The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-11-23
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
TELL II EVERYWHERE.

Why the Old Story of Rum and Crime
Can Never Become Embarrassing.
"'Tis an old tale and often told,
Of all tales it is the saddest, and more sad
Because il is true"
A few months ago l was invited to
address a Temperance meeting at
Chautauqua Point While seated in the
auditorium awaiting the speaker who
was 10 precede me l heard an old
gentleman of my acquaintance whom l
knew to be good man and sincere
Christian remark to one who sat by his
side: 1.-THE Temperance question is an
old story. 1t is worn threadbare; moth
ing new can be said about it, and the
people no longer take much interest
in it."
This remark Of my venerable friend
set me to thinking. 1t seemed to me
that any story that had for its aim the
amelioration of the sorrows of man
kind and the advancement of the moral
condition of our race, never could, and
never ought to, grow old. l remem-
bered that the story of the awful trag-
edy which was enacted on Mount Cal
vary had not grown old, and although
it had been related by pious ministry
all over the world, and in every tongue,
for nearly two thousand years, yet
to-day to the humble, penitent sinner
at the foot of the altar, ''that story is
to the people of Nazareth in the morn
ing of Christianity.
In vain may Indifference tolerate and
sordid interest sustain the traffic in rum,
yet, as the records of our courts prove
beyond refutation, it is the proXimate
cause of three-fourths of the crime COM
mitted in the world, and the primordial
cause of the unnumbered incidents re-
corded in the countless volumes of hui
man suffering and woe. 1t is not alone
the unfortunate victims of the deadly
appetite it creates VINO suffer through
its influence, but thousands who never
taste it, who hate it utterly and never
set foot in the licensed saloon, are made
to feel the shame it brings to the home
and tireside, or suffer the inherited dis
ease and pain which it transmits from
father to children for many generations.
ut won't hurt you if you let it alOne,"
and mo one need drink unless he wants
to, remarked licensed vendor, a man
of good moral character and temperate
habits" to me in sneering tone the
other day; and he continued: Every
pleases and no law can stop him." The
good mans face glowed with beer
and Indignation as he uttered this con-
densed bill of human rights in my ear,
and he seemed to think that he was
stating an indisputable axiom. Yet
millions suffer incidentally from its eff
fects because of their relationship to its
immediate victims 1t hurts thousands
of poor women who suffer the terrible
fate of being the wives of drunkards and
the mothers of their children.
Yonder assembly of men convoked by
law are listening to the old story OF
some deed of crime as it is related by
the witnesses. In the fury of drunken
madness drunken husband has MUIR
dereQ mis- wife, or drunken father has
killed his child, and a jury are investi
eating the crime. Yet mother and child
'let it alone" The tenement houses in
are filled with women and children who
are suffering from cold and hunger be-
cause of the influence of rum, yet they
"let it alone" Our brothelS and resorts
of infamy are filled with painted in
mates who were driven there as place
of refuge from the horrors of drunk
ards home, yet they ''let it alone until
tho 1iannSad dom on r,lYoo pa1oa 70 tbai
once happy home and brought ruin to a
husband and father, and shame to his
wife and daughters.
In prison is dissipated, criminal son;
and weeping over him broken
mother who ''let it alone" yet who
could not protect her child from the in
huence of the licensed rum-shops on the
highways and byways of business life.
Ionder gray-haired father who walk
the streets with his bead bowed in
grief too deep for human utterance,
ashamed to look his fellows in the face
because his honored name has been
stained with the crime of drunken son,
'let it alone" and he tried to teach his
wrecked and ruined boy to shun the evil
Of the licensed cup, and would have sue
,eeded but that the law sold to its ennis
saries the right to destroy him. Yonder
institution erected at public expense is
filed with poor little homeless
children of drunken parents, who
have been picked up from the
filthy streets and purlieus of vice and
clothed and fed by the hand of Christian
charity. Yet they ''let it alone" and
will continue to do so if they are not
tempted to drink by the owners of a
criminal franchise as they become men
and women. Yonder hospital is filled
with suffering victims who have inner
tied disease from parents poisoned
body, yet they "let it alone" Their
crippled limbs and plague-spotted bodies
are not because of their own wrong do
ing, but drunken father has left them
drunkard's legacy of disease and pain.
Over sixty thousand drunkards die
annually and leave two hundred thou
sand children who ''let it alone and yet
who suffer poverty, disease and shame,
because what father eats shall set the
,hildren's teeth on edge" The tax
payers of the country who ''let it alone
must pay for the support of the paupers
made by rum, and bear the expense of
the courts convened to punish criminals
A = IL