The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1894-02-08


If the eternal CAB on this subject could
have been fashioned into loaves of
bread there would not be a hungry
man or woman or child on all the
planet To the end of time the words
of the text will be be kept true by the
tariffic controversy: eye have the
poor always with you"
Another cause of perpetual poverty
is the cause alcoholic. The victim
does not last long. He soon crouches
into the drunkards grave. But what
about his wife and children? She
takes in washing when she can get it,
or goes out working on small wages,
because sorrow and privation have left
her incapacitated to do a strong wom-
ans work. The children are thin
blooded, and gaunt, and pale, and
weak, standing around in cold rooms,
or pitching pennies on the street cor
ners, and munching slice of unbut-
tered bread when they can get it,
do not get out of the way, kicked on
ward toward manhood or womanhood,
for which they have no preparation,
except a depraved appetite and
frail constitution, candidates for aims
house and penitentiary. Whatever
| other causes of poverty may fail, the
| saloon may be depended on to furnish
an ever-increasing throng of paupers.
Oh, We grog shops of Brooklyn and
New York, and of all the cities! Ye
mouths of hell, when will ye cease to
craunch and devour? There is no dan
ger of this liquor business failing. All
other styles of business at times fail.
Dry goods stores go under. Hardware
stores go under. Grocery stores 60 I'M
der. Harnessmakers fail, druggists
fail. bankers fail, butchers fail,
| bakers fail, confectioners fail,
but the liquor dealers never.
1t is the only secure business
1 know of. Why the permanence of
the alcoholic trade? 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
strychnine and logwood and nux vomica
and vitriol and other congenial con-
comitants for adulteration. One quart
of the real genuine pandemoniac elixir
will do to mix up with several gallons
of milder damnation. Beside that,
these dealers can depend on an increase
of demand on the part of their custom
ers. The more of that stuff they
drink, the thirstier they are. Hard
times, which stop other business,
only increase that business, 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 it's
victims. Claret, champagne, port.
cognac, whisky, Tom and Jerry, sour
mash, on and down until it is a sort of
mixture of kerosne oil, turpentine,
toadstools, swill, essence of the horse
blankets and general nastiness. With
its sword of flame, that liquor power
marshals its procession and they move
on in ranks long enough to girlle the
earth, and the procession is headed by
the -blotched, nerve-shattered.
rheum-eyed, Implicated, soul-scorched
inebriates, followed by the wom-
en-, who, though brought up in COM
Portable homes, now go limping past
with aches and pains and pal1or and
hunger and woe, followed by their
children, barefoot, uncombed, freez-
ing, and with wretchedness of time
and eternity seemingly compressed into
their agonized features. Forward
march, cries the liquor business to
that army without banners. Keep
that influence moving on and you will
lave the poor always with you. Re-
port comes from one of the cities,
where the majority of the inha bitants
are out of work and dependant on
charity, yet last year they spent more
in that city for rum than they did for
clothing and groceries.
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 income that they can
not lay by in savings bank or life in.
surance one cent a 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 en-.
act d cruelty. On such salary as
many clerks and employees and many
ministers of religion live, and on such
wages as many workmen receive, they
can not, in twenty years, lay ur
twenty cents. But you know and
know many who have competent
income and could provide somewhat
for the future, who live tip every
dollar, and when they die, their children
go to the poor house Or on the street
BY the time the wife gets the husband
buried, she is in debt to the under
taker and grave-digger for that which
she can never pay. While the man
lived he hid his wine parties and fairly
stunk with tobacco, and, then expired
leaving his family upon the charities
J of the world. Do not send for me tc
come and conduct the obseouies anc
read over such a carcass the beautiful
liturgy: blessed are the dead who die
in the Lord for, instead of that, will
turn over the leaves of the Bible t.
First Timothy, V, IS, where it saws
'lf any provide not for his own, anC
especially for those of his own house
he hath denied the faith, and is wors,