The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-08-20
NOTES HERE AND THERE.

sideratiOn-mOrally, financially ana COLI
mercially--for the people Of Staun-
ton to vote against the granting
of license, we would not have an
other word to say about it. pa
we have even doubt as to the practlcal
results of local option, we would give to
those who are Unexpectedly urging tenn
perance, the benefit of it. We have no
doubt, however, in relation to the ques-
ton, and 10 scruples i'll giving 1t as a
deliberate opinion that the refusal OF
license, under all the circumstances ana
surroundings, would be injurious to
business, to morality and to the town IN
every respect Local option, as has
been heretofore expressed, is no rene
DIV for drinking ardent spirits 1t was
not designed to be. 1t was a tub
thrown by the partizan Jonahs OF the
Legislature which adopted the law, to
the temperance whale to deceive and
cheat the friends of prohibition 1t has
done so. without any compromising re-
suits to those who have been deluded by
it. Harrisonburg adopted it, and as
result there were shipped from Staunton
to that place, from May 21st, 1888, to
June 2Sth, 1889, 1880 packages OF whisky,
/ in /, 2, 3, 5, and 10 gallon jugs or demi-
! Johns, averaging at least 2 gallons to
the package, or an aggregate OF 4,ooo
gallons during the year by express
! One wholesale liquor firm in Staunton,
I / q, h trnls (f
| whisky by freight, and how many other
barrels and packages were taken there
either in wagons or by car freight, we
have no means of learning; probably not
less, in the aggregate, than was sent by
express making in all something like
5000 gallons, or gallons for every man,
woman and child, white and black. in
that place Yet there was no license
granted in Harrsonburg. Prohibition
was presumed to prevail, and at the
same time this enormous quantity OF
LIQUOR was sold and dispensed in that
place.
Local option, or prohibition, is said to
be enforced in the district which EN-
| braces Waynesboro and Basic City
From May list, 1890, to April 30th, 1891
there were expressed 1,056 packages to
these two places from Staunton, with a
like average as to the contents of each
package as those sent to Harrisonburg,
showing an aggregate of 2,112 gallons
brought there by express alone to say
nothing of the packages that were pur-
chased and taken there by private con-
veyance, and other means of transit.
Speaking generally, we assume that
there is as much morality inherent with
the people of Harrisonburg and Waynes-
boro and Basic City, as there is with the
people of Stanton; yet we see the prac-
tical working of local option in those
places. We could expect no better re-
suits in Staunton. There would not be
one gallon less drank in that place dur
ing the year under local option thar
there is now; while the city would be
deprived of 81 900 in revenue; the banks
of the large deposits of the liquor deal
ers; illegal traffic would be substituted
for legal traffic, and law-breaking en-
couraged and practiced to degree that
| can scarcely be measured. Not one
twelfth of the liquor sold in Staunton, is
consumed there. 1t is sold as far as
Texas and California, and brings in an
amount of money. which is expended in
that place, reaching to figures that are
important in summing up the business
of the place, but which we are unable to
state at this writing. Not less, however,
than quarter of a million dollars.
Were it possible to root out the habit
of drinking; to reform the inebriate; to
arrest a growing appetite in the moder-
ate drinker; and remove temptation from
the rising generation, by the adoption
/ of local option, we would earnestly and
actively favor it. But we know it would
do neither 1t would add to the vice of
indulging in strong drink; the crime of
w-breaking; open up helltraps in the
alleys and 5y>ways; give additional at
fractions to haunts of licentiousness and
prostitution, and multiply the tempta-
tions and dangers which confront youth,
and beckon on to destruction.
1t is assumed by some very sincere
men and women that the question at
issue is purely a moral one. Yet they
expect to engraft a moral conviction
upon the human heart by ranting APP
peals and municipal legislation; by abu
sive epithets and fearful anathemas
coming from unsanctifed human lips
which have no more right to pronounce
Judgment than the veriest sinner that
walks the streets. Whatever the mo
tives that impel in behalf of local OPP
ton, the result will as surely aggravate
immorality and law breaking as the ex-
pertinent is tried. 1t would not only not
promote morality, but it would increase
liability to immortality, and implcate
! the whole community in the vices and
crimes which send their moral miasma
| through every avenue of society, and
especially blight and contaminate the
youth of the land Morality cannot be
legislated into people and moral reform
cannot be effected by miscellaneous
mas,>meetings and sulphurous damna
tions hurled out to show command of
bilingsgate ribaldry, and to excite to in
dignation or arouse to the ludicrous.
True moral reform is not the product of
a noisy, bOisterous and mercenary cam
paign, lnaugurated for human eXaltation
and human selfishness. 1t is the result
of earnest prayer and sincere appeal tc
the Great Moral Force of the Universe
whence all true moral reform must ena
nate, and where all have to go, OH
Bonded knee and with penitent heart for
succor and relief. Figs cannot be gath
cred from thistles, nor grapes from
thOrns. No, nor can street-corner and
curb-stone railing bring about the re
form of a single character, or lift single
fallen one from degradation, or arrest
the downward step of single youth
Grace abounds for all who sincerely seek
it, and feel it's need to strengthen a
good desire and noble resolve. 1t can
be had for the asking, and it does not
require that Implications should come
up from the highways, as from Pub