The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1895-05-08
'so.aag INGERsOLL ON AhoHo1..
A Wonderful Piece of Word Painting nv
the AgnoStIc.

1ue Ioio"lng wonderful piece Of word
painting has been frequently published,
says The Chicago Tribune, but we re.
print it at the request of several readers
who desire complete copy Colonel
Robert G. Ingersoll, in addressing
jury in case which involved the manu-
tacture of alcohol, made the following
terrible arraignment of the demon:
81 am aware that there is a preiudice
against any man who manufactures
alcohol. believe that from the time it
issues from the coiled and poisonous
worm in the distillery until it empties
into the jaws of death, dishonor and
crime, it demoralizes every body that
touches it, from its source to where it
ends. do not believe anybody can con-
template the object without being preiu-
diced against the liquor crime. All we
have to do, gentlemen, is to think of the
wrecks on either bank of the stream of
death, of the suicides, of the insanity, of
the ignorance, of the restitution, of the
little children Juggling at the faded and
withered breast of weaping and despair
ing mothers, of wives asking for bread,
of the men of genius it has wrecked, the
men struggling with imaginary serpents,
produced by this devilish thing; and
when you think of the jails, of the aims
houses, of the asylum, of the prisons, of
the scaffolds upon either bank, do NOT
wonder that every thoughtful man is
prejudiced against this damned stuff
called alcohol. IDtemperance cuts down
youth in its vigOr, manhood in its
strength, old age in its weakness. 1t
breaks the fathers heart, bereaYes the
doting mother, extinguishes natural
affection, grasses conjugal love, blots out
flial attachment, bIights parental hopes,
brings down mourning age in sorrow to
the grave. 1t produces weakness, not
strength; sickness, not health; death not
life, 1t makes wives widows; children
orphans; fathers fiends; and all of them
palpers and beggars. 1t feeds rheuma-
tism, invites cholera, imports pestilence
and embraces consumption. 1t covers
the land with idleness, misery, crime. 1t
fills your jails, supplies your almshouses
and demands your asylums. 1t engen'
ders controversies, fosters Quarrels and
cherishes and furnishes victims for your
scaffolds. 1t is the life blood of the
gambler, the element of the burglar, the
prop of the highwayman and support of
MISUNDERSTANDING 1t countenanceS
the liar, respects the theft, esteems the
blasphemer. 1t violates obligation,
reverences fraud and honors Infamy. 1t
detames benevofence, hates love, scornS
virtue and ISLANDERS innocence. 1t incites
the father to butcher his helpless of
spring, helps the husband to massacre
his wife and the child to grind the parl-
cidal AK. 1t burns up men, consumes
women, detests life, curses God, despises
heaven. 1t suborns witnesses, nurses
perjury, defes the jury box and stains
judicial ermine. It degrades the citizen,
debases the legislator, !dishonors the
statesman and disarms the patriot. II
brings shame, not honor; misery, not
safety; despair, not hope; misery not
happiness, and with the malevolence OF
fiend it calmly surveys its frightful
desolation and unsatiated havoc. II
poisons felicity, kill peace, ruins morals
blights confidence, Stays reputation and
wipes out national honor, then curses
the world and laughs at its ruin. 1t does
all that and more. 1t murders the soul
1t is the sum of all villainieS, the father
of all crimes, the mother Of all abomina
tons, the devils best friend and Goo
worst enemy