Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-10-28

crime is multiplying in intensity. God
very often shows what He thinks of it,
but for the most part the fatality is
hushed up. Among the Adirondacks
met the funeral procession of man
who two days before had fallen under
a flash of lightning, while Boosting, af-
ter Sunday of work in tho fields, that
he had cheated God out of one day
anyhow, and the man who worked
with him on the same Sabbath is still
living, but helpless invalid, under
the same fash.
Years ago, in Pittsburgh prison,
two men were talking about the Bible
and Christianity, and one of them,
Thompson by name, applied to Jesus
Christ a very low and villainous cpl
tibet, and, as he was uttering it, he fell.
A physician was called, but no help
could be given. After u days lying
with distended pupils and palsied
tongue, he passed out of this world.
In cemetery in Sullivan county, in
New York state, are eight headstones
in a line and all alike, and these are
the facts: In 1861 diphtheria ragged in
the village, and physician was re-
markably successful in curing his
patients. So confident did he become
that he boosted that no case of diph.
liberia could stand before him, and
finally defied Almighty God to produce
case of diphtheria that he could not
cure. His youngest son soon after
took the disease and died, and one
child after another, until all the eight
had died of diphtheria. The blasphem-
er challenged Almighty God, and God
accepted the challenge. Do not think
that because God has been silent in
your case, 0 profane swearer! that He
is dead. Is there nothing now in the
peculiar feeling of your tongue, or
nothing in the numbness of your brain,
that indicates that God may come to
avenge your blasphemies, or is already
avenging them? But these cases i
have noticed, believe, are only few
cases where there are hundreds. Fam
lilies keep them quiet to avoid the hor-
rible conspcuity. Physicians suppress
them through professional confidence.
1t is very, very, very long roll that
| contains the names of those who died
with blasphemies on their lips.
Still the crime rolls on, up through
parlors, up through chandeliers with
lights all ablaze, and through the pic
tured corridors of club rooms, out
through busy exchanges were oath
meets oath, and down through all
the haunts of sin, mingling with the
rafting dice and crakling billiard
balls, and the laughter of her who
hath forgotten the covenant of her
God; and round the city and round the
continent, and round the earth a
seething, boiling surge filings its hot
spray into the face of long suffering
| God. And the ship captain curses his
crew, and the master builder his men,
and the hack driver his horse, and the
traveller the stone that bruises his foot
or the mud that soils his shoes, or the
1
defective timepiece that gets him toe
late to the rail train. / arraign pro
fame swearing and blasphemy, two
names for the same thing, as being
one of the gigantic crimes of this land
and for its extirpation it does seem as
if it were about time for God TO rise.
Then look for n moment at the evil
of drunkenness. Whether you live in
Washington, or New York, or Chicago
or Cincinnati, of Savannah, or Boston
or in any of the cities of this land
count up the saloons on that street as
compared with the saloons five years
ago, and see they are growing far out
of proportion of the increase of popu
lation. You people who are so precis,
and particular lest there should bt
some imprudence and rashness in at
lacking the rum traffic will have youl
son some night pitched into your from
door dead drunk, or your daughter
will come with her children because
her husband has, by strong drink
been turned into demoniac. The
drink fiend has despoiled whole street,
of good homes in our cities. Fathers
brothers, sons on the funeral pyre o.
strong drink! Fasten tighter the vic
Tins! Stir up the flames! Pile on tn,
corpses! More men, women and chill
dren for the sacrifice! Let us hav,
whole generations on fire of evil habit
and at the sound of the cornet, flute
harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimel
let all the people fall down and wor
ship King Alcohol, or you shall be cas-
into the fiery furnace under some pc
litcal platform!
indict this evil as the regicide, tn,
fratricide the patricide, the matricide
the uxorcide of the century. Yet un
der what innocent and delusive anC
mirthful names alcoholism deceivei
the people. 1t is cordial" 1t il
''bitters.' 1t is an "eye-opener." i
is an appetizer" 1t is "digester.
Ii is an "invigorator." 1t is yet
tier" 1t is "night-cap." Why dom
they put on the right labe.s-' Essenc,
of Perdition," Conscience Stupefer,
Give Drachms of Heart-ache," "Tear
of Orphanage," blood of Souls,
"Scabs of an Eternal Leprosy," Venom
Of the Worm that Never Dies?" Onl,
once in awhile is there anything in tn,
title of liquors toeven hint their atroci
ty, as in the case of sour mash.
That / see advertised all over. 1t is al
honest name, and anyone can under
stand it. Sour NASH" That is, /
makes mans disposition sour, ant
his associations sour, and his pros
poets sour; and then it is good to masl
} his body, and mash his soul, and masl
his business, and mash his family
"Sour mash!" One honest name Mt las
! for an intoxicant! But through lyin,
) labels of many of the apothecaries