Connecticut western news., 1890-07-30

signs and stratagems set at defiance public morals Let us confront them with organizations just as secret, and, fl need be, with grips and passwords and signs maintain our position. There is no need that OUT philanthropic societies tell all their plans. I am in favor o1 all lawful strategy in the carrying on o1 this conflict. wish to God we could lay under the wine casks 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 putting their names to such document. I know it is laughed at, but there are some men who, having once promised a thing, do it. "Some have broken the pledge. :" Yes; they were liars. But all men are not liars. I do not say that it is the duty of all persons to make such sigma ture, but do say that it would be the salvation of many of you. The glorious work of Theobald Mathew can never be estimated. At his hand four mill ions of people took the pledge, and multitudes in Ireland, England, Scot land and America have kept it till this day The pledge signed to thousands has been the proclamation of enamel patton.
 INEBRIATE ASYLUM.
 Again, we expect great things from inebriate asylums. They have already done glorious work. I think 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 nevertheless disease. Once fast ened upon man sermons won't cure him; temperance lectures will not erad- icate it; religious tracts will not remove it; the Gospel of Christ will not arrest it. Once under the power of this awful thirst the man is bound to go on, and if the foaming glass were on the other side of perdition he would wade through the fires of hell to get it. Ayoung man in prison had such a strong thirst fo1 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 between 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 1t up for the winds. Away with heaven; he con- siders it worthless as a straw. "Give 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 me! Though it be pale with tears; though the froth of everlasting anguish float on the foam give it to me! I drink to my wife's woe, to my children's rags, to my eter- nal banishment from God and hope and heaven! Give it to mel the drinkl"
 Again, we will contend against these evils by trying to persuade the respect able classes of society to the banish- ment of alcoholic beverages. You who move in elegant and refined associa- tions; you who drink the best liquors you who never drink until you lose your balance, let us look each other in the face on this subject. You have, under God, in your power the redemp- ton of this land from drunkenness Empty your cellars and wine closets ot the beverage, and then come out and give us your hand, your vote, your prayers, your sympathies. Do that and will promise three things: First, that you will find unspeakable happi- ness in having done your duty; second, you will probably save somebody perhaps your own child; third, you will not in your last hour have regret that you made the sacrifice, if sacrifice it be.
 THE PLOWSHARE OF DEATH.
 As long as you make drinking re. spectable, drinking customs will prevail, and the plowshare of death, drawn by terrible disasters, will go on turning up this whole continent from end to end with the long, deep, awful furrow o1 drunkards' graves.
 Oh! how this rum fiend would like tc go and hang up a skeleton in you beautiful house, so that when you opened the front door to go in you would see 1t in the hall; and when you sat at your table you would see it hang ing from the wall; and when you opened your bedroom you would find it stretched upon your pillow; and waking at night, you would feel its cold hand passing over your face and pinching at your heart!
 There is no home so beautiful but il may be devastated by the awful curse. It throws its jargon into the sweetest harmony. What was it that silenced Sheridan, the English orator, and shat tered the golden scepter with which he swayed parliaments and courts? What foul sprite turned the sweet rhythm o1 Robert Burns into a tuneless babblei What brought down the majestic form of one who awed the American senate with his eloquence, and after while carried him home dead drunk? What was 1t that swamped the noble spirit o1 one of the heroes of the last war, until in a drunken fit he reeled from the deck of western steamer and wal drowned2 There was one whose voice we all loved to hear. He was one O the most classic orators of the century People wondered why 8 man of so pur' a heart and so excellent life should have such sad countenance always They knew not that his wife was sot A CALL.
 call upon those who are guilty O these indulgences to quit the path O.