Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-01-13

utedu, luere WOULD nOI Do hungry
man Or woman or child on all the plan
ct. To the end of time, the words Of
thp text will be kept true by the tarific
cohtroversy-'sYe have the poor always
with you :.
ALCoHoL AS A SOURCE OF DISTRESS.
Another cause of perpetual poverty is
the cause alcoholic The victim does
} not last long. He soon crouches into
the drunkard's grave. But what about
his wife and children? She takes in
washing, when she can get it, or goes
ont working ON small wages, because
sorrow and privation have left her in
capacitated to do strong woman's
work. The children are thin blooded
and gaunt and pale and weak, standing
around in cold rooms, or pitching pen
mics on the street corner, and munching
a slice of unbuttered breadswhen they
can get it, sworn at by passersby be-
cause they'do not get. out of the way,
kicked onward toward manhood or
womanhood, for which they have no
preparation, except a depraved appetite
and frall constitution, candidates for
almhouse and penitentiary. Whatever
other cause Of poverty may fail, the sa-
loon may be depended on to furnish an
ever increasing throng of paupers. oh,
We grogshops of Brooklyn and New
York and Of all the cities; ye mouths
! ofIhell, when will we cease totcraunch
and devour? There is no danger Of
this liquor business failing. All other
styles of business at times fail. Dry
goods stores go. under Hardware stores
20 under. Grocery sstores gosunder.
Harness makers fail, druggists fail,
bankers fail, butchers fail. bakers fail,
confectioners fail, but the liquor deal
i>ers never. 1t is the only secure business
III know Of. Why the permanence Of
1.-The. alcoholic trade3. Because. in the
first place, the men in that business, if
tight up for money, only have to put
into large quantities of water more
I.strychnine and logwood and nux yomica
and yitriol and other congenial concom-
iis.tnitants for adulteration. One quart of
the real genuine pandemoniac elixir
will do to mix up with several gallons
of milder damnation. Besides that,
these dealers can depend on an increase
of demand On the part of their custom
Eers. The more of that stuff they drink,
i the thirstier they are. Hard times,
(which stop other business, only increase
that buiness, for men go there to
drown their troubles. They take the
spirits down to keep their spirits up.
There is an inclined plane down which
alcoholism slides its victims-claret,
champagne, port, cognac, whisky, tom
and Jerry, sour mash, on and down I'M
til it is a sort of mixture of kerosene
oil, turpentine, toadstools, swill, es-
seDce of the horse blankets and general
nastiness. With its red sword of flame,
that liquor power marshals its process
sion, and they move on in ranks long
enough to girdle the earth, and the pro-
cession is headed by the nose blotched,
nerve shattered, rheum eyed, lip bloat-
ed, soul scorched inebriates, followed
by the women, who, though brought up
In comfortable homes, now so limping
4.3e-1 5----ll..---
children, barefoot, uncombed, freezing,
and with wretchedness Of time and
eternity seemingly compressed in their
agonized features. Forward, march,"
cries the liquor business to that army
without banners. Keep that influence
moving on, and you will have the poor
always with you. Report comes from
one of the cities, where the majority of
the inhabitants are out of work and de-
pendent on charity, yet last year they !
spent more In that city for rum than
they did for clothing and groceries.
THE MPRovIDENCE OF woRKAlEN.
Another warranty that my text will
prove true in the perpetual poverty of
the world is the wicked spirit Of i'm
providence. a vast number of people
have such small incomes that they can
not lay by in savings bank or life in
su1asce one cent year. 1t takes every
farthing they can earn to spread the
table and clothe the family and educate
the children, and If you blame such
people for improvidence you enact
cruelty. On such a salary as many
clerks and employees and many minis
tiers of religion live, and on such wages
as many workmen receive, they cannot,
in 90 years, lay up 90 cents. But you
know and l know many who have COM
petent incomes, and could provide some
what for the future, who live up to every
dollar, and when they die their chill
dren go to the poorhouse or on the
street By the time the wife gets the
buried, she is in debt to the
and gravedigger for that
which she can never pay. While the
ih.n lived he had his wine parties and
1ailrly ssunk with tobacco, and then ex-
it;es leaving his family upon the char
ts.e come BE- world. Do not send for me
r 70 over a1eonduct the obseqr ss and
litnov Blessed carcass the beautiful
in the Lord, for the dead who die
will turn over the leavesad Of that, |
to 1 Timothy v, IS, where 1.-THE Biblo
any provide not Tor his own, ans; If
cially for those of his own housepe-
hath denied the faith, and is worse
.han an infidel, or 1 will turn to Jere-
niah xii, 10, where it says, He shall
be buried with the burial of an ass,
drawn and cast forth beyond the gates
of Jerusalem.
cannot imagine any more unfair or
meanel thing than for man to get MS
sins pardoned at the last minute ana
then go to heaven, and live in a man
sion, und go riding about in a golden
chariot over the golden streets, whlie
his wife and children, whom he might
have provided for, are begging for colo
yictuals at the basement door of an