Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-01-20

Asus ck.-.hov. w. ,. Lowry breaches
ut the Central.
The Saloon Scourge" was the subject
OF Rev. G. w. Goes sermon at Harper's
theatre last evening. The pastor took
his text from Habakkuk, ais:
Woe unto him that givsth his neighbor drink
tnal Pu'teth the bottle TO him and maketh him
Il an here this evening to confront the
great enemy of our times" said Mr. Cue
ito ha idle the greatest living question of
the age. The saloon issue has the world
for home. the flesh for mother and the
devil for a father. II stands erects mon,
ster Of fabulous proportions. It has no
head and cannot think; it has no heart
and cannot feel; 1t has no eyes aud can
not see; it has no ears and cannot hear.
Il has an instinct by which to plan, a
passion by which to allure, q coil by
which to bind. fang with which to
sting. and an infinite man in which 1t
consumes its victim" Mr.. Cue contended
he had right to arraign this class OF
traffic before the bar of public judg-
ment ard to demand its condemnation
de then went into scathing and bitter
srraiguInent of the liquor traffic, and in
language OF the most sensational nature
accused 200.0 saloons of the United
States of being responsible for seventy
I'VE per cent of the misery, shame and
woe that comes to the American people;
be tern ed the saloons greater curse
than American slavery and the evil re-
suits OF our late war combined. He
claimed that poverty, profanity. Ia ceny.
lying and murder were all the legiti>
mate offspring of the American saloons;
that they send TO our prisons 100,>
600 every year, reducing 100000 chill
dren to worse than orphanage; add 600,.
600 to tie long list OF drunksrds, and you
send more than $4,000 citizens to a pre-
mature crave, and consume 5000, 600, 900
OF money annually, while he argued that
less than $40. 600, 900 are expended for
the support of the clergy.
The preacher said that the city of
Rock Island supports ten ministers of
the gospel who seek to bless and save,
and fifty~one saloons, which he declared,
could no. point to one good feature con-
nected with their business. He credited
the liquor men OF Rock Island with send
ing 800 to the relief of the Johnstown
food suf erers. but he thought it should
have been $1,000 distributed among the
sufferers at home made so by the ss.
looms. He accused the saloon OF being
responsible for seventy>fve per cent of
the sixty psuper families existing in
Rock Island. He stated that of the 479
arrests n ide In Rock Island in 1880, 1877
were for actual drunkenness, and at least
that many more were caused by the use
of liquor.
II liquor is essential for medicinal pur-
poses, surely we must, he said, be a sickly
people and it must be something worse
than the grip to require the number of
saloons Il at there are in Rock Island. He
made the rather exaggerated assertion
that ''the sour mash whisky, the fer
mented beer. old sour empty beer kegs,
spoiled cabbage, limberger cheese, MIN
gled with tobacco smoke and filthy to-
bacco breath. pollutes the atmosphere in
front of every saloon half way across
the street, and that anything else producN
ing such stencil would be pronounced
nuisance ind moved out of the city and
assigned place along with the sbsttoir
and fertilizing establishment"
Mr.. Cue further declared that for two
hundred years this government has tried
to regulate the liquor traffic by law. but
it has always defied the law. Msjorities
can elect governor or president. but the
liquor traffic ignores maiorities, and cares
nothing for the will of the people. The
law in Iowa says liquor shall not be sold
in that state. but every wholesale liquor
esta blishment In the nation boasts that
they have evaded and iefed that law (;
and everyt ody In that business rejoices
In the fact that the law is broken. The
law In Illinois Is positive regarding the
selling of beer or any kind of liquors to
minors. We. hardly day passes that you
cannot see children on our streets carry
ing buckets or pitchers of beer. lie furs
ther said that there was not q saloon in
Rock Islar but what violated the Sun
day closing law Of the state.
The sale ons he accused of being the
rendezvous of criminals, and he held that
the crimes of the anarchists and OF
the Croniu murderers were concocted
in saloons. He made the assertion that
cit is estimated by those who have the
opportunity of knowing, that more than
one-half OF the young men of our city
frequent the saloons"
The discourse throughout was most
emphatic and extremely bitter denounce-
ment of tn, saloons. which were termed
cesspools Of iniquity. pest houses and
fountains OF desolation. II held that the
only way to check the saloon was to cre-
ate public sentiment and use the ballot
box.
He accused the business men Of sus-
tanning the saloons and said there are
few business men who are opposed to the
saloons and would vote to annihilate
UVl.. ~ .o;I xuas he fa,,lt IN,