The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-10-24
THE END is RUIN.

1t is one of the most deadly properties
of that slow poison, alcohol that it grad
ually sets up depraved appetite in the
| diseased and altered tissues of the body (;
it creates thirst that nothing can allay
but more alcohol. A drunkard once, in
describing the pangs he suffered from
this awful rum thirst, said "When the
desire is on me, il glass of whskey
| we're placed within reach, and | were
perfectly certain that il | drank it
should be struck dead within minute,
l would take it without an inItant's hes
itation !" This is one of the incidents
of drunkard's career that the apollo
gists for and defenders of the saloon
suffer to rest in discreet silence.
But 1t is fact that should be firmly
impressed upon the mind of every boy,
that should be taught in every school
room and Numbered from every pulpit,
that any indulgence, even moderate, in
rum in any form is liable to set up this
drink thirst, and when it is once estab-
lished the victim is no longer his own
master. The horrible craving of this
damnable thirst can be assuaged only by
more rum, and this in turn increases the
diseased condition of the body and rem
ders the craving still more Irresistible.
The only refuge is the grave. Life is
one long scene of temptation and yield
ing thereto.
Is it not plain to every thinking man,
then, that for vast number Of those
who constitute the present generation OF
drinking men there is not much hope OF
any reform so long as there are any pos
sible means by which they can obtain
rum To attempt to reform drunkards
and allow the saloons to remain open is
simply to play farce. All efforts will
be futile so long as temptation is open
on every hand for further indulgence.
And when to this consideration is added
the greater evil, that the saloon is the
drunkard market, is not the fallacy OF
the cry of the rum apologists against
Prohibition fully and completely ex-
posed The war is properly waged d.
rectly against the drundard makers; for
if they are swept away, no more men
will fall, and there will then be some
hope of succeeding in the work of bat
Ting against drunkenness in the individ-
ual. With the opportunity for indul-
gence taken away, if there is any moral
strength remaining in the victim there
is some hope of his reclamation with
the rum traffic still in existence, there is
practically none.
Besides, the overthrow of the rum
traffic is the shortest way of curing
drunkenness. Aside from the proper
guidance in youth, and the building up
of a firm and consistent moral charac-
ter that is proof against the tawdry
temptation of the saloon, there is no way
of reaching the individual. The law
cannot take cognizance of drinking in
the individual, so long as the traffic is
allowed, no matter under what restriC-
tons, until rum has become his master,
and he drunkard. Then it can punish
him, not for drinking, but for getting
drunk and transgressing public order
while in that condition.
But there is one practical way of solv-
ing the problem thus presented, and that
is the method of prohibition. Prohibit
the manufacture and sale, and you GER
tainly stop drunkenness and 1t is the
only practicable mode of doing it. The
most urgent need of the age is that this
great fact be brought home to the minds
and consciences of at least a majarity of
the voters of the United States, so that
they will unite in one grand effort,
through Prohibition, to crush out the
saloon and cure Drunkenness at the same
time.--TOLedo Blade.