The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1898-11-25
A CALL TO ARMS.
The Forces of the Evil One are Arrayed
Against the Homes of the Land.
ICumharland Preshyterian1

Cumberland Presbyterian.
The mill of perdition runs mad and
swift. With dazing rapidity millions
succumb to its fatal suction. Half the
present generation of men and women,
rich and poor, cultured and unlettered,
are being drawn with awful rtpidity
between its mericess stones. In three
decades all the men aud women now
living will be gone. Every beer sot,
whisky soak, and gin blOat; every
gambling knave and saloon fiend, aud
every willing and unwilling victim of
the most whitening curse under the
murky dome of sin, will have been har-
vested and ground to powder, their
bodies gathered into natures crema
tories, their souls doomed to shudder-
freed forever of their blighting pres
ence.
But think you that the hoppers of the
mill of hell will cape empty, or that its
stones will merely grind each other, or
that its murderOus machinery, starved
of human flesh and blood, will cease it,
remOrseless revolutions? Will not a
new army of victims, blind, brainless,
devoid of will, feed to this mill of eter-
nal destruction their bodies and souls?
Verify! But from whence shall come
the recruits?
Let the innocent babe prattle and
laugh to-day. Let the happy faced boy
and girl play in the bright sunshine
Behind the curtain of tomorrow Turk
the saloons and the gambling hell's
seductive agents. They will have the
tirst-born of every home-a 1.-THE of the
sweetest, purest and best life of the
land. They will pour out this life, a
libation to the false god to whom society
and politics bend the servile knee. Our
cherished institutions, liquor dealing
and gambling, must be maintained
more gold is needed; more revenue pay.
ing drink is made; over production is a
curse; consumption must be encour.
aged at any cost; the souls of our boys
and girls are cheap!
Wiring not your hands, mother; laugh
with your darling while you may; kiss
the golden curls; press the babF s cheek
to your own; let its little life beat
against your own bosom; for tomorrow
| the nightmare of a nations lust will
rest upon it, even in the very twilight
of babyhood; the incubus of greed will
despOil its unfolding reason; the hydra
of terrible habit will wrap it round and
round and the fires of kindling passion
will consume it, body and soul,
Only fools have no fear for their chill
| dren's safety.
The braying ass of the field is {
veritable Solomon for wisdom beside
that parent who sees no danger in the
stress of present temptation. The
organization of the saloon power is per
feet. 1t reaches every city, town, anC
cross roads. 1t has under tribute every
man or woman i'm the land who sell:
liquor, and by means of the telegraph i
can concentrate in a few hours, enorm
Gus sums of money to thwart righteous
legislation, or to promote its own ne
farious schemes. Places of drink arr
made seductively attractive to thu
young, beyond the Imagination of pure
minded men. The sirens of old are pu
to shame by those who go forth in OuI
great cities to lure our boys and girls t
destruction. Nor is it for the children
of the slums alone that this demon
which America is not willing to spar,
lies in wait, The rum traffic makes it
highest bid for the children of the rich
the cultured and the good.
We must break our lances for the ris
ing generation. The devil would glad
ly give us every sot in the land if W,
would give him the children. If younl
America is won by the saloon there will
be another generation of untold MISERY
and crime; but il the youth can b.
saved the saloon problem will be solved
Here is the battle field for the gOoC
fight for purity and soberuess.
Already the columns OF sin are swing
ing into this battle field. Already it
strategic points are being occupied
While we bubble over the prOpriety O
carrying religion into politics legion
of the boys aud girls of our land are be
ing bound hand and foot as prisoner,
without hope of release or exchange
A temperance or prohibition schOo
superintendent or commissioner, il
many places, is an impossibility.