The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-03-05

drink, they, IN few hundred years,
went out as consumed candle
hickers and is gone.
So it was in Gaul, Spain and an
cient Britain, beer was made from
grain and other vegetable products,
and drink and drunkenness were
common.
Everywhere men have discovered
means and ways of producing in
toxicating drinks.
While distilatlon was unknown
to the ancients, 1t was discovered
in time to become well known by
the twelfth century in parts of Eu-
rope, and to give at that early
period a new start and ally to the
drink curse.
We must look this demon in the
face and learn where he came from,
and what it has done and what it is
still doing. 1t has had time to
entrench itself in the blood and
nerves of mankind. This it has
done, through the customs of the
ages; IN the courtesies and pleas
ures of society; in the calling and
business of the money getter and
the dram seller; in the prejudlces
and weaknesses of politicians; in
the wilfulness and wlckedness of
the outlaw.
The fact that some have lived
above and stood up against the ter
rible deluge; that. they are not all
brutes and demons, ought to en-
courage US all to take heart and
rise up and resist the foul tide that
it 60 not down to our children; that
we send down to our posterity a
stream Of purer lite.
This is the time for a desperate
effort, death struggle, a radical
change, "a reversal of the old or
der" Our eyes have been opened,
our minds have been educated, our
consciences have been quickeneG,
scientific development and progress
have been made, until a new power
has come to US as from above, which
brings the possibility Of producing
society that shall abrogate the
drink plague and prohibit its con-
tinuance.
The time is here for vigorous
measures against this ancient ty-
rant; for individual uprising and
combined resistance, for moral
appeal and political action, to
purify society of the curse of all
the ages.
What will become of our dear
children if this multi-form, hydra
headed demon, destroyer, is let go:
If 1t were altogether an external
foe, there might be some hope that
some of them might be equal to the
conflict. But this is largely an
internal enemy that they must con
tend against. The peril of our
children is best seen in the solution
of the problem, "Who are we?'
We pride ourselves as modern
Americans, upon our ancestry. We
answer, "We belong to the Anglo
Saxon race"
But there is always something
back. Who are the Anglo-Saxons:
Without trying to look into the
heterogeneity Of their ancestors,
and the conglomerateness Of their
blood, let us hear Mr.. Taine's de.
scriptlon of them when they became
known to the civilized world. In
his English Literature he says,
"They had huge white bodies, were
cold blooded with fierce blue eyes.
redish haXen hair, ravenous stom'
achs fillcl with meat and cheese.
heated with strong drink; of colo
temperament, slow to love, home
stayers, prone to brutal drunken
ness" This is short outline Of
our ancestors as they were 200(
years ago in the forests of Germany
and Denmark. And as you fine
them settled in England, the same
author says they are only changed
for the worse. Their familiarity
with, and fondness for drunkenness
was one of their chief characters
tics.
50 just below the surface of oul
modern morality and responsibility
and good breeding flows the dull
current Of the old ancestral stream
and favorable opportunity viii
bring the gust for strong drink tc
exposure in good many Of us yet
! if we don't watch.
The old enemy is deep rooted
No wonder that every temperance
reform movement has been met and
resisted with a stolid, Il won't give
over; | won't be convinced"
Is it not strange that educated
virtuous Christian people will tol.
crate saloons and drunkenness or
their streets, and brawls and rowdy.
ism before their doors, painted
windows and screened doors, tc
conceal their children from then