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

SAID. what nODle prov WiidC
fine eyei What graceful manners! What
'>rilliant prospects!' All the world
opens before him and cries, 'sHurrahl
hurrah!"
Man the second lies in the station
house The doctor has just been sent
for to bind up the gashes received IN
fight. His hair is matted, and makes
him look like wild beast, His lip is
bloody and cut Who is this battered
and bruised wretch that was picked up
by the police and carried in, drunk and
foul and bleeding? Did call him man
the second? He is man the firstl Rum
transformed him. Rum destroyed his
prospects Rum disappointed parental
expectation. Rum withered those gar
ments of commencement day. Rum
cut his lip. Rum dashed out his man
hood. Rum, accused rum!
THEY ALL FALL BEFORE IT.
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 pre-
scriptions cannot cure. Again it swings
it's scythe, and ministers of the Gospel
fall from the heights of Zion with
long resounding crash of ruin and
shame. Some of your own households
have already been shaken. Perhaps
you can hardly admit it but where was
your son last night? Where was he
Friday night? Where was he Thurs
day night? Wednesday night? Tuesday
night? Monday night? Nay, have not
some of you in your own bodies felt
the power of this habit? You think
that you could stop? Are you sure
you could? Go on a little further and
I am sure you cannot. I think if some
of you should try to break away you
would find chain on the right wrist
and one on the left; one on the right
foot and another on the left. This SER
pent does not begin to hurt until it has
wound round and round. Then it be-
gins 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, 80 God! o God! help! helpn'
But it 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 him? l
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 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 fiend. 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. IL drunkard hath
fallen into ditch take them right up
where they can see his face, bruised,
savage and swollen, and say, Look,
my son; rum did that" Looking out
of your window at some one who, in
toxicated to madness, goes through the
street brandishing his fist, blasphem-
ing God, a bowling, defying, shouting,
reeling, raving and foaning maniac,
say to your son, Look; that man was
once a child like you" AS you go
by the grog shop 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 lib
eral than you. always give my chill
dren the sugar in the glass after we
have been taking drink" Three of
his sons have died drunkards, and the
fourth is imbecile through Incorporate
habits.
HOW TO FIGHT IT.
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 So
briefly is higher than the question of
availability, and that however eminent
mans services may be, if he have
habits of intoxication he is unfit for
any Office in the gift of Christian peo-
pie. Our laws will be no better than
the men who make them. Spend few
days at Harrisburg or Albany or
Washington, and you will find out
why upon these subjects it is impossi-
BILE to get righteous enactments.
Again, we will war upon this evil by
organized societies. The friends of the
rum traffic have banded together, an
nually issue their circulars, raise fabu-
lous sums of money to advance their
interests, and by grips, passwords,
signs and stratagems 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 philanthropic societies
| tell all their plans / am in favor of
all lawful strategy in the carrying on of
this conflict. l 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 thing,
| do it. E'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 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 a. olOriOl1s work T think we are