The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1897-03-25
Temperance Department.
Edited by the Superintendent of Press
Work, Henderson W. G. L. u.
pared by c. I. Hood & CO.. Lowell, Mass
2 only Pill to take with Hoods Sarsaparilla

Edited by the Superintendent of Press
Work, Henderson W. G. L. u.
Florida's first and only brewery was
dedicated with a free lunch and free
drunk on the 10th of February in the
city of Tampa.
This institution has filled n sort of
lonS-telt want on the part OF the liquor
sympathizers Of the State. who have
been anxious that Florida should wor-
ship King Gambrinus as do most of the
other commonwealth of the Union.
The brewery came, and it got in its
peculiar work as cOnqueror at the very
threshold OF its existence. While the adj
vent OF this new industry was being hi
lariousy celebrated, largely by the free
guzzIing of its own product, two drunk
en- men men quarreled over u beer mug,
when one of them struck his companion
stunning blow on the head with the
heavy glass, causing concussiOn of the
brain, from which he died in a very few
hours
Thus Florida got two things in the
same day She DOTTED her hat to n $780,
600 brewery, and then, as n quick and
perfectly natural result, she got Il brutal
murder to add to her calendar of crime.
This is only one OF the multitudes of
cases showing that those who invest in
the liquor traffic in any form get all of
its results in due time, and may feel an
absolute assurance at the beginning that
all the goods will be delivered down to
the last dregs of decentralization, crime
and despair. Cause and effect do not
everywhere follow each other as closely
as they did in Florida in this case but
they may be counted on just the same.
Planting the brewery, the disti'ery,
and their plant agent, the ginmil, is
sowing the seed of crime, paupersm, and
degradation. Plant the seed, and the
crop is a certainty, with small chance for
failure, and mighty few cases OF arrested
development.
The observation of the wayiaring man
demonstrates the truth OF this certainty
and the testimony Of the ripest and
wisest judicial experience from the time
OF Sir Matthew Hale down to the acting
magistrates in New York's police courts
gives it added confirmation
Notwithstanding the lessons and ex-
perence of history, States, cities and
communities make terms with the des-
troyer, under the mistaken notion that
they cun SO fasten a pronounced niqnity
to the car of prosperity and so cover it
with revenue that in their particular
case it will cease from troubling, and run
respectable in their midst. But such a
thing has never happened, and never
will.
Juet as certainly as that the man who
"sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap
corruption" will it happen that the com
munity which invites, pets and permits
the dragons teeth of the liqnor curse in
its midst will reap personal and public
disaster. That it does not come quickly
does not prove that the result will be
averted. The longer the cause has to
work, the more disastrous it's effects. If
the rum evil does not speedily murder in
dividuals, it is storing up its wrath i'll
the certain decentralization OF the per-
sonal and public conscience, in the blunt
ing Of the moral sense, and in the de-
struction OF personal virtue-results
worse than death upon all of the best
and most lasting interests of states and
communities.
There is but one way to avoid the ca
lamities of the liquor traffic, and that is
to get rid OF the traffic itself.-Erchange.