The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-03-07

Is drunkenness a state or national
evil? Does it belong to the north. or
does it belong to the south? Does it be-
long to the east, or does it belong to
the west? All! there is not an Ameri-
can river into which its tears have not
fallen and into which It's suicides have
not plunged. What ruined that southern
plantation?-every field n fortune, the
proprietor and his family once the most
a%tfiuent 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 de-
SPAR? What has smitten every street
OF every village, town and city of this
continent with a moral pe~stilenceP
Strong drink.
To prove that this is a natl nal evil
l call up two states in opposite direc-
tions-Maine and Georgia. Let them
testify in regard to this. State of
Maine says: at is so great an evil up
here we have mathematical il as n
state" State of Georgia says: at is
so great an evil down here that ninety
counties of this state have made the
sale of Intoxicating drink n criminal
ity." So the word comes up from all
parts of the land. Either drunkenness
will be destroyed in this country or the
American government will be de-
stroyed. Drunkenness and free institu-
tions are coming iuto a death grapple.
Gather up the money that the work.
ing classes ave spent for rum during
the last thirty years, and 1 will build
for every w~orkingman a house, and lay
out for him a garden, and clothe his
sons in broadcloth and his daughters in
silks, and stand at his front door n
prancing span of sorrels or bays, and
secure him u policy of life insurance, so
hat the present home may be we'll
maintained after he is dead. The most
persistent, most over-powering enemy
of the working classes is Intoxicating
liquor. 1t is the anarchist of the centu-
ries and has boycotted and is now boy
cotting the body and mind and soul Of
American labor.
This evil is pouring it's ~vitriolic and
damnable liquors down the Threats of
hundreds of thousands of laborers, and
while the ordinary strikes are ruinous
both to employers and employees, I pro-
CldlLl d UNIVERSAL obElAt dRdluSU SLTOuR
drink, which strike, if kept up, will be
the relief of the working classes and
the salvation of the nation.
And how many mothers are waiting
to see If this national curse cannot lift
OH is that the boy who had the honest
breath who comes home with breath
vitiated or disguised? What q changed
How quickly those habits of early COM
ing home have been exchanged for the
rafting of the night-key in the door
long after the last Waterman has gone
by and tried to see that everything was
closed up for the night! Oh! what a
change for that young man who we had
hoped would do something in merchan-
disc, or in craftsmanship, or in a profession
that would do honor to the family name
long after mothers wrinkled hands are
folded from the last toll! All that ex-
changed for startled look when the
door-bell rings, lest something has hap
pened; and the wish that the scarlet
fever twenty years G 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 expert
ence what Solomon said: "a foolish son
Is a nedVlneSS TO MS mOJner.
o, what a funeral it will be when that
boy is brought home deadl And how
mother viii sit there and say: els this
my boy hat I used t. fondle and that 1
walked the floor with in the night when
he was sick? Is this the boy hat / held
to the baptismal font for baptism? is
this the boy for whom Itoiled until the
blood burst from the tips of my fingers
that he might ave a good start and q
good home?' I am not much of a mathe-
matician and l cannot estimate it, but
is there any one here quick enough at
figures 70 estimate how many mothers
there are waiting for something to be
done?
Ay, there are many wives waiting for
domestic rescue. He promised some
thing different from hat when, after
the long acquaintance and the careful
scrutiny of character, the hand and the
heart were offered and accepted. What
q hell on earth a woman lives in who
hos u drunken husband! o, death, how
lovely thou art to her and how soft and
warm the skeleton hand! The sepul-
hire at midnight in winter is a 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: 81 curse this dwelling with
an u~nrelenting curse. ! curse that
father into a maniac. | curse that
mother into a pauper. l curse those
sons into v~agabonds. l curse those
daughters into profigacy. Cursed be
the bread tray and cradle. Cursed be
couch and chair, and family Bible with
record of marriages and births and
deaths. Curse upon curse" o! how
many wives there are waiting to see If
something can not be done to shake
these frosts OF the second death off the
orange blossoms! Yea, God is waiting,
the God who works through human in
strumentalities, waiting to see whether
this nation is going to overthrow this
evil; and if it refuse to do so, God will
wipe out the nation as He did Phoenicia,
as He did Rome, as He did Thebes, as
He did Babylon.
Put on your spectacles and take a
candle, and examine the platforms Of
the two political parties OF this country,
and see what they arc doing for the ar
rest of this evil and for the overthrow
of this a~bomination. Resolutions-oh!
yes, resolutions about M~ormonism! 1t
is safe to attack that organized nasti-
ness two Thousand miles away. But
not one resolution against drunkenness,
which would turn this entire nation
into one bestial Salt Lake City. Reso-
lutions against political corruption, but
not one word about drunkenness, which
would rot this nation from scalp to
heel. Resolutions about protection
against competition with foreign in
dustries, but not one word about pro-
lection of families and children and
nation against the scalding, blasting,
MI consuming, damning tariff Of strong
drink put upon every financial, indi-
vidaal, spiritual, moral, national inter
est.
1 look in another direction. The
church of God is the grandest and most
glorious institution on earth. What has
it in solid phalanx accomplished for the
overthrow of drunkenness? Have its
forces ever been marshalled? No, not
in this direction. Not long ago a great,
ecclesiastical court assembled in New
York, and resolutions nrraigning strong
drink were offered. md cler0vmen with