The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-04-06
W ritten for the MONITOR
ONE OF RUNS OBJECT LESSONS.

BIZ MIS-. FANNIE H. CARR.
Some time Since in response to an earn
est invitation Of the Chaplain Of the House
of Correction at Holmesburg, near Phila,
we addressed the inmates of the same at
their usual Sabbath service. 1t was truly
unique audience that confronted US
1900 men and women, 95 per cent. of " HON
had been devoted subjects of X ing Alcohol
As we looked into their bloated and sin
marred faces and remembered that a gen.
Grafton or two since they were innocent
children, for whom some father toiled
meath the heat of an August sun and under
the sharp blasts of January, and that faith
er and mother together pictured a happy
and useful future for those who were
dearer to them than life itself, we found
ourselves questioning SIS it possible that
this is the outcome of toilsome days and
sleepless nights? Is this the logical Sc
qhence of parental sacrifice and care?
Surely an enemy hath done thisl' And
then We remembered that this was the
legitimate result of the Gigantic crime of
crime" legalized liquor traffic; that
fectually counterfeit or displace home and
parental training as the licensed saloon.
We also remembered that there was anoth-
er side to the sad problem, viz: that large
majority of these were (more's the PITY
parents, SO that there were some2 here in
the City OF Brotherly Love, or possibly
elsew here, host of children calling these
and such as these by the hallowed name OF
mother and father, and who would just as
surely in large numbers fill a feion's cell
in the near future as that harvest would
succeed seed time. Considering this We
are amazed that if from no higher stand
point than the economic one, the antbori-
ties continue to legalize a business whose
result is not only to necessifate building
like the House of Correction for the pa
irons of the same, but TO make the fact OF
their children being an expense to the
government Gin consequence of parental
neglect amount almost to a certainty. 1t
oNthi fACSdihP buCdH IA Wv &'SiN-es
woman, especially " hen it is remembered
that her political stains is with that of
idiots, paupers and criminals, to pre-
sumo to suggest to Legislators, but We have
licensed saloons TO dchumanize mothers
and fathers the least they could do by way
OF amends was TO take the children of in-
veterate drunkards and have them raised
at public expense. Far better that the
money now expended for the maintenance
of reformatories and penitentiaries, made
necessary in Numerous instances by me-
elected childhood, should be used in provld
ing homes where the influence would be such
as to preclude the need of the former, Illus
trating the principle that San ounce Of pre-
yention is worth pound of cure" But
Why license business whose fruitage is
misery and wretchedness and want, and
that ia great variety of ways. We can
see needs be for the grocer. the butcher,
the farmer, the merchant the halter, the
tailor, etc. We can readily see how ''all
and sundrs'' OF the above add to the com
mon wealth of the state and nation; how
each of these tradesmen add to material
comfort and well being But what plea,
either of moral, spiritual or physical adj
vancement, can the saloon keeper advance
to Justify his right to exist. And if, ac-
cording to eminent authority, the laws of
the land should be such as make it easy
for poor, frail humanity, enough at
best to do right and hard to do
wrong, what shall be said of a govern
ment that legalizes a traffic whose direct
result is to make certain men and women
no have Inherited tendencies to evil al
most impossible TO do right and almost
certain to do wrong We are no fatalists
and have no sympathy with those who
would excuse drunkenness in men or
women. Bnt conceding this, We cannot
close our eyes to law as plain as that Of
heredity and when to this, which is almost
as fixed as gravitation itself, there is added
the effect OF surroundings, what child does
not see that such people are terribly handi-
capped in the race Of life And if human
ity suggest the founding of homes for the
feeble minded and the unfortunate, should
not the same humanity, still further en-
iightened, remove the cause Of at least 90
per cent. of all and sundry of the misery
that confronts us.