Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-03-07

en- home there are ten drunken homes.
Where there was one drunkard's grave
there are twenty drunkard's graves.
IL is on the increase. Talk about
crooked whisky-by which the men
mean the whisky that does not pay the
tax TO government tell you all strong
drink is crooked. Crooked otard,
crooked cognac, crooked schnapps.
crooked beer, crooked wine, crooked
whisky-because it makes mans path
crooked, and his life CROOKED, and hi
death crooked, and his eternity crook
ed.
If could gather all the armies OF the
dead drunkards and have them come to
resurrection, and then add to that host
all the armies of living drunkards, five
and ten abreast. and' then II l could
have YOU mount horse and rid, along
tina. line for review, you would ride
that horse until he dropped from eX-
haustion and you would mount another
horse and ride until he fell from eX-
haustion. and you would take another
and another, and you would ride along
hour after hour and day after day.
Great host. in regiment, in brigades.
Great armies OF them. And then If you
had voice stentorian enough TO make
them all hear. and you could give the
command, Forward, march, their
Il amp would make the earth tremble.
/ do not care which way you look in
the community to-day, the evil is in
creasing.
call attention to the fact that there
are thousands OF people born with u
thirst for strong drink-a fact too often
ignored. Along some ancestral lines
there runs the river of temptation.
There are children whose swaddling
clothes are torn off the shroud Of death.
Many OF father has made will OF
this sort: in the name OF God, amen,
] bequeath to my children my houses
my lands and real estate: share and
share shall they alike Hereto l atlix
my hand and seal in the presence OF
witnesses" And yet perhaps that
very man has made another will that
the people have not read. and that has
not been proved in the courts. That
will put in writing would read some
thing like this: ''ln the mamie OF dis
ease and appetite and death, amen. /
blqueath to my children my evil habits.
my tankards shall be theirs. my wine
cup shall be theirs. my destroyed repu
tatiOn shall BE- theirs. Share and share
alike shall they in the inIamy. Hereto
| atfiX my hand and seal in the presence
of all the applauding harpies of hell"
From the multitude of those who
have the evil habit born with them
this army is being augmented. And !
am sorry to say that great many of
the drug stores are abetting this evil,
and alcohol is sold under the nam Of
bitters. 1t is bitters for this and Bit
tiers for that. and bitters for some other
thing. and good men deceived. not
knowing there is any thraldom Of alec
holism coming from that source, are
going down. and some day man sits
with the bottle of black bitters ON his
table and the cork flies out. and after
il flies iiend and clutches the man by
his throat and says: AHA! have been
after you for ten years. / have got
you now. Down with you.' Bitters.
An! yes. They make q mans family
bitter, and his home bitter. and his dis
position bitter, and his death bitter, and
his hell bitter. Bitters. A vast army.
all the time increasing.
1t seems to me it is about time for the
100000 professors of religion in
America TO take sides. 1t is going to
be an out and out battle with drunken
ness and sobriety. between heaven and
hell, between God and the devil. Take
sides before there is any further nation
al decadence. take sides before your
sons are sacrificed and the new home Of
your daughter goes down under the al
cohOllsm of an inebriated husband.
Take sides while your voice, your pen,
your prayer. your vote may have an in
iluence in arresting the despOliation OF
this nation. If the 1000. 900 professors
OF religion should take sides on this
subject it would not be very long before
the destiny OF this nation would be de-
cided in the right direction.
To prove that this is national evil
call up two states in opposite directions
Maine and Georgia. Let them testi-
fy in regard to this. State OF Maine
says: 1T is so great an evil up here
we have mathematical it as a state"
State OF Georgia says: 1T is so great
an evil down here that ninety counties
of this state have made the sale OF in
toxicating drink a criminality." So the
word comes up from all parts of the
land. Either drunkenness will be de-
stroyed in this country or the Ameri-
can government will be destroyed.
Drunkenness and free institutions are
coming into death grapple.
Gather up the money that the work
ing classes have spent for rum during
the last thirty years, and l will build
for every working man house, and lay
out for him garden, and clothe his
sons in broadcloth and his daughters in
silks, and stand at his front door pranc- |
ing span OF sorrels or bays, and secure
him policy OF life iufurance, so that |
the present home may be well main
tanned after he is dead. The most per-
sistent, most overpowering enemy of the |
classes is intoxicating liquor. |