The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-06-22
A NEEDED SUBSTITUTE,

| Something to Take the Place of the so-
| cial Features of the Saloon - Coffee
Houses an Auxiliary to the Temper
ance Work.
1.-THE saloon must go" is the cry of
the day among Temperance reformers-
Amen! 1t can not go too soon or be
abolished too completely Any thing
that promises to effect this devoutly-
to-be-desired contamination may count
on us for support, and on every wide
awake Christian man, whose eyeshave
been opened to the appalling evils of
the drink traffic. ..,
But there is another work that can,
that should, go hand in hand with the
abolition of the saloon. In the work
of reform, as in every thing else, neg
alive measures are not enough. We
must not stop with pulling down, we
must build up; it is not enough to
crush out bad institution. we should
put better in its place. The parable
of our Lord about the man from whom
the demon was cast out, and who after
wards returned with seven demons
worse than himself, because the man
had not permitted his heart to be filed
by better occupant, certainly has an
application to the demon of strong
drink. Either an individual or COM
munity that casts out this demon must
make haste to supply his place with a
better occupant, or he will return, and
the last state will be worse than the
first.
Now, the saloon, vile as it is and
great as is the evil that it does, sup.
plies want in the community, espe-
cially in the large ciSies-the want of
o well-lighted, well-warmed, cheerful
place for social intercourse. A works
ing-man who has worked all day in
hot, vile-smelling factory, and goes
home to two stutfy and perhaps dirty
rooms in tenement-house, is naturalo
ly ready to seek a more attractive
place for spending his evening so soon
as he has swallowed his supper. The
saloon offers certain attractions for
men in this state of mind, and for
women, too, who have been shut up in
a tenement-house or a shop all day
and are longing for little change
and recreation. Many of the fire.
ouenters of city saloons are not yet
vicious or fallen, but go there because
they get company and comfort. They
take glass of beer, not because they
care for the drink, but because this is
the way to pay for the privilege OF
staying there.
For the saloon as a social institution
there must be substitute, aud that
substitute is the coffee-house. In Lon
don the coffee-house has long been an
institution of the Temperance cause
that has met with great success. Why
should not the working-man be able to
get good cup of coffee, read news
paper and enjoy the society of his fell
lows awhile for the same sum, or even
for less. that he spends in saloon
for the same privileges? Heshould be-
able. and if half our so-called "chari-
ty' that is misspent in making paupers
of people able to earn their own bread
were devoted to the establishment Of
such coffee-houses great and good
| work would ne done, -
There is no reason whatever why
coffee-houses should be eeemosynary
institutions. If rightly managed they
will pay expenses, and a small profit on
the capital invested, They should be-
fitted up as cheerfully as the average
saloon, and be kept with scrupulous
neatness and order. Multitudes of men
and women would choose such a resort
as this for spending their evenings if
choice were offered between the
coffee-house and the saloon. They
take the saloon now because it is tho
only thing of the kind that opens ifa
doors to them, not because they pre-
fer it to any thing else. And even in
the case of those who are more or less
enslaved by their appetites, tho work
of reformation would be greatly
helped if there was offered to them a
clean and cheerful coffee-house, where
all the social delights of the saloon
might be had without the drink that
destroys manhood. -,
We hope, ere long, to see large ex-
tension of the coffee-house system in
this country. It has had some local
success in few trials, and has failed
in others through want of good bust
ness management. What better work
could the Women's Christian Union
do than engage in this labor, for which
Christian women are pee aliarly fitted
IN. Y. Examiner. o.,