The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-01-20

| tESTLEMEN:-NOW that the press has
ceased its ridcule Of your homage to Nor
ply at the Revere House, criticism Of
little Importance, Il wish to present the
scene to yon in a different light.
You, Mr.. Chief Justice, represent the laao
Of the Commonwealth; to you, Mr.. Presi-
dent, is committed the moral guardianship
Of the young men Of her University. Yet
| find you both at a table ofrevclers, under
a roof whose chiefsupport and profit come
from the illegal sale of intox cating drink,
and which boasts itself the champion and
head Of an organized, fragrant, and avowed
contempt OF the laws of the Common.
wealth. No one was surprised to see at
your side a Mayor who owes his Office to
the votes of that disorderly band whose
chief is the Revere House. Few wondered
at the presence of Professor placed by
private munilicencet to watch over the piety
and morals of your College, Mr.. President;
though manly protest against fashiona
BILE vice might do something to redeem the
office from seeming only an housekeeping
|
men.
But you, Mr.. Chief Justice, know that
three-quarters, If not four-iiftIs, of all
crime result from habits of intoxication;
that nine tenths, at least, of all the muir
dcrers you have sent to the gallows had
never been murderers had they not first
| been drunkards You can look round
you. and back for fifty years, and see
places at the bar and ON the bench, once
filled by genius and hope, now vacant, -
their tenants in drunkard's graves. Yon
know how fearful the peril which modern
civilization, and especially popular insti-
| tntions, encounter from the cheapness of
| liquor and the habits of indulgence in all
our great cities; you know the long and
earnest labors Of noble mcD, for fifty
years, in both hemisphercs, against this
evil, and the momentous experiment they
are trying Of legal prohibition to arrest it,
resulting here in u stringent law against
the sale of intoxicating drinks. You know
also that the Revere House is the nsolent
|
which, defeated before the people, seeks,
by unbushing defiance of law, to oyerbear
opinion and statute.
And You, Mr.. President the moral guar
dian of the young men of our University,
well know its venerable statutes and I'M
ceasng efforts to prevent the use of wine
within It's walls. You know how many,
often the brightest, names on your cata-
logue, too early marked with the asterisk
of death, owe their nntimely end to wine.
Both of you know that the presence of
men holding such offices as yours goes as
far as recreant Office and reputation can to
make bad roof respectable.
Yet find you both at midnight reyel,
doing your utmost to give character to a
haunt which boasts its open and constant
defiance of the moral sense of the State,
solemnly expressed in its statutes.
No one denies, Gentlemen your right to
indulge what social habits you please in
the privacy of your own dwellings; or, in
travelling, to use the customary accommo-
dations of an inn, even though intoxicat-
ing drink is sold on its premises. Few
will care to eriticise, if, choosing some de-
cent roof, yon join your fellows and mock
the moral sentiment of the community by
Il public carousal. But while you hold
these high Offices we, the citizens of a
Commonwealth whose character you rep
resent, emphaticalIy deny your right to APP
pear at Illegal revels in a gilded grog- shop,
which, but for the sanction of such as you,
had long ago met the indictment itdeserves.
How can we expect the police to execute a
law upon which the Chief Justice pours
contempt by his example, How shall the
grand jury indict the nuisance of which
the Supreme Bench has, for an hour, made
a part? We, the citizens, have right to
claim that, should public opinion, by our
labors, reach the point of presenting these
gorgeous grog- shops at the criminal bar,
we shall not find their frequenters on the
bench
Again and again, Mr.. Chief Justice, have
heard You, at critical moments, in voice
whose earnest emotion half checked its ut
tcrance, remind yonr audience of the sa-
cred duty resting on each man TO respect
and obey the law; assuring MS that the
welfare of society was bound mp in this in
dividual submission to existing law. How
shall the prisoner at the bar reconcile the
grave sincerity of the magistrate with this
Needless disregard by the man of most i'm
portant laws? If, again, the times shonld
call you to bid us smother justice and hu'
mainly at the command OF statutes, We
may remind you with what heartless in
difference you treated the law you were
sworn and paid to uphold, and one or
which the hearts of the best men in the
State were most strongly set. Was it moi
enough that you let History paint yor
bowling beneath slave hunters S chain IL
enter your own court room? but must you
also present yourself in public, lifting t.
your lips tho wine cup, which, by the laws
of the State over whose courts you preside
it is an indieiable offence and nuisance t,
sell yon2
And leu me remind You, Mr.. President
that even your young men sometimes
pause amid scenes Of temptation, OF in on
streets. where every tenth door opens T.
vice pause at some chance thought o
han,a ar RISING REGARD for the sentiment q