The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-03-04
n s carefully estimated CHAT thez would

hundreds Of thousands of laborers, and
while the ordinary strikes are riiinous
both to employers and employees, pro-
claim universal strike against. strong
drink, which strike, If kept up, will be
the relief of the working classes and
the salvation Of the nation. will un-
dertake TO say that there is not q
healthy laborer in the United States
who, within the next twenty years, IL
he will refuse all intoxicating bever-
ages and be saving, may not become O
capitalist on small scale.
Oil how many are waiting to see II
something cannot be done for the stop
ping Of intemperancel Thousands OF
drunkards waiting who cannot go ten
minutes in any direction without having
the temptation glaring before their eyes
or appealing to their nostrils, they
fighting against It with enfeebled will
and diseased appetite conquering, then
surrendering, conquering again and
surrendering again, and crying, "How
long, o Lord! how long before these in
famous solicitation shall be gone" And
how many mothers are waiting to see If
this natural curse cannot lift. OH is that
the boy who had the honest breath who
comes home with breath vitiated or dis
guised? What change! How quickly
those habits of early coming home have
been exchanged for the rattling of the
night-key in the door long after the last
watchman has gone by and tried to see
that everything was closed up for the
night! OH what change for that
young man who we had hoped would do
something in merchandise, in artisan
ship, or in profession that would do
honor to the family name long after
mothers wrinkled hands are folded
from the last toll! All that exchanged
for startled look when the door-bell
rings, lest something has happened; and
the wish that the scarlet fever twenty
years ago had been fatal, for then he
would have gone directly to the bosom
Of his Saviour But alas! poor old soul,
she has lived to experience what Solo
mon said: "a foolish son is a heaviness
TO his mother"
Oh! what funeral it will be when
that boy is brought home dead And
how mother will sit there and say: us
this my boy that used to.fondle and
that | walked the floor with in the
night when he was sick? Is this the boy
that / held to the baptismal font for
baptism? Is this the boy for whom ]
toiled until the blood burst from the
tips of my fingers, that he might have a
good start and good home? Lord, why
hast thou let me live to see this? Can
it be that these swollen hands are the
ones that used TO wander over my face
when rocking him to sleep? Can it be
that this swollen brow is that l once sc
rapturously kissed? Poor boy! how tired
he does look. ] wonder who struck hin
that blow across the temples? ] won
der II he uttered dying prayer? Wake
up my son; don't you hear meP wake
upl Oh! he can't hear me. Deadl dead
dead! %, Absalom, my son, my son
would God that had died for thee, o
Absalom, my son, my sonp"
am not much Of a mathematician
and cannot estimate IL; but is there
any one here quick enough at figures Il
estimate how many mothers there are
waiting for something TO be done? Aye
there are many wives waiting for do
mestic rescue. He promised something
different from that when, after the long
acquaintance and the careful scrutiny
Of character, the hand and the hear
were offered and accepted What he'll
on earth n woman lives in who has 9
drunken husband! o, death, how lovely
thou art to her, and how soft ant
warm thy skeleton handl The sepul
cher at midnight in winter Il
kings drawing-room compared will
that woman's home. II is moi
so much the blow on the head
that hurts as the blow on the heart
The rum fend came to the door of thai
beautiful home, and opened the dool
and said; ~ curse that father into &
maniac, / curse that mother into a pau
per, curse those sons into vagabonds
/ curse those daughters into profigacy
Cursed be thy bread-tray and cradle
Cursed be couch and chair, and family
Bible with record of marriages ant
births and deaths. Curse upon curse
Oh! how many wives are there waiting
TO see II something cannot be done tC
shake these frosts of the second deatf
off the orange blossoms! Yea, God, i
waiting, the God who works through
human instrumentalities, waiting to SEE
whether this nation is going u
overthrow this evil; and II II re
fuse TO do so, God will wipe out the
nation as He did Phenicia, as He die
Rome, as He did Thebes, as He die
Babylon. Ay, He IS waiting to SEE
what the church of God will do. II tn,
church does not do It's work, then II,
will wipe 1t out as He did the Church O.
Ephesus, Church of Thyatira, Church o.
Sardis. The Protestant and Roman
Catholic churches to-day stand side BY
side with an impotent look, gazing OF
this evil, which costs this country NOR
than billion dollars year to take carr
Of the S00,O 900 paupers, and the Sl5,oo'
criminals, and the $4,000 idiots, and I,
bury the $4,000 drunlsards. Protagoral
boasted the out Of the sixty years O
his life, forty " RS he had spent II
running youth; out this evil may maxi
the moro infamous boast that all It's LII,
II has been running the bodies, minds
and souls Of the human race.
Put on your spectaclesa and take can
die and examine the platforms Of tn,
two leading political parties Of thi
country, and see what they are doin,
for the arrest Of this evil and for tn,
| ovarthrotv ~ flfa ahoynina fiox, paao