The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1892-03-04

eighteen hours, and then keep shut Off from
view by screens. Then the bonds to secure
those who may claim damages! Why cannot
this at least be as il should? Who is good
for the claims?
= This lawless place, in the hands Of law
less keeper, becomes the center of crime.
Crime of all description is hatched here, all
crime against the individual, and against
society is here arranged for, and as the night
beast goes out from his dark den, so the
criminal goes forth from the saloon to the
work which terrOriZes the peace loving
homes.
For this reason the saloon and saloon
keeper are Disseminated against as the most
dangerous place and person in society. 1t
is coming to be that no place, no person is
so commonly ruled out as this element.
Churches, fraternities, these debar them,
railroads and governments have legislated
against them. No one wants them, nor wants
anything to do with them. This has few
exceptions. There are some things called
men who want the saloon, and we put them
! in two classes; both are responsible.
1st The greedy ghOul who wants to make
money in manner suited to his beastly
capacity.
2i. That thing we call man who delights
in vileness, and finds no other place that
|
has trained himself for.
The whole of Gratiot county has declared
that they are not wanted there, and those
elements who have capacity and taste for
nothing else than to make money that way,
or to live on filth, may come to Shiawassee
county now. There is money in it for the
miserable ghOul who can not make money
fairly, and the man who loves vileness of
the lowest kind can find it in the saloon.
! Take the money of our SalOOnS-the license
! is $l0, 10000, 600 drinks at 5 cents per
drink, 100 drinks per day for each place just
to cover the tax. Now count as much for
the stock, and as much for the living of the
keeper. that is $50, 900, then one of them
cleared $500 which passed round would
make $50, 900 more, or $50, 900 for the city,
or the absolute earnings of 100 men con-
stantly employed at $l.50 per day.
Of all fools, the biggest fools are the men
and families who earn the money and carry
it to'the saloon keeper. He lays back, eats,
drinks. grows fat, lazy and hOggish, but the
others grow poor, and gradually yield to a
misery which engulfs wife, children and
| home.
But there is still another phase to the
question as to who wants the saloon. The
ghoul who wants to make money in this way
would fail if it were not for the low wretch
who has taste for the filth of the saloon.
Those beasts. sometimes called men, who
banker after a certain vileness which the
! place furnishes, these want the brothel, and
sometimes they are persons who have nice
families in good homes, yet they have a
vulgar passion, an inner debauchery which
makes them the debased slave of the low,
foul company of these places. The law often
! finds it necessary to kill off diseased cattle
n our herds and these later rotten spots in
society we should cut off; they are the ones
who carry the poison into homes, and
churches and schools. All, the hOrrld spec
| tacle of such a william going from such
place home to his wife and children.
This low element, finding that no one
wants it, has organized itself around
the saloon to terrorize the community and
we may see its workings i'm our little city.
One highwayman may terrOrize an entire
stage load, SO here the twenty saloon families
will work it if you will give them the chance.
Where this element gets the opportunity,
the community, politics, business, the
church, the schools all will be terrorized.
But here let il be asked what can twenty
foul saloons do? What have the good cti-
zens to fear that they should not insist on ii
that the laws governing this dangerous COM
modify shall be obeyed?
May occupy your time a few minutes in
defining my position as to separating the sa-
loon and the keepers family from the re-
spectacle elements i'm the community?
No one doubts that the criminal elements
of the country center around the saloon; this
is true in less or greater Uegree according
to place, and admitted, no one will ask that
this criminal center be allowed to spread its
filth through the families over the entire
community. The law restricts it; common
decency and self-respect, with self preserva-
ton demands that it be restricted. You
who have never seen the saloon in its full
grown, ripened state of horror and crime do
not realize what it means.
A lady missionary i'm India up at the
foot of the Himalaya mountains saw one of
those vilagesoor huddles of leprOus per-
sons, in that frightful abandonment to which
their disease brings them In that country.
Their wretchedness appealed to her human
nature; she joined them to help them; she
took the disease and was not allowed to
leave, so is literally going to pieces among
them; there is halo of herolsm about this
that glOrifies it. But there are families in
OwossO going to pieces, soul and body, be-
cause they have been brought into contact
with this leprOus nest
Shut the door Of society against the saloon
and place the card over the door, just as you
90 WIFI COIlldgIOuS ulSetbe Ildt lS, SUUl OH
the saloon and those who are responsible for
it, so they cannot drag their vileness upon the
respectable elements of the community; let
the family have the benefits of educational,
religious and reformatory influences, but do
not let the vile keeper play the scheme of
making his business respectable by having
his daughter dance with the deacon's son,
nor his wife sing in the church choir. This
is most humane and merciful idea founded
on science, on morality, OH the Scripture.
and on that principle of government that
the whole must he preserved by cutting off
the offensive part. This venomous liquor
leech is on every institution i'm the country,
seeking to assume the color of the blood and
the skin, and be part of the body. One
thing is sure; we must strike off this leech,
or the leech will have our blood. He Is now
having the blood of some Owosso families.
1st. Shut off the saloon to avoid contami-
nation; do this on the basis, and along the
lines of the deepest social, and scientific
reasons. The woman who consents to be-
come mother to children born in the atmos-
phere of the saloon the liquor atmosphere,
commits the most serious and hurtful crime