The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1892-03-04
owosso Saloons. who Wants Them?
Sermon delivered by Rev. ]. r. Reitzel at
the Congregational Church, Sunday
Evening" February 28.

the Congregational Church, Sunday
Evening, February 28.
Our first question is this. Is there kind
of saloon peculiar to Owosso? May it be
that knowing the place of the saloon of this
country throughout the states one may yet
be mistaken as to the saloon in OwOssO? If
we are not mistaken the saloon, in the main,
| is the same, find it where you may.
| The leech may take on the color of the
blood, the skin, the body Oh which ii fastens,
but it is leech nevertheless. After all a
saloon is a saloon. 1t may be modified some
by the community in which it is planted.
but in this day it is a saloon, the stamp is
on it, it faces the same way with the flood OF
crime which gathers about 1t, and finally it
ends i'm the same assault upon all decency.
Yet OwossO saloons may be different from
some other saloons found elsewhere.
1st. They may not have the same large
criminal element to feed on. Decay and
rottenness is more rapid and evident where
climate and conditions are genial, and where
| substances accumulate for its fostering virus
| to work upon. and that rotten spot in our
society needs the bad blood and the vile sys-
| TEN, or substance criminal classes can fur
nsh; the saloon in this city can grow, fatten
and be strong and bold only as it can call
together and educate criminal class. Is
that class being increased? Are the forces
at work educating them?
I'd. The unfortunate and vicious classes
who feed on one another may not be here to
sustain the saloon in its vilest form. Hogs,
hyenas, wolves, under certain desperation
turn one upon the other and devour one an
other, and the vulture draws near, sits over
the scene and finally descends and picks the
bones. There sits the vulture Oh the dry
tree top; he never sits in the green branches;
health, and life and beauty have no charm for
him. There stsyour human vulture among
the beer kegs. He the vile wretch-who
and what can he be who flourishes best in
that condition of society where the poor, the
unfortunate and the vicious mix, and in
their desperation fall one upon the other,
and become prey to one another? Who is
this human vulture punging down and
picking the very unclothed bones of his fel-
low creatures? One shudders to think that
human beings can get into such condition,
but is more Mortified to think that there is a
being in human form that will prey so upon
his unfortunate fellows.
Sd. In this city the saloon may not be so
clearly and rigidly excluded from the cleaner
elements of society as ii generally is; the
process of cutting it off is silently and
awfully going Oh all about us. What dis
mai outlook the saloon family has when it
turns toward the place where society
is dropping it, finally into shame and social
desolatiOn.
The leech is lashed to the body, and takes
on the color of the blood and skin; il must
be cut Off.
In special localities there is no separation
of the saloon from the elements which sur
round it. Mining camps, river towns,
criminal districts in large cities. In some
localities the saloon may stand nearer to the
respectable elements in society than in
others-the saloon keeper may marry the
deacOn's daughter, or lend his hunting dog
to the class leader but this is not the condi-
ton here. Then when we have succeeded
in making the saloon disrespectful by con-
fining it to the criminal classes where it be-
longs, then every man who has any claim to
responsibility will learn that he must stay
away from them.
The Owosso saloon had its beginning in
the good old times-the simple life of the
village when the people were all industrious
and of one kind. In those days the saloon
seemed the innocent place and was visited
in social way by the families who led in
other affairs. Now our bankers, business
men, editors, lawyers and men who expect
| to lead, see that they must do better. Now
not depend on the saoors for Office, for so
| long as this remains so we can only secure
| the weak men for our city offices.
| Hunting the tiger is fine sport, but it is
not so fine when the tiger turns to hunting
you; il was for social pastime that the early
! villagers of OwosSO came to the saloon of
their day. but it is different now. Then the
| families were hunting the tiger, now the
| tiger is hunting the families, and he has al
ready devoured some and Is today close on
\ the heels of others.
I This confirms the thought already sug-
gested, that throughout the United States
the saloon Is the same; and why not class
the saloon with thieves, robbers, highway
men, murderers, licentiousness, treason,
anarchy, all crime against the home, the
church, the state-class all this in one? Let
us consider every saloon, il not now in this
class, as training for rank i'm the list, and
the Judgment of God will put the brand on
the forehead, and finally all will stand to-
gether as the filth of the earth.
We can make this classification on two or
three general grounds
1st. The saloons of the United States are
the same i'm the general character of their
keepers.
I'd. They are the same i'm the kind of
people who want them, and support them.
Sd. They are the same in this, that the
| judgment of the world of civilized and
heathen society is growingly against them.
AS rule saloon keepers despise law, and
are of the lawless class, calling the lawless
elements together about their places. One
of the most awful condemnatOns on the
saloon is the entire absence of ladies, and
only where they touch the most abandoned
of all creatures do you once in a while see a
form that suggests woman, then you shud-
der at the sight. Think of ladies i'm saloon
The Supreme Court has termed tn!
saloon business "a dangerous commodjtye
and has branded it so; so il is considered by
all, so it is regarded by those who succeed
best when lawlessness fourishes, the ward
hummer who styles himself politician.
Hence the Legislature has made laws to
regulate and control it. Then legislation
has provided officers to guard this danger
o,,s commodity"
But throughout the country state laws,
city ordinances, decisions of the Supreme
Court-all have been deiied and violated no
where so much as by the keepers of saloons.
See the law as to minors, intoxicated per-
sons, habltual drunkards, those forbidden