Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-28
fHE CURSE OF DRINK.
fntemperance a Vice That Has Cursed
All Ages and Chimes,
RUNNING TIE BRIGHTEST MINDS.
The Folly Of Trying to Stop the Evil by
Heavy Taxation.
WARFARE AGAINST THE RUM POWER

BFECTAL TELEGRAM TO THK D1sPATCH.i
BROOKLYN, July 27.-Dr. Talmage's ser
mon to-day is devoted to the curse OF intem-
perance. With the hand of a master he
draws in vivid colors the appalling TRACE
dies which this remorseless demon has per-
petrated. His text is Genesis xxxvii. 33:
sit is nv sons coat; an evil beast hath de-
voured him."
Joseph's brethren dipped their brothers coat
in goats blood, and then brought the dabbled
garment to their father, cheating him with the
idea that a ferocious animal had slain him, and
thus hiding their infamous behavior. But there
is no deception about that which we hold up TO
your observation to-day. A monster such as
never ranged african thicket nr Hindoostan
jungle hath tracked this land. and with bloody
NAV hath strewn the continent with the man
gled carcasses of whole generations; and there
are tens of thousands of fathers and mothers
who could hold up the garment of their slain
boy, ,truthfully exclaiming: 1T is my sons coat;
an evil beast hath devoured him. There has,
in ali ages and climes, been a tendency to the
improper use of stimulants. Noah, as IL dis
gusted with the prevalence of water in his time.
took to strong drink. By this vice Alexander
the ConQueror was conquered The Romans at
their feasts fell off their seats with lntoxication
Four hundred millions of our race are
opium eaters. India, Turkey and China
have been quenched such lights as HALEY and
De Quincy.
One hundred millions are the victims of the
betelnut which has specially blasted the East
Indies Three hundred millions chew hashisn,
and Persia, Brazil and Africa suffer the deIir-
ium. The Tartars employ murowa; the Mexi-
cans. the agave; the people at Guarapo, an in
toxlcating quality taken from sugar-cane,
while great multitude, that no man can num-
ber are the disciples of alcohol. To it they
bow. Under it they are trampled. In its
trenches they fall. On its ghastly holocaust
they burn. Could the muster roll of this great
army be called, and they could come up from
the dead what eye could endure the reeking,
fostering putrefaction and beaStlineSs? What
heart could endure the groan of agony?
WHAT INTEMPERANcE DOES.
Drunkenness: Does it not jingle the burglars
KEY? Does it not whet the assassns knife9
Does it not cock the highwayman's pistol?
Does it not wave the incendiary's torch? Has
it not sent the physician reeling into the sick
room: and the minister with his tongue thick
into the pulpit? Did not an exquisite poet,
from the very top of his fame, fall gibbering
sot into the gutter, on his way to be married
to one OF the faIrest daughters of New England,
and at the very hour the bride was decking
herself for the altari and did he not die OF de-
lrium trsmens. almost unattended in hos
pital? Tamerlane asked for l60 00O skulls with
which 10 build pyramid to his own honor. He
got the skulls, and built the pyramid. But if
the bones of all those who have fallen as a prey
TO dissipation could be piled up. it would make
avasteT pyramid.
Who will grid himself for the Journey, and
try with me 10 scale this mountain of the dead
going up miles high on human carcasses to
md still other peaks far above, mountain
above mountain white with the bleached bones
of drunkards?
The Sabbath has been sacrificed to the rum
traffic. To many of our people, the best day of
the week is the worst Bakers must keep their
shops closed on the Sabbath. 1t is dangerous
to have loaves of bread going out on Sunday.
The shoestore is closed: severe penalty will
attack the man who sells boots on the Sabbath,
But down with the window shutters of the
grogshopsl Our laws shall confer particular
honor upon the rum trafhckers- All other
trades must stand aside for these. Let our citi-
Iens who have dlsgTaced themselves by trading
in clothing and hosiery and hardware and luLn-
Der and coal take off their hats TO The rum
seller, elected To particular honor. 1t is unsafe
for any other class of men to be allowed license
for Sunday work But swing out your signs, o
ye traffickers in the peace of families, and in
the souls of immortal meni Let the corks fly
and the beer foam and the rum 60 tearing down
the half-consumed throat of the inebriate- God
does not see! Does He? Judgment will never
come! Will it?
FOLLY OF TAXING THE TRAFFIC.
do not know but that God is determined to
let drunkenness triumph, and the husbands
and sons of thousands of our best families be
destroyed by this vice. in order that our people,
amazed and indignant, may rise up and de-
mand the determination of this municipal
crime. There is a way of driving down the
hoops of a barrel so tight that they break. We
have in this country. at various times tried to
regulate this evil by a tax on whisky. You
might as well try to regulate the Asiatic cholera
or the smallpox by taxation. The men who dis
till liquors are for the most part, unscrupulous,
and the higher the tax the more inducement to
illicit distillation.
oh! the folly of trying to restrain an evil by
government tariff! If every gallon of whisky
made-if every flask of WINE produced, should
be taxed thousand dollars, it would not be
enough TO pay for the tears 1t has wrung from
the eyes of widows and orphans, nor for the
blood il has dashed on the Christian Church,
nor for the catastrophe of the millions it has
destroyed forever.
This foul thing gives one swing to its scythe,
and our best merchants fall; their stores are
sold and they sink into dishonored graves.
Again it swings its scythe, and some of our best
physicians fall into sufferings that their wIsest
prescriptions cannot cure. Again it swings its
scythe, and ministers of the gospel fall from
the heights of Zion, with long resounding crash
of ruin and shame. Some of your own house.
holds have already been shaken Perhaps you
can hardly admit it; but where was your son
last night? Where Was he Friday nighti
Where was he Thursday night? Wednesday
night? Tuesday night? Monday night9 Nay,
have not some of you in your own bodies felt
the power of this habitf You think that you
could stop? Are you sure you could? 60 on
little further, and / am sure you cannot l
think if some of you should try to break away,
you would ind chain on the night wrist and
one on the left, one on the right foot and ar
other on the left This seTp pent does not begin
70 hurt until it has wound round and round.
Then it begins to tighten and strangle and
crush until the bones crack and the blood
trickles and the eyes start from their sockets,
and the mangled wretch cries, 20 Godl o God!
helpi helpr' But ii is too late; and not even the
fires of woe can melt the cham when once 1t is
fully fastened.
WARN THE CHILDREN.
have shown you the evil beast The ques-
tiou is Who will hunt him down and how shall
We shoot himf ! answer, First. by getting our
children right on this subject. Let them grow
up with an utter aversion to strong drink
Take care how you administer it even as medi-
cine. 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 fiend. Take them to the aims
house, and show them the wreck and ruin it
works Walk with them into the homes that
have been scourged by il. If drunkard hath
fallen into a ditch, take them right up where
they see his face, bruised, savage, and
swollen, and say, Look, my SON. Rum did
that! Looking out of your window at some
one who intoxicated to madness, goes through
the street, brandishing his fist, blasphemlng
God, bowling. defying. shouting, reellng,
ravlng and foaming maniac, say to your son,
Look; that man was once child like YOU"
As you 90 by the grogshop. let them know
that that is the place where mer are slain, and
their wives made paupers, and their children
slaves. Hold out to your children all warn
ings, 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: Il
am more liberal than you. 1 always give my
children the sugar in the glass after we have
been taking drink" Three of his sons have
died drunkards, and the fourth is imbecile'
through intemperate habits.