Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-07-28

''It Is My Sons Coat; an Evil Beast Hatn
Devoured Him. the Text-Vivid Shape
of the Evil Beast of Drunkenness That
Destroys Souls.
BROOKLYN, July 27.-Dr. Talmages
sermon today was devoted to the curse
of intemperance. With the hand OF a
master he drew in vivid colors the ap-
palling tragedies which this remorseless
demon has perpetrated. His text was
Gen. xxxvii, 80: st is my sons coat;
an evil beast hath devoured him.
Joseph's brethren dipped their broth
er's 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
today. A monster such as never ranged
African thicket or Hindostan jungle
hath tracked this land, and with bloody
NAV hath strewn the continent with
the mangled carcasses of whole genera
lions. 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 all ages and climes been
a tendency to the improper use of slim
ulants. Noah, as if disguised 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 intoxication. -Four hundred
millions of our race are opium eaters.
India, Turkey and China have groaned
with the desolation, and by it have
been quenched such lights as HALEY
and De Quincy. One hundred mill
ions are the victims of the betel nut,
which has specially blasted the East
Indies. Three hundred millions chew
hashish, and Persia, Brazil and Africa
suffer the delirium. The Tartars en-
plOy murowa, the Mexicans the agave,
the people at Guarapo an Intoxicating
quality taken from sugar cane, while a
great multitude that no man can num-
Der are the disciples of alcohol To it
they bow. Under it they are trampled.
In it's trenches they fall. On its CHASTITY
holocaust they burn. Could the mus
ter roll of this great army be called
and they could come up from the dead,
what eye could endure the reeking,
fostering putrefaction and beastlinessa
What heart could endure the groan of
agony?
THE EVIL DEEDS OF DRUNKENNESS.
Drunkenness. Does it not jingle the
burglars key? Does it not whet the
assassin's knife? 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 ex
quisite poet, from the very top of his
fame, fall a gibbering sot into the gut
ter 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 altar, and did
he not die of delirium tremens, almost
unattended, in a hospital? Tamerlane
asked for one hundred and sixty thou
sand skulls with which to build a pyra
mid 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 vaster pyramid.
Who will grid himself for the jour
ney and try with me to scale this noun
tain of the dead-going up miles high on
human carcasses to find still other
peaks far above, mountain above noun
tain white with the bleached bones of
drunkards.
The Sabbath has been sacrificed to
the rum traffic. To many of our peo-
pie the best day of the week is the
worst. Bakers must keep their shops
closed on the Sabbath. 1t is danger
Gus to have loaves of bread going out
on Sunday. The shoe store is closed;
severe penalty will attack the man who
sells boots on the Sabbath. But down
with the window shutters of the grog-
shops! Our laws shall confer particu
lar honor upon the rum trafhckerS. All
other trades must stand aside for these.
Let our citizens who have disgraced
themselves by trading in clothing
and hosiery and hardware and lumber
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, oh We traffick
ers in the peace of families and in the
souls of immortal men! Let the corks
fly, and the beer foam, and the rum go
tearing down the half consumed throat
of the inebriate. God does not see!
Does he? Judgment will never comel
Will it?
YOU CANNOT REGULATE WHISKY.
do not know but that God is deter
mined 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 demand
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 tax on whisky. You might as
well try to regulate the Asiatic cholera
or the smallpox by taxation. The men
who distil liquors are for the most part
INSCRIPTIONS, and the higher the tax
the more inducement to illicit distilla-
ton.
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 a
thousand dollars it would not be enough
to pay for the tears it has wrung from
the eyes of widows and orphans, nor
for the blood it has dashed on the
Christian church, nor for the catastro-
| phe of the millions it has destroyed
forever.
| Isketch two houses in this street. The
| first is bright as home can be. The
father comes at nightfall, and the chill
| dren run out to meet him. Luxuriant
evening meal Graduation and SYM
pathy and laughter. Music in the par
lor Fine pictures on the wall. Costly
books on the stand. Well clad house
hold. Plenty of everything to make
home happy.
House the second: Piano sold yes
~