The record-union., 1891-08-29
Is There a Right Place for Saloon


EDS. RECORD UNION: 1 have been
much interested in reading some of the
communications in the free lance'' col
umn, and with your permission would
| like to insert my blade.
Where is the right place for saloon?
Where is the saloon wanted If not on
the fashionable streets, or among the
mercantile establishments, what other
| streets, or business, are likely to be
| helped by the proximity of gin-mills? Is
it the baker, the tailor, the shoemaker.
| the meat market, the milliner, the
| dreSSmaker
| Do any of these find it any particular
| advantage to their trade to have a grog-
| seller come eand open a shop beside them
! What surroundings are necessary in
! order to justify the opening of resorts for
| loafers, of dens for the propagation of
vice and crime? What street or neighbor-
hood shall be selected for the debauch-
| ment of men, of our sons and daughters.
and for the destruction of families, for
| the making of paupers and criminals
| Which Is worse, to open saloon near
! church or school, or TO open one next
door to a home? What is there that
| should make grog-Shop q stencil in the
nostrils of the people on one street and
| sweet-Smelnng SAVIOR on another? IS it
an ugly blot on the landscape in one To-
cality and thing of beauty in the other?
! Is saloon on our best streets calcu-
| lated TO do greater harm than a beer-dive
on Second street? If the wealthy and
| cultured cannot endure tho presence of
the grog-shop, why thrust them on the
| poor and the weak?
Are the tenement districts-the homes
of those already deep down in poverty,
| squalor and misery-are these the
proper places to plant the saloons Are
! they needed there to help men lead purer
| lives, to make happier homes. to
| strengthen the weak, to cheer the down
cast, to guide the erring?
Who shall take upon himself the re-
! sponsibility of saying where the people
| shall be cursed with the presence of grog-
! shops, and where they shall not be so
| cursed? These, it would seem to me. are
| practical questions. How shall they be
answered? Are the interests of the fair
! city of Sacramento to be sacrificed on the
| altars of a satanic business, that makes
| OutcaStS and wanderers of our loved ones,
that gives naught but penury and the
| bread of sorrow for children, and despair
| ing anguish for mothers? And who shall
! estimate the desolation of that feeling, as
with outstretched hands they ask to be
relieved from this monster that is fastened
upon our commonwealth, and which
seeks to rivet the fetters of bondage?
| No contest so momentous as this has
ever arisen IN human history, nor has so
| much ever been at stake. If we would
| not have prosperity shrink away from us,
we must arouse ourselves from lethargy
| before it is too late. 1t is time when the
| workshop, the Office, the counting house,
| the field and the home may we'll take
counsel together. We are all with every
| earthly interest embarked in mid-ocean,
as it were; the roar of the storm is in our
ears, and while our noble ship of State
| pitches and rolls under the lashings of
| the waves, the cry is heard, "She has
sprung a leak" And now to the rescue
| before it is everlastingly too late. May
| God in his infinite mercy save us, and the
| land we so much love, from degradation
and doom.
Mrs. ANGELINA MCKELvEY.
Auburn, August p, 1891.