The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-09-28

comnareu with the saloons hVe Years
ago, and see they are growing far out
of proportion to the increase Of the
population. You people who are so
precise and particular lest there should
be some imprudence aud raShncss in
attacking the rum traffic will have your
son some night pitched into your front
door dead drunk or your daughter will
come home with her children because
her husband has by strong drink been
turned into a demoniac The drink
iend has despoiled whole streets Of
good homes in all our cities. Fathers,
brothers, sons on the funeral pyre OF
strong drink. Fasten tighter the VIC
Tins Stir up the flames. Pile on the
corpses. More men, women and child
rem for the sacrifice. Let US have
whole generations on fire Of evil habit,
and at the sound OF the cornet, flute,
harp. sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer
let all the people fall down and wor-
ship King Alcohol, or you shall be cast
into the fiery furnace under some polit-
ical platform,
I indics this evil as the regicide, the
fratricide, the patricide, the matricide,
the uxoricide, of the century. Yet un-
der what innocent and delusive and
,nirrhful names alcoholism deceives
the people! 1t is cordial. It is
.'bitters. 1t is an eye opener 1t
is an appetizer" 1t is ''digester.
1t is an ''invigorator Itisa settler.
1t is L "nightcap." Why don't they
put on the right labels-;'Essence of
Perdition,' Conscience Stupefer,"
Five DRAINS of Heartache, Tears Of
Orphanage,' ''Blood Of Souls, ''Scabs
of an Eternal Leprosy, Venom Of the
Worm That Never Dies" Only once
in awhile is there anything in the title
of liquors to even hint their atrocity, as
in the case Of sour mash. That |
See advertised all over. 1t is an honest
name and any one can understand it.
"Sour mash That is, it makes a
mans disposition sour, and his associa-
tions sour, and his prospects sour, and
then it is good to mash his body, and
mash his soul, and mash his business,
and mash his family. ''Sour mash
One honest name at last for an intoxi-
cant! But through lying labels of many
Of the apothecaries shops, good people,
who are only a little under tone in
health and wanting some inyigoration:
have uawittingly got on their tongue
the fangs Of this cobra that stings to
death so large ratio Of the human race.
Other are ruined by the common and
all destructive habit of treating Gus
toners. And it is treat on their COM
ing to town, and treat while the bar
gaining progresses, and treat when
the purchase is made, and treat as he
leaves town. Others, drown their trou-
bles, submerge themselves with this
worse trouble. Oh, the world is bat
tered and bruised and blasted with this
growing evil! 1t is more and more in
trenched and fortified. They have mil
lions Of dollars subscribed to marshal
and advance the alcoholic forces, They
nominate and elect and govern the vast
majority of the Office holders Of this
country. On their side they have en-
listed the mightiest political power Of
the centuries, and behind them stand
all the myrmidons of the neither world,
satanic, Apollyonic and diabolic. 1t is
beyond all human effort to overthrow
this Bastille of decanters or capture
this Gibraltar of rum jugs. And while
I approve of all human agencies Of re-
form | would utterly despair if we had
nothing else. But what cheers me is
that our best troops are yet to come.
Our chief artillery is in reserve. Our
greatest commander has not yet fully
taken the field. If all hell is on their
side. all heaven is on our side. Now
''Let God arise, and let his enemies be
scattered"
Then look at the impurities of these
great cities. Ever and anon there are
in the newspapers explosions Of social
life that make the story Of Sodom quite
respectable, ''for such things Christ
says, were more tolerable for Sodom
and Gomorrah," than for the Chorazins
and Bethsaidas of greater light. 1t is
no unusual thing in our cities to see
men in high positions with two or three
families, or refined ladies willing
solemnly to marry the very swine Of
society if they be wealthy. The Bible
all ahame with denunciation against an
impure life, but many Of the American
ministry uttering not one point blank
word against this iniquity lest some
old libertine throw up his church pew.
Machinery organized in all the cities Of
the United States and Canada by which
to put yearly in the grinding mill Of
this iniquity thousands of the unsuspect-
ing of the country farmhouses, one pro-
curess confessingin the courts that she
had supplied the internal market with
$50 victims in six months. Oh, for
500 newspapers in America to swing
open the door Of this lazar house Of So
cial corruption! Exposure must come
before extirpation.
While the city van carries the scum
ofthis sin from the prison to the police
court morning by morning it is full
time, if we do not want high American
life to become like that Of the court Of
Louis XIV, to put millionaire Lotharios
and the Pompadours of your brownstone
palaces into van Of popular indigna-
ton and drive them out of respectable
associations. What prospect Of social
publication can there be as long as at
summer watering'places it is usual to
see as young woman of excellent rearing
stand and simper and giggle and roll up
her eyes side ways before one Of those
first class satyrs Of fashionable life and
on the ballroom floor join him in the
dance, the maternal chaperon mean
while beaming from the window on the
scene? Matches are made in heaven,
they say. Not such matches, for the
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