The mirror., 1895-02-07
gagenent.

IT will be to the everlasting credit of
the people of Minneapolis and its hu
name ex-mayor, who, we understand,
was the originator. for creating
and supporting the ex-drunkard's
home recently established for the ac-
commodatiOn and shelter of those who
have taken the gold cure administered
at the wOrkhouse. There are few men
more to be pitied than the one who has
been run down by the terrible curse of
drink. Depriving him as it does of
health, position, money and reputation,
he is like ship wrecked at sea, tossed
here and there without rudder or sail: :
with intellect shattered and physical
powers weakened, it is but short time
until he becomes physical wreck and
sinks into his grave. That growing
Christlike spirit of brotherly love-
which, forcing aside other issues, takes
up the cause of weak humanity and
devises means of rescue from the worst
curse of this age, cannot be too highly
commended, and the promoters of this
grand cause will have their reward
And we trust that no man who has
found himself tOttering on the brink of
the precipice "a drunkard's life and it's
terrible death-and has been res
cued, will ever fall back into the
old habit. But is it not strange
that the laws of our land will cOunte-
nance the sale of that which makes this
condition necessary? Legalize the sale
of a commodity the effects of which
require so great all outlay in money,
and which is sapping the very life out of
our youth, yearly adding to the crimi-
nal records and the registers of our
prisons, and undermining the very foun-
dations of society itself Everything
is possible to the great people if they so
will The solution of the liquor prob
lem is in their hands, and the only way
it can be successfully solved is to get
at the root of the matter. What makes
the drunkard? Heredity and prenatal
theories sound we'll on paper, and make
excellent discussions for the kindergar-
ten; but they don't stop whisky drink
ing, whisky selling, or prevent the
many bright men, young and old, who
are rapidly going down the road that
leads to the penitentiary and the potters
field. They never will Men will pose
before the people as reformers. advo-
eating some of the most beautifully
wOrded theories as to "what shall we do
with the drunkard, how shall we relieve
our warehouses, our inebriate asylums,
our large centres that breed disease and
pauperism,' the result, in large meas
ure, of intemperance, and yet they
vote for the sale of, or the reduction of
license, to sell the very thing that
makes these conditions possible Was
there ever such inconsistency; was there
ever such seeming insincerity. Just so
long as the dive and joint are allowed
by law to thrive in our cities. so long as
the gilded concert hall and the reeking
grOggery are permitted to exist, to at
tract the unsophisticated youth on the
one hand and harbor the bum and the
criminal on the other, just so long will
the drunkard, the thief, and the black
leg be with us; and this. in spite of all
theories and attempts at cure that can
be devised by man. 1t is the history of
the century.
There can beno security for the youth
SO long as saloons are permitted to open
in any locality man chooses to hang
out his shingle. There is a certain
amount of vice inborn in man and
woman, an uncomfortable desire to
look upon the vulgar side Of life;
witness the crowds of supposed to be
respectable and cultured people that
invariably attend sensational divorce
case or heinous murder trial; and good
morals demand that all avenues that
lead to qualification of these human
weaknesses should be closed. The sa-
looms, if they must exist, should be re-
moved from the daily paths of the