is there ordinarily any
evidence more strong that this work
has not yet been done for man than
the presence of disguised feeling that
it is only the threadbare, old Temper
ance story. 1t is certain he has not
even heard it, only heard of it, If he
has handled, he has not weighed it;
if he has located, he has not bounded
it; looked over the surface, he may
have, but its depths he has not
sounded.
Moreover, as long as human hearts
are wrung by the evils of intemper-
ance and the souls of men are destroyed
by it, so long will it have a present
vital interest. Nothing is SO old as hui
man sorrow, and yet nothing is SO new.
1t is the eldest story, it is the latest
sensation. 1t is wonderful how fresh
and vivid is suicide, murder, when
it strikes cur block Or our home. l
have just come away from looking
upon the face of suicide. The case
was that Of a former brewer, the men,
bers of whose family attend my
church ami Sunday-school. To me the
scene was sufficiently novel to be Gin
teresting." 1t is true, my daily paper
brings to me, daily, case upon case
of this kind. One becomes dreadful
ly insensil,le to such repeated hor-
rors. The rope. pistol, dagger become
awfully m onotonous. But when the
sharp pigsol-crack, as in this case,
breaks in on ones ears who has the
story to tell, it is the one unforgetable
story of a lifetime. -
Is not every story such an one to
somebody Could we bring ourselves
SO near to our neighbor as to be with
in sound of every blow or stab or
plunge that sends a shudder of despair
through a clcsely-related circle, the
one all-inciting cause of these horrors
would not be without a fearful, per-
sonal interest to us all. The story
would be new enough, and the struggle
of him who labors to put away the
cause of the evil would awaken. our
sympathy and enlist our cooperation.
I1epeat it, that the satiated, disguised
nearer of s'the old, worn-ont, thread
bare temperance story" has not yet
heard the story at all. He has not
pondered it. He has not gotten close
enough to the uncounted, procession of
broken-hearted mourners, who keep
up the, endless march to the dishon-
ored, hopeless graves of drunkards, to
hear their signs and witness their
tears. When, if ever, common fate
shall add him to the number, then
shall the story become frightfullynew.
Until then, let him that hath ears to
hear, hear what the Spirit, the voice of
humanity and the call to duty saith to
every one. But whether old or new,
our story or some other ones, let us
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