The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-03-25

SOQS are S8crlnC6Q ana GQ0 nome OF your
daughter goes down under the alcoholism Of
an imbruted husband. Take sides whil.
your voice, your pen, your prayer, your
vote may have any influence in arresting the
despoliation Of this nation. If the 1900, 900
professors Of religion should take sides on
this subject it would not be very long before
the destiny Of this nation would be decided
in the right direction.
Is drunkenness q state or national evils
Does 1t belong to the North, or does it belong
to the South? Does it belong to the East, or
does it belopg to the WestS All, there is not
an American river into which its tears have
not fallen and into which its suicides have
not plunged. What ruined that Southern
plantation?-every field fortune, the pro-
prietor and his family once the most af1uent
supporters of summer watering places. What
threw that New England farm into decay and
turned the roseate cheeks that bloomed at
the foot of the Green Mountains into the
pallor Of despair What has smitten every
street OF every village. town and city Of this
continent with q moral psstIlence? Strong
drink
To prove that this is national evil call
up two States in opposite directions-Maine
and Georgia. Let them testify in regard to
this. State Of Maine says: ut Is 80 great
an evil up here we have mathematical 1t as
State" State Of Georgia says: ut is 60
great an evil down here that ninety counties
Of this State have made the sale Of intoxica-
ting drink criminality." So the word comes
I'D from all parts Of the land. Either drunk
enness will be destroyed In this country or
the American Government will be destroyed.
Drunkenness and free institutions are COM
ing into death grapple.
Gather up ths money that the working
classes have spent for rum during the last
in2man house, and lay out for him a gar
den, and clothe his sons In broadcloth
and his daughters in silks, and stand at his
front door a prancing span Of sorrels or
bays, and secure him q policy of life insur-
ance so that the present home may be
we'll maintained after he is dead. The most
persistent, most overpowering enemy Of the
working classes is intoxicating liquor. 1t is
the anarchist Of the centuries, and has boy
cotted and is now boycotting the body and
mind and soul OF American labor. 1t au-
nually swindles industry out Of a large per-
centage Of its earnings. It holds out its
blasting solicitations to the mechanic or
operative on his way to work, and at the
noon spell and on his way home at even
tide. On Saturday, when the wages are
paid, it snatcnes a large part or the money
that might come to the family and sacrifices
1t among the saloon keepers. Stand the
saloons Of this country side by side, and it is
carefully estimated that they would reach
from New York to Chicago.
This evil is pouring its vitriolic and dam
nable liquors down the throats Of hundreds
Of thousands Of laborers, and while the
ordinary strikes are ruinous, both to en-
ployers and employees proclaim universal
strike against strong drink, which strike, If
kept up, will be the relief Of the workir (
classes and the salvation of the nation.
will undertake to say that there is not a
healthy laborer In the United States who,
within the next twenty years, il he will re-.
fuse all intoxicating beverages and be saw
ing, may not become capitalist on small
scale.
Oh, how many arc waiting to see IL some
thing cannot be done for the stopping OF in
temperancel Thousands Of drunkards wait
ing who cannot 60 ten minutes In any direc-
tion without having the temptation glaring
before their eyes or appealing to their nos.
trils, they fighting against it with enfeebled
will and diseased appetite, conquering, then
surendering, conquering again and sur
rendering again, and crying, "How
Infamous solicitations shall be goner'
And how many mothers are waiting to see
il this national curse cannot lift? Oh, Is
that the boy who had the honest breath who
comes homo with breath vitiated or dis
guisedf What change! How quickly those
habits Of early coming home have bean e8-
changed 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! whata change for that young man.
Ia in
merchandise or in artisanship or in profes.
sion 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 alasl
poor old SOUL she has lived to experiences
what Solomon said, "a foolish son IS
heaviness to his mother"
Obi what funeral it will be when that
boy is brought home dead! And how moth
or will sit there and say: "Is this my boy
that used to fondle, and that walked the
floor with in the night when he was sick? l.
this the boy that / held to the baptismal
font for baptism9 Is this the boy for whom
/ toiled until the blood burst from the tips OF
nv fingers, that he might have good start
and a good homer Lord, why hast Thou LEI
me live to see this? Can it be that these
swollen hands are the ones that used to wan.
der over my face when rocking him to sleep
Can it be that this swollen brow Is that
oncs so rapturously kissed? Poor boy! how
tired he does look. I wonder who struck
him that blow across the temple? I wonder
if he uttered dying prayer? Wake up, my
son; don't you hear me2 wake upl Ohl he
can't hear me! Dead! deadl deadl 'Oh
Absalom, my son, my son, would God tina,
had died for thee, oh, Absalom, my son
sonnn
am not much Of mathematician and ]
cannot estimate it, but is there any one here
quick enough &C ngures TO esrlmate how
many mothers there are waiting for some
thing to be done? Ay, there ara many
wives waiting for domestic rescue. Hs
promised something different from that
when, after the long acquaintance and the
careful scrutiny Of character, the hand and
the heart were offered and accepted. What
a hell on earth a woman lives in who has a
drunken husbandl o death, how lovely
thou art to her, and how soft and warm
thy skeleton haudl The sepulcher at mid
night in winter is kings drawing-room
compared with that woman's home. 1t is not
so much the blow on the head that hurts as
the blow on the heart.
The rum fiend came to the door Of that
beautiful home. and opened the door and
stood there and said: II curse this dwelling
with an unrelenting curse. I curse that
father into a maniac, I curse that mother
into a pauper. curse those sons into vaga-
bonds. I curse those daughters into pro6ig-
acy. Cursed be bread tray and cradle.
Cursed be couch and chair, s.nd family Bible
with record Of marriages and births and
deaths. Curse upon CURSE" Oh, how many
wives are there waiting to see If something
cannot be done to shake ,hese frosts Of the
second death OFF the orange blossoms Yea,
God is waiting, the God vho works through
human instrumentalities, waiting to see
whether this nation is going to overthrow
= fr, do GNI vii