The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-10-02
THE CURSE OF DRINK.
Sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage in Brooklyn.
The Fearful Evils of Intemperance FOrci-
bly, DepIcted-The Power of Organ
lied Effort to Stem the Tide
of Wreck and Ruin.

G6Xbs
1t is my sons coat; an evil beast hath
devoured him.-Gen. xxxvii 3d.
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
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 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
generations; and there are tens of thou
sands Of fathers and mothers who could
hold up the garment of their slain boy,
truthfully exclaiming st 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
.nlants. Noah, as # disguised with the
prevalence of water in his time, took to
strong drink. BY thi5 vice Alexander
the Coneueror 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
1t have been quenched such lights as
HALEY and De Quincy. One hundred
millions are the victims of the betel nut,
which has specially blasted the East
Indies Three hundred millions chew
hasheesh, 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 surgar-cane; while
q great multitude. that no man can
number, are the disciples of alcohol To
it they how. Under it they are tram
pied. In its trenches they fall. On its
CHASTITY 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?
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 Keeling 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 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 hospital? Tamerlane
asked for one hundred and sixty thou
sand skulls with which to build pyra.
mid to his own honor. He got the
skulls, and built the pyramid. But il
the bones of all those who have fallen
as prey to dissipation could be piled
up it would make vaster pyramid.
The Sabbath has been sacrificed tc
the rum traffic. To many of our people
the best day is the worst. Bakers must
keep their shops closed on the Sab
bath. It is dangerous to have loaves oil
bread going out on Sunday. The shoe
store is closed; severe penalty will at
tack the man who sells boots on the
Sabbath. But down with the window
shutters of the grog-shopl Our laws
shall confer particular honor upon the
rum traffickers. All other trades must
stand aside for these. Let our citizens
who have displaced themselves by trad
ing in clothing, and hosiery, and hard
ware, and lumber, and coal, take of
their hats to the rum seller, elected tt
particular honor. 1t is unsafe for any
other class of men to be allowed License
for Sunday work. But swing out YOU
signs, oh we trafickers in the peace O
families and in the souls of immorta
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 come? Will it
do not know but that God is deter
mined to let drunkenness triumph, ant
the husbands and sons of thousands o
our best families be destroyed by thi
vice, in order that our people, amaze,
and indignant, may rise up and demant
the determination of this municipa
crime. There is way of driving dow
the hoops of barrel SO tight that the,
break. We have, in this country a
various times, tried to regulate thi
evil by tax on whisky. You may a
we'll try to regulate the Asiatic choler
or the smallpox by taxation. The me,
who distn liquors are, for the mos
part, INSCRIPTIONS, and the higher tn
tax, the more inducement to illicit dis
tillation.
Oh! the folly of trying to restrain al
evil by Government tariff If ever
gallon of whisky made-if every flasI
of wine produced, should be taxed
thousand dollars, it would not b
enough to pay for the tears it ha
wrung from the eyes of widows ant
orphans, nor for the blood it has dashe,
on the Christian. church nor for tn,
catastrophe o; the millions it has de
stroyed forever.
| sketch two houses in this street
The first is bright as home can be. TIL
father comes at nightfall, and the Chi
dren run out to meet him. Luxurian
evening meal Graduation, and syn
pathy, and laughter. Music in tn