The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1893-09-21

tation, his virtue and sleeps him in
stagnant pool of vice and moral turpi-
tude. 1t incites to debauchery and
crime, creates more poverty and sup
ports more social drones, fills more jaiIs
and prisons, ruins more men and WO
men, destroys more homes. more life
and more property than any one other
cause. 1t gives nothing in return.
Look out upon the broad world and see
poverty, distress and crime stalking
gaunt and grim in it's highways and by
ways, trace their steps backward and
you will find them leading to the grog-
shop or wine-glaSS. LEONARDUS.
Xxx
Liquor is curse to mankind. A
vampire that saps the blood and intel
lect and leaves the body decayed before
its prime. It has ruined thousands of
men and made waste hundreds of homes.
1t is necessary evil. The consumption
of it cannot be prevented. 1t has been
tried but has never has it's prohibition
been successful. The stricter the laws
against it's sale the more eager men are
to purchase it. They will resort to du-
plicity to secure the forbidden fruit
juice. When men combat the prOhibi-
tion of the sale of Intoxicating liquors
they are resisting all infringement made
upon their rights. Any man has a
right to do as he pleases with what is
lawfully his. If he pleases to purchase
liquor he has right to do so. Laws
will not prevent him from drinking it
and getting drunk. The law has made
drunkenness crime, but it has not de-
creased the number of drunkards. In
fn of ho Of
Intoxicating liquors the world keeps
along the path of progress does not
seem one bit the worse for it. c. c.
Xxx
For the past year we have had moth
ing but prohibition, and the evil effects
of the liquor habit preached to us, and
sung to u.s. and recited to us, by men,
women and children; and it is blessed
relief to be able to send you word
"per contra" The great and telling
argument advanced by the prohibition
lists is the sure and speedy death that
will surely follow, and the short time
it allows the victim to live. Men die of
the liquor habit, to be sure, but as many
more die of Consumption. assure you
the large life insurance companies would
rather have an inebriate on their roster,
than one with taint of consumption,
even to the fourth generation. hold
that person over So requires stimu-
lants occasionally; and in fact l know
of an old gentleman in Philadelphia, SO
years of age, sits up far into the night
occasionally and drinks his share of
good old punch, and then attends to a
large and prosperous business the fol-
| 1o1 In 6o,o fhiC for
SO years. Some day he will die, and
then will the crank affirm, she would
have lived to be 200 had it not been for
liquor. r.
No child of ten years of age but rn-
derstands that intemperance robs a
man of health, that it causes poverty
and degradation, that it means rags,
misery and grave in the pOtter's s-field.
On the other hand it is we'll known that
sobriety means health. friendship, re-
spectability and happiness. AS long as
our boasted liberty is what it is we
must let man choose. IftO wallOw in
the gutter he will, wallow he must.
This country holds out all sorts of in
ducements for men to lead sober and
respectable lives. Our people are sup
posed to be intelligent enough to realize
that the gutter is not the best place for
a dwelling place. Those who persist in
so doing show they have neither force
of character nor self-respect, and the
sooner they drink themselves into obliv-
ion the better for all, themselves in
cluded. 1t may be said that to prevent
man from making hog Of himself is
not curtailing his liberty, but l say it
would be. "The right to do as you
please, as long as you please to do right
is not true liberty, " but one mans liber-
ty only stops where another mans llber-
ty begins is the true definition.
SUNOL.