The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-05-03
4 BIighting Seeurge.

because We like Il. Well. and this being
SO. what does this luxury cost2 At what
expense does The nation. Is a nation, crafty
its liking? l will tell yeis. It costs IN till
age the waste OF millions OF acres of soil;
in food. TIC destruction Of millions Of tons
Of grain; in hard cash, the deleterions alb
sorptiOu of millions Of pounds Of money. Il
Is. beyond ali question, the one main, il not
the sole cause Of the squalid. degrading,
and dangerous paurerism against which
some of you aill have 70 struggle hereafter
in the streets Of London and other graf
cities; and in the middle CLASSES who have
often to strive 50 hard, you would be snr-
prised if could show you how much they
might yearly save by this abstinence alone.
And though that Is someihing-though it
is a consideration not to be despised by
youths who Will soon have TO make their
way, with daily increasing difficulty, amid
tie hard competitions of an oyercrowded
population-and though it will help them
very materially in the stern battle fife to
have acquired simple and self-denying
habits, yet all this saving to individuals
all this saving to the nation of yearly in
c~reasing millions of pounds, which would
make II not only more wealthy, but also
more prosperous by incalculable advanta-
ges, is the least important point. In any
other connection you would thiDk this vast
expenditure, this colossal waste. a con-
sideration OF overwhelming Importance.
yet in this it is the very smallest element
in the question. OF far deeper, of far
more aw ful significance, is what it costs
in disease. what il costs in crime, what it
costs in misery, what it costs to the glory
of England now, and the hopes Of highlands
generations for years to come. | ave no
time, | have no heart to tell you all that
could be told under this head. ! entreat
you not to turn impatiently from it; nay, l
tell you plainly, yon have no right to turn
impatiently from it. For the drinking of
some means inevitably, as things are. the
drunkenness of many; and these Who sin,
these who suffer, these who die, are our
OWN FLESH AND BLOOD.
/ believe that there IS scarcely one fam
lily in England which has not suffered from
this hideous plague; scarce a house in Eng
land where there is not one dead. And,
oh, sit is nothing to you, all yc that pass
by?f' You have heard what drink costs to
this nation in money; what does it cost in
disease and accident? Ask the dreary
pages Of statistics, and you will read that
in so-called accident, but accident perfect
ly ~prcyentablc, it cost rs broken limbs.
and shipwTecked vessels and burned houses
and shattered railway trains, aud the
deaths OF children oyerlaid by drunken
mothers or beaten savagely by drunken
fathers; and to tell you what it costs in dis
ease, should have to- take you, not in fan
cy, but III hard fact, to what the poet saw
as as the result of incompetence in meats
and drinks:
"a lazarhouse it seemed, wherein were laid
Numbers OF all diseases-all maladie-,
Of CHASTITY spasn and iaeking torture qnaint.
OF heartsick agony; All feyerons kinds
Dropsics, and asthmas. and heaftEtcking
rheum.
Dire was the tossing, deep the groaus, despair
Tended the sick busiest from couch to couch,
And over them. triumphant, Death his dart
~shook-but delayed TO strike
THIS is what those who claim 10 speak
with authority tell US it costs IN sheer dis
ease; and which Of you is 50 ignorant d
English history, Of English literature. 81
English life, as not to know further d no
blest regulations stained, Of glorious intel
lects ruined, Of great souls embitsered, 81
invaluable lives cat short? And wh4t does
it cost in crime? will tell you, not ~ a
surmise Of my OWE, but On tie recorded
testimony, on the emphatic eyideace d
almost every judge and magistrate and y
corder Oh the English bench. gsneFabel
that those arrested FOR drunkenness % 10
furnish one 1.-THE Of tie drnnkzrds. ard
then shndder TO hear that, IN = single yezF,
2O3, $50 were arrested for crimes In which
drunkenness vas entered as d part Of tLs
charge; and that last year 5,f3l women
only think Of that, and 81 all the hidcou'
degradation, ali the unspeakablc horror
which il impiicsi-9ere arrested for drunk
enhess in NiddIesex alone. In every prov
inee, in eyer1cOunty, in every great city
OF the United Kingdom, it has been stated
from the scat Of justice again and again
that, but for drunkenness, there would not
be in England one-tenth of the existing
crime. 1t is getting a hideous common-
place Of judges. Only ten days ago Lord
Coleridge said at Durham that bat fol
drink we might shat up nine-tenths Of eul
jails. Last week was brought mp before
Mr.. Justice Manisty, at Manchester, z
wretcbed creature in mans semblance, who,
as though he were worse than a natural
brute beast made to be taken and destroy
ed, had brutality kicked to death a wife fAr
advanced in pregnancy; and the judge, in
sentencing him 70 the g%allows, said ''You
have been found guilty Of the crime Of viii.
ful murder. your victim being your own
wife. You are a sad, sad instance Of tho
consequences of
T~SDULGISG IL DRISK,
which has brought you TO this fearful con
dition. II is only owing 10 Gods mercy
that this has not brought many, many more
into a similar case. lam afraid tl,at il thi,
vice continues To be INDUCED in as it now
is, many more will stand ia . like position