Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1899-06-09
REV. CALDWELL ON The SALOON.
PREACHED A SCAThING SERMON
ON THE SUBJECT.
The saloon the Arch-Enemy of the
HOme-Inhe ritance of the Drink
Habit - Cases. seen in Lansing -
Tribute 10 the w. G.. +. L..

nished music at the vesper service Sun
day a. the Presbyterian church. Rev
Fred George Caldwell preached the
third sermon in the series on home.
HIS theme was The arch-enemy of the
home" lie SAID:
You understood. of course, that
was 10 talk about the saloon. Il is the
arch-enemy Of home. The saloon is a
blight on our civilization. II paralyzes
business, and puts mill stone about
the neck of human progress. II fills,
our legislatures with bribery, our hos
pitfalls with the diseased, our graveyards
with the dead, our asylums with the in
sane, almshouses with paupers, our
highways with tramps, our streets with
wrecked manhood, our nights with
lechery, our jails with murderers. 1t
! fills our home with woes and unspeak-
able. All reforms have home end, be-
cause every evil relates its self 10 the
home. The home is the heart Of society
and though IT pulsates every tide of life,
whether of Joy or of sorrow. All the
woes of the drink traffic concentrate
themselves IN the home.
The saloon stands at the gateway of
life and invests tens OF thousands of |
new born infants with an heritage of |
woe Deianirah gave Hercules man
tie saturated with deadly poison, and
when he put on il clung TO his flesh
and he writhed in agony until death
came 70 his release. SO the saloon
gives TO thousands of souls coming
into this life mantle of flesh in which
the soul must agonize until a mer-
ciful God gives relief. A specialist says
that the largest share of the Ills of life
come as an inheri tance through ances-
tors Of the curse of drink. lie observed
! = families who used alcohol for num-
Der of years. fIfty-seven children were
born 70 those families. twenty-five died
the first week. Five were idiots FIVE
were dwarts. Five were epileptics.
Two were hereditary drinkers. Five
had ncurable diseases.
See what the saloon does with father
Of a household. II humans, upfathers,
unhusbands, him. II leads every unholy
passion in him. 1t leads him 70 let his
wife and children starve.
Rev. Caldwell enforced these points
by citing cases which had come under
his notice in Lansing. Men have been
known 70 take the shroud of dead
child and sell i { for drink
See what the saloon does with our
Boys. Il lives and thrives on innocent
Boys. The MInetour was q monster
with the body of bull and the head of
, man. owned by Minos, king of Crete,
md it fed on human beings. Athens |
vas subjected by Minos. and he com.
)eled The king of Athens 20 send him
/ tribute Of seven beautiful youths and
even fair maidcns each year TO be fed
0 this monster. Are we not paying
arger tribute % monster like that? v
n sread Of fourteen boys aud girls we q
eed one hundred thousan d boys and 4
iris each year 10 the saloon. How is /
ms? Statistics tell us tina; one hundred a
thousand drunkards die each year. Y
,here DO they come from? From our t
ONES. They were once girls and boys. 5
Why do charge this upon the sa- n
Don? | VIII tell you. Because the So
)on is an organization which uses al
ohol for purposes of gaIn> ii The or
anized saloon did not exist there ~
'ould be but moity of the present evil.
See how the saloon is pushing its bus
less in ruined manhood into our new al
ossessions. Tie echo of Admiral Dew !
Us guns had scarce ceased before a III
ain of 50 cars filled with intoxicants m
arted for the Philippines. Fathers n,
nd mothers for years have been asking fir
ar legislature 20 put three mile limit e
round all our schools of higher ed W
cation within which the saloon shall tn
2 prohibited. But has our legislature TC
ranted itE Why not? because the whis- tn
~ trust has no desire TO let 90 its I'll
Did on the youth of our nation, from In
HON they are to gain new customers W.
no are supply the places of those who
edead. And some men who have Oh
'ys vote against such law. If they went -.
some of our institutions of lerrning of
ID saw there the temptations 20 which laI
cir boys some day will perhaps be III,
bject, fancy that they would out of pl,
III and the bow if ut for huuan,.v's tn'