The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1892-01-08
W. CT u.

of b~acchanalian music, from the whisper
of beaded bubbles moving themselves
Alright at the brim Of champagne glasses,
to the hiss oil adders in the last CHEAP
shiskey.
"a woman on her knees creepi
on the tesselIated floor. wringiug Out
with pzrboiled fingers soft cloths, with
which she wipes mp ashes and spittle ts
keep tie tiles from stain.
"a party of happy men enter just now
Let US watch them a minute! Ho. aeroii
the bartender is. He makes the bits OF ice,
the sp JON. the shaker, the strainer, The
glasses, fairly play a tune Then lets The
finished cocktails pour from the large t6
the small glasses 30 cleverly. 1t seems as
if he had flushed a covey o~flittle rainbows,
a stra u berry, q bit of something fragrant
aud he stands like an artist. as he is, as il
his work were dane and his responsibility
at an end.
"The men raise their glasses-crystal
was never clearer-and the drink CLEANS
like a nest of a thousand adders, invisible,
except their flashing, fascinating eyes. They
look into the great mirror over the bar.
Would to God that saloon mirrors could
be SO sensitized as to show men the back
ground of drink. We cannot hear what
they say-something pleasant certainly;
probably this: Gentlemen, let us drink
to my mother,' Ny drinking friend. try
that some time.
"Whose is this salooh?" We ask a bar
tender. He looks us over shrewdly-ine
at a glance that we mean mischief, nd
his eyes wander without a word TO two en-
cravings on the wall. One is a diploma
from the city government showing John
Smith to have been graduated from the
college of restriction, and expressly author
izing him, for that reason. to put the bot
tie to his neighbours lips. The other is a
similar instrument, under the seal of the
Federal Government.
$50, it seems, John Smith conducts the
place. He actually or by his agents puts
the bottle. But why are these licenses so
carefully provided? Why, do you not SET?
1t is the theory of our government, both
State and National, that the only tight to
put the bottle to a citizens lips inheres in
the sovereignty, aud the State has delega-
ted its alcoholic sovereignty to the city,
and it. in turn, to John Smith, for, with
ont leave of the city to do this thing, John
Smith would be plain John Smith, aud of
no more consequence than a clergyman or
a merchant of honest wares.
Meantime, however, the Federal power
has been seizing every drop of alcoholic
drink as it is distilled or brewed, and held
it coniscated as eontrabrand, the property,
for the time, of the great. careful central
Government, because unfit to be at large
with other merchandise. Aud so John
Smith, the city's licensee. ipds that, while
presented in a bottle, he has no alcohol,
and that he must hold letters patent of
Federal ignobility and be decorated with
the crosses of the national legion OF dis
honor. Knighted, as it were, Sir John
Smith, dramseller to their sovereign maj
estes, the people. Are you in that?
Look at the barrels. Each one bears
the National initials, with the National
stamp and seal, and every black bottle, by
the stamp it bears, is itself a black and
damnable edict of the sovereignty, with
the token and seal of the righteousness of
law upon it, saying, with as much solem-
nifty, aye, and as much potency, too, as the
op eping sentences of the Declaration of In
dependence, Put it to your neighbours
lips, Sir John Smith, il is my sovereign
will?
Il want you to remember that a saloon
is as national as a national bank; as law
full as a public school,. | can seem to see
Upon the face or the rags OF every drunken
man a legend like o often see on pack
ages of whisky and tobacco: Take notice,
the manufacturer of this article has COM
piled with all the requirements Of the law,
according to the statute in such cases made
and provided Are you in that?
Break the church bottle, But they won't
let you. Then, what? Leave the church?
No, but stand strong in the name of Jesus
Christ, and in His spirit, too, and protest
with all you might, and never touch the
cup, nor pass it to another.
'Break the public bottle? You can't?
You've never tried. You have tried to
keep it corked on Sunday and election day
and failed. You have tried to keep it
from drunkards and boys and Indians, but
the drunkard was drunk yesterday, is
drunk to day, and will be drunk to-mor-
row, and for every drunkard that drops
down a boy starts in to fill the gap.
How do you break the peoples bot
tle?' You vote to break it. The ballot is
the freeman's little blast set in the rock of
error. honeycombing it by slow and often
im~perceptible degrees.
but what if you are in a hopeless mi
nority? Gods minorities are majorities.
But if it seems hopeless? Then | would
reduce the problem to it's lowest terms like
this: God on His throne, aud on the earth
only three living souls-John Smith, who
a to keep a saloon; John Jones, who
wants to drink, and John Woolley, a son
of God. What is John Woolley's duty?
Simply to wash his hands of that saloon.
'But Jones and Smith are W. against one,
and will beat him.
"What do you mean by two against
one?' Who is the one? Whom will they
beat? Has God abdicated? They'll have
a saloon Yes; but they will not have me.
Do you not see how this simplifes every
thiuo9