The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-02-15
THE DRAMSHOP,

have fewer people in the penltentlary,
and there would be tens of thousands of
men who are now on the road to hell
who would start on the road to Heaven.
But the financial ruin is very small
part of it. This iniquity of which l
speak takes every thing that is sacred
holy in religion, every thing that is in
finite in the soul and tramples it under
foot. The marriage day has come. The
twain are at the altar Lights flash.
Music sounds Gay feet go up and
down the drawing-room. Did ever
vessel launch on such a bright and
beautiful sea? The scene changes.
Dingy garrett. No fire. On broken
chair a sorrowful wife. Last hope gone.
Poor, forsaken, trodden under foot, she
knows all the sorrow of being a drunk
ards wife. "Oh," she says, ''he was
the kindest man that ever lived, he was
so noble, he was so good! God never
made a grander man than he was, but
the drink did it, the drink did it!'
Some day she will press her hands
against her temples and cry: "Oh, my
brain, my brainr' or she will go out on
the abutment of the bridge some moon
light night and look down on the CLASSY
surface and wonder if under that CLASSY
surface there is not some rest for
broken heart.
A young man, through the intcrccs-
sion of metropolitan friends, gets
place in a bank or store. He is going to
leave his country home. That morning
they are up early in the old homestead.
The trunk is in the wagon. Mother
says: MY son, put Bible in the
trunk; l hope you will read it often"
She wipes the tears away with her
apron. "Oh," he says, ''come, don't no
worried; know how to take care of my
self. Don't be worried about me-" The
father says: ''My son, be a good boy and
write home often; your mother will be
anxious to hear from you" Crack goes
the whip, and over the hills goes the
wagon. Five years have passed on, and
dissipated life has done its work for
that young man. There is q hearso
coming up in front of the old home
stead. The young men of the neighbor-
hood who have stayed on the farm come
in and say; as it possible? Why, he
doesn't look natural, does he? Is that
the fair brow we used to know? Is that
the healthy cheek we used to know? 1t
can't be possible that is him" The
parents stand looking at the cash in the
forehead from which tho life oozed out.
and they lift their hands and say: 20
my son, Absalom! my son. my son, Abb
salon! would God l had died for thee,
0 Absalom! my son, my son!'
Lorenzo de Medici was very sick, and
some of his superstitious friends thought
if they could dissolve certain number
of pearls in a cup and then he would
drink them it would cure him of the
disease. So they went around and they
gathered up all the beautiful pearls they
could find, and they dissolved them in a
cup and the sick man drank them. On,
it was an expensive draught. But I tell
you of more expensive draught than
that. Drunkenness puts into its cup
the pearl Of physical health. the pearl
of domestic happiness, the pearl of re-
spectability, the pearl of Christian hope,
the pearl of an everlasting Heaven, and
presses it to the hot lips.
l tell you the dramshop is the gate of
hell. The trouble is they do not put up
the right kind of sign. They have a
great many different kinds of signs now
on places where strong drink is sold. Ono
is called the restaurant" and another
is called the Saloon" and another is
called the "hotel," and another is called
the wine cellar" and another is called
the sample room" What a name to
give one of those places! A Sample
room!' | saw man on the steps of
one of those sample rooms" the other
day, dead drunk. | said to myself II
suppose that is q sample" l tell you it
is the gate of hell.
oh" says some man, II am kind, I
am indulgent to my family, am right
in many respects, l am very generous,
and l have too grand and generous
moral nature to be overthrow in that
way" Let me say that the persons
who are in the most peril have tho
largest hearts, the best education. the
brightest prospects. This sin chooses
the latest lambs for its sacrifice. The
brightest garlands are by this car
buncled hand of drunkenness torn OF
the brow of the poet and the orator.
Charles Lamb, answer! Thomas Hood,
answer! Sheridan, the English orator,
answer! Edgar A. Poe, answer! Junius
Brutus Booth, answer!
Oh! como and long over into it while
draw off the cover-hang over it and
look down into if, and see the seething,
boiling, loathsome, smoking, agonizing,
disappearing hell of tho drunkard.
Young man, be master of your appetites
and passions.
/ close with a peroration. Ministers
and speakers are very apt to close with a
peroration and they generally roll up
some grand imagery to express what
they have to say. l close with pero-
ration mightier than was ever uttered
by mere human lips. Two quotations.
The first is this: "Who hath woe? who
hath babbling? who hath wounds with
out cause? They that tarry long at the
wine, they that go to seek mixed wine.
Look not upon the wine when it is red,
when it movcth itself Alright in the cup,
for at the last it biteth like serpent and