Milford chronicle., 1891-03-06

InlS AOUn AllQ Llle ntSu anu AllG WIS
thing for the world. He built an arl
against the deluge Of water, but intro
duced a deluxe against which the humal
race has over since been trying to bulid al
ark-tns deluge of drunkenness. In m.
text we hear his staggering steps. Shen
and Japhet tried to cover mp the dis
grace, but there he is, drunk on wine at 1
time in the history of the world, when, Il
say the least, there was no lack of water
( [nebriation, having entered the world, hai
not retreated. Abigail, the fair and heroic
wife. who saved the hocks of Nabal, he
husband. from confscation by invaders
/ goes home at night and finds him so intoX
/ icated she cannot tell him the story of his
narrow escape. Uriah came to see David
/ and David got him drunk and paved th'
/ way for the despoliation Of household
I Even the church bishops needed to b'
/ charged to be sober and not given to toe
/ much wine, and so familiar were people Of
/ Bible times with the staggering and fall
I ing motion of the inebriate that Isaiah
when he comes to describe the final dislO
cation Of worlds, says, "The earth shall
reel TO and fro like a drunkard.p
WORLD WIDE TEMPTATION.
Ever since apples and grapes and wheat
grew the world has been tempted to un
healthful stimulants But the intoXicants
of the olden time were an innocent bever
age, a harmless orangeade, a quiet sirup, q
peaceful soda water as compared with the
liquids of modern inebriation, into which a
madness, and fury, and aglOom, and afire,
and a suicide, and a retribution have mixed
and mingled Fermentation was always
known, but it was not until thousand
years after Christ that distillation was in
vented While we must confess that some
of the ancient arts have been lost, the
Christian era is superior to all Others in
the bad eminence Of whisky and rum and
gin. The modern drunk is a hundred fold
worse than the ancient drunk. Noah in
his intoxication became imbecile, but the
victims of modern alcoholism have to
struggle with whole menageries Of wild
beasts, and jungles of kissing serpents, and
perditiOns of disappearing demons.
An arch fiend arrived in our world, and
he built an invisible caldrOn of tenpta-
ton. He built that oaldron strong and
stout for all ages and all nations. First
he squeezed into the caldron the juices Of
the forbidden fruit Of Paradise. Then be
gathered for it a distiilation from the har-
vest fields and the orchards Of the henis-
pheres Then he poured into this caldron
capsicum and copperas and logwood and
deadly nightshade and assault and battery
and vitriol and opium and rum and mur-
der and sulphuric acid and theft and pot
ash and cochineal and red carrots and pov-
erty and death and hops. But it was dry
compound and it must be moistened, and
it must be liquehed, and so the arch fend
poured into that caldron the tears of cent
uries of orphanage and widowhood, and
he poured in the blood of twenty thousand
assassinations.
And then the arch hend took shovel
that he had brought up from the furnaces
beneath, and he put that shovel into this
great caldron and began to stir, and the
caldron began to heave and rock and boil
and sputter and hiss and smoke, and the
nations gathered around it with cups and
tankards and demijohns and kegs, and
there was enough for all, and the arch
fend cried: "Abal champion fiend am II
Who has done more than have for collins
and graveyards' and prisons and insane
asylums, and the populating Of the lost
worldP And when this caldron is emp
tied III Gil it again and III stir il again,
and it will smoke again, and that smoke
will Join another smoke, the smoke OF
torment that ascendeth for ever and ever
/ drove fifty ships on the rocks of New
foundland, and the Skerries, and the
Goodwins. ! have ruined more senators
than gather this winter in the national
councils. ! have ruined more lords
than are now gathered in the house
of peers The cup out of which
ordinarily drink is Il bleached human
skull, and the upholstery Of my palace is
so rich a crimson, because it is'dyed in hu-
man gore and tile mosaic Of my floors is
made up Of the bones Of children dashed to
death by drunken parents, and my favorite
than Te Deum or triumph
al march-my favoriUe music is the cry Of
turned out at midnight on the
street because father has come home from
the carousal, and tile seven hundred voiced
shrek Of the sinking steamer, because the
captain was not himself when he put the
ship on the wrong course. Champion fend
am II ! have kindled more fires, ! have
wrung out more agonies, ! have stretched
out more midnight shadows, / have opened 1
more Golgothas, have rolled more jug
gernauts, / have damned more souls than !
any other emissary of diabolism. Cham /
pion nend am Il"
4 THE NATIONS GREATEST. EVIL
Drunkenness is the greatest evil Of this |
nation, and it tl.l1es no logical process to |
prove to this audience that a drunken ma |
lion cannot long be free nation. call |
your attention to the fact that drunken |
ness is not subsiding, certainly that it is |
not at a astandstill, but that it is on an on |
ward march, and it is a double quick. I
There is more rum swallowed in this coun
,ry, and Of a worse kind than was ever
iwallowed since the first distillery began
Is work of DEATH Where there WIS one
drunken home there are ten drunken
ZONES Where there was one drunkard's
grave there are twenty drunkards' graves.
e is on the increase. Talk about crooked
yhisky-by which men mean the whisky
hat does not pay the tax to government
tell you all strong drink Is crooked, 4
Crooked Otard, crooked Cognac, crooked 4
crooked beer, crooked wine, j
rocked whisky-beoapse it makes q mans
lath crooked, and his life crooked, and his
leath crooked and his eternity crooked.
I'LL could gather all the armies Of the
cad drunkards ana have them come to
and then add to that host all
he armies of living drunkards, five and
en- abreast, and then if ! could have you
Mount horse and ride along that lno fQr
eview, you would ride that horse until no
ropped from exhaustion and YOU would
Mount another horse and ride until he fell
rom exhaustion, and you would take am
ther and another, and you would ride
long hour after hour and day after day,
treat host. in regiments, in brigades,
ireat armies Of them. Aud then if you
ad voice stentorian enough to make them
II hear, and you could give the command,
Forward, march, their first tramp would I
lake the earth tremble 1 do not care
Thich way you look in the community to-
aY the evil is increasing.