The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-07-28

His hair Is matted. and makes him look like
q wild beast HIS lip Is bloody and cut.
Who is this battered and bruised wretch
that wss picked up by the police, and car
ried in d unk, and foul and bleedingl Did
call him man the secondl He is man the
first! Rum transformed him. Rum de
stroyed his Or spects. Rum disappointed
parental expectation. Rum withered those
garlands of commence uent day. Rum cut
his lip! Rum dashed out his manhood.
Rum accursed rum.
This foul thing gives one swing to Its
scythe, and our best merchants fall; their
stores are sold, and they sink into dishon-
ored graves. Again it swings its scythe,
aud some of our best physicians fall iuto
sufferings that their wisest prescriptions
cannot cure. Again it swings Its scythe
and ministers OF the gospel fall from the
Nights of Zion with long-resoundiug crash
of ruin and shame Some of Your own
households have already been shaken. Per-
haps you can hardly admit it. but where
was your son last night Where was he
Friday nights Where was he Thurs
day night! Wednesday nightl Tues
day nightl Monday nightl Nay, have
not some of you in your own bodies
felt the power of this habita You think
that you could stop. Are you sure you
couldl Go on a little further, and am sure
you cannot. / think, if some of you should
try TO break awry. you would find chain
on the right wrist and one on the lefI; one
on the right foot and another on the left.
This serpent does not begin to hurt until it
has wound round and round. Then 1t be-
gins to tighten, and strangle, and crush.
until the bones crack. and the blood
trickles, and the eyes start from their sock
cts, aud the mangled wretch cries, "Oh,
Godl Oh, God helpl help!' But 1t is too
late; and not even the fires of woe can melt
the chain when once it is fully fastened.
have shown you the evil beast The
question is, Who will hunt him down, and
how shall we shoot himl / answer, first, by
getting our children right on this subject.
Let them grow up with an utter aversion to
st-nng drink Take care how you admin
fster Il even as medicine. If you find that
they have a natural love for it, as some
have, put in a glass of it some horrid stuff,
and make it utterly nauseous. Teach them
as faithfully as you do the Bible that rum is
a iend. Take them to the almshouse, and
show them the wreck and ruin it works.
Walk with(them into the homes that have
been scourged by it. If drunkard hath
fallen into a ditch, take them right up
where they can see his face, bruised. savage
and swollen, and say, Look, my son. Rum
did thatm Looking out of your window at
some one who, intoxicated to madness. goes
through to the street, brandishing his fist,
disappearing God, bowling, defying.
shouting, Keeling, raving, and foaming
maniac, say to your son: 'Look; that man
was once child like you" AS
you go by the grogshop, let
them know that that is the place where
men are slain, and their wives made paupers
and their children slaves. Hold out TO your
children all warnings, all rewards. all
counsels, lest in after-days they break your
heart and curse your gray hairs. A man
laughed at my father for his scrupulous
temperance principles, and said: II am
more liberal than you. l always give my
children the sugar in 1.-The glass after we
have been taking drink" Three of his
sons have died drunkarks, and the fourth is
imbecile through Incorporate habits.
Again: We will battle this evil by voting
only for sober men. How many men are
there who can rise above the feelings of
partisanship, and demand that our officials
shall be sober men!
/ maintain that the question of sobriety
is higher than the question OF availability;
and that however eminent a mans services
may be, if he have habits of intoxication
he Is unfit for any office in the gift of
christian people. Our laws will be no
better than the men who make them.
Spend few days at Harrisburg, or Al
bany, or Washington, and you will find out
why, upon these subjects, IL is impossible to
get righteous enactments.
Again: We will war upon this evil by Or
ganized societies. The friends of the rum
traffic have banded together; annually issue
their circulars; raise fabulous sums of
money to advance their interests and by
grips, pass words, signs and strategems, set
at defiance public morals. Let us confront
them with organizations just as secret, and,
if need be, with grips, and passwords, and
signs, maintain our position. There is no
need that our anthropic societies tell all
their plans | am in favor of all lawful
strategy in the carrying on of this conflict.
| wish to God we could lay under the wine
casks a train which, once ignited, would
shake the earth with the explosion of this
monstrous iniquity
Again: We will try the power of the
pledge. There are thousands of men who
have been saved by putt their names to
such document. | know 1t is laughed at;
but there are some men who, having once
promised thing, do it. "Some have broken
the pledge" Yes; they were liars But all
men are not liars. | do not say that it is
the duty of all persons to make such signat-
ure; but do say that it would be the SavA-
ton of many OF you. The glorious work of
Theobald Mathew can never be estimated.
At his hand four millions of people took
the pledge. aud multitudes in Ireland,
England, Scotland and America have kept
it till this day. The pledge signed to thou
sands has been the proclamation Of emanci-
patton.
Again: We expect great things from in
ebriate asylums. They have already done
a glorious work. l think that we are
coming at last to treat inebriation as it
ought to be treated, namely, as an awful
disease, self-inflicted, to be sure, but never
theless disease. Once fastened upon q
man, sermons won't Gu him; temperance
lectures will not eradicate it; religious
tracts will not remove it; the gospel of
Christ will not arrest it. Once under the
power of this awful thirst, the maa is bound
TO 60 on; and, if the foaming glass were on
the other side of perdition, De would wade
through the fires of hell TO get it. A young
man 10 prison had such strong thirst for
intoxicating liquors that he cut off his hand
at the wrist, called for bowl of brandy in
order to stop the bleeding, thrust his wrist
into the bowl and then drank the contents
Stand not, when the thirst is on him, be-
tween man and his cups. Clear the track
for him. Away with the children; he would
tread their life out. Away with the wife;
he would dash her to death. Away with
the cross: he would run it down. AWAY
with the Bible; he would tear it up for the
winds. Away with heaven; be considers il
worthless as straw. ''Glve me the drink!
Give it to me! Though the hands Of blood
pass up the bowl, and the soul trembles
over the pit-the drink! give it to mel
Though it be pale with tears; though the
froth Of everlasting anguish float on the
foam-give it to mel l drink TO my wife's
VICE. to my children's rags; to my eternal