Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1888-02-02
RUM AND RUIN.


H. 4. Maitldaf in n. Y. O6sernsr.
RUM AND RUIN.
The Fearful Destruction OF the Traffic In
the Congo Free State - What the
Churches Should Do.
The greed of avarice is remorseless,
and when nnrestrained, amazing. II
blunts moral perception. robs the soul
of humane feelings, STILES conscience,
dcfies God, and hazards the retribution
Of eternity with an air of supreme in
difference and thoughtless levity.
What record the grasping traders,
who sent in the year 1885 over ten
million gallons of the vilest liquors to
the wretched Africans along the
Congo, have made for themselves only
the books of judgment to be opened at
the last day can reveal. These traders
indulge in no uneasy reflections OF
personal responsibility. nor experience
any concern for the wholesale physical
misery and moral havoc with which
their infamous business is cursing
millions of a helpless and heathenish
race. 1t is simply useless to argue and
demonstrate with the distributing
agents of intoxicating liquors. The
public sentiment of Christendom must
be aroused to hold such enemies of
mankind in check. And to this end
the facts must get hearing; and what
are some of the facts?
Unfortunately, the negro, like the
Indian, takes naturally to fire-watcr.
He welcomes it above every thing else
that civilization can offer. He loves
the frenzied excitement and brutal
orgies into which it throws him. When
rum is at hand he deliberately aban-
dOns work and surrenders himself to
debauchery and drunken savagery I'M
til the supply is exhausted. 1t is dear
er to him than cloth, beads, gilt wire
and all other things. Indeed, some
of the caravans going from the stations
along the Congo to the interior, found
that without rum they could not make
exchanges at all with the natives; and
when the rum gave out they had to
give up business and return for more.
In many places bottles of spirits are
used, as currency is among ourselves.
Alcohol takes the place of specie
with this difference. that it doesn't
last as specie does. One missionary
complains that he finds great difficulty
in assembling a sober congregation.
Drink demoralizes faster than the Bible
can reform the wretched victims of bar
barism OH the one hand, and of the
white mans constituencies temptations
on the other. ITO procure it they will
join,' we are told. lin slave hunts,
and massacre their nearest neighbors.
Savage by nature, drink makes devils
of them, and renders all prospect of
raising them vain. The Congo Free
State that was founded few years
ago with so much Of eager helpfulness
and joy. is simply paralyzed by the de-
mon clutch of alcohol While Chris
tan people are giving freely of their
money and prayers and missionary
efforts to disenthrall swarming millions
from the dense ignorance and super
stition and fetichism of heathenism,
the liquor manufacturers and dealers
from Christian lands are doing the
devils work in awakening a pande-
monium of drunkenness around the
missionary stations.
How came this appalling state of
iniquity to pass Well, at the Berlin
Congress in 1884-5, which assembly,
it will be remembered. decided what
kind of government and institutions
the six great Powers would guarantee
to the Free State of the Congo. it was
ordained that free trade in every thing
should be cardinal principle. The
United States and Great Britain fore
saw that this meant distribution of
rum which would curse and destroy
the black man, with his inherent and
appetite for it. faster
than all the benefits of civilization
could improve him; and so they pro-
tested against it. But the German and
Dutch distillers anticipating the inn
mense revenues which such . field
put in their plea, and, alas!
won the day.
And they are reaping the enormous
profits. OF the 10. OOQ. 900 gallons Of
drugged liquors exported from Chris
tian nations in 1885 to the Congo
a0Q0. coo went from Germany and the
Netherlands! New England sent ISL.
go. eallonA and Great Britain only
s11 sSS4s and yet that wsS fars too
much. Meanwhile the doom of the
poor negro is fixed unless the con-
science and pity Of Christendom shall
unite to introduce = new order OF
things into his Free State. The treaties
and arrangements of the Berlin Con-
gress were to run for twenty years. ]
but so beastly is the Africans use Of
whisky that he win be hopeless3y
ruined IN body and brain - veil rs
soul By the end ef this period. 4 there
b 20 ni68ntiaa- IN tie espIse Of his
destruction AZ GhEisljaasE whiles slst
Issesaiag thsir .nisetonary ssal nnst