Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1900-09-21

community. They are a shame ano
disgrace to our country aud IA ours,
to humanity. Yet such is the plac,
where some of our young friend.
spend their Sabbath days, and wher
we think that many of them wer,
raised 10y Christian parents, raised
as it were, in the church and Sabbath
school, oh. is it not enough, if it were
possible, to make their dead friends
turn In their graves, and their Low.
ing friends weep tears of blood.
Some of you may think they are
few in number, but statistics show
that more than 100000 drunkards
die yearly in the United States. Yet
that mighty army grows none the less
but is kept recruited to It's full
strength, year by year, from the army
of moderate drinkers. Oh. my mod
crate drinking young friend, if there
be such here, you think you are
strong, but l warn you to take heed
lest you fall. Do you think there
is no danger? Look out on yon de-
mented sot, who was once moder-
ate Grinker and looked down on for
mer sots as you look down on him,
and as some future moderate drinker
may yet look down upon you! More
than this: There are hundreds of
millions of dollars spent yearly in
the United States for strong drink.
| have seen it estimated as high as
S1A,000,000 a year but whether 1t
be more or whether it be less, it is a
total loss. But lay aside its cost in
dollars and cents and go out in your
imagination to the final end, aud
when we take into consideration that
no drunkard can inherit the King
dom of God, who can estimate the
cost? Could we be permitted to
take a view of that abyss below,
where dwell the victims of intemper-
ance, We would still be unable to pic
ture the appalling cost.
How important it seems that we
should exercise charity towards our
fallen fellow man. When | saw
charity l mean that principle which
would prompt us to reach down even
to the lowest depths of human degra-
dation and endeavor to raise them up
aud restore them to friends and
family.
l have heard men say we should
license the sale of strong drink for
the sale of the revenue it produces.
Has such a one ever considered the
amount of misery, want and woe
brought upon the human family,
through this evil? Have they con-
sidered that three fourths of all the
crime of our land, three-fourths of
the expenses of criminals, poor
houses, jails and penitentiaries, three
fourths of the occurrences that ieop-
ardize life and property by day and
night, that three-fourths of all the
misery which the righteous retribu-
ton OF Infinite justice visits upon our
land is the result of the liquor traf-
lic? Oh. no, they do not consider.
Whose influence is it we have to fear?
Not that of the poor brutal drunkard.
FOR he who raves in the bar room and |
then consorts with the swine in the
gutter, as much as he may iniure
himself, as deeply wretched as he may
render his family, exerts but little
influence in beguiling others into an
imitation of his revolving conduct.
On the contrary, so far as his example
goes 1t should tend to deter rather
than allure. 1t is the reputable,
moderate drinker in the high places
in society who sends forth that unsus-
pecting, unrebuked yet powerful in
fluence which is doing secretly and
silently on every side among the
young, the aged and even among
women, its work of death.
1t is the reputable drinker of these
poisons, under the cover of
a Christian name, who encourages
youth in their occasional excesses.
reconciles tae public mind TO holiday
revelries; shelters from deserved re-
proach the bar room tippler and fur
nishes salve for the occasional in
quietude of the drunkard's consci-
ence.
There are some things connected
with this subject / cannot under
stand. l cannot understnd why
a man, who has become be-
sotted himself, will labor so hard
to get inexperienced and thoughtless
Young men to follow his example.
He will lay his arms around them
and with satanic smiles lead them
into those dens of infamy, thus put
ting them on the downward road to
ruin. Nor can l understand why
some of our Christian people can
not see their way clear to oppose the
whiskey party. know an official
member of White Stone church who
cef I'm SaA To lanat kic