The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-11-12
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTeMeERANce.

erased HAN "nlon nee p3sOs s"o w.
tion fhink-smash che whisssy Bestis
Fer Il Rilis Our Jaiis.
The crime of Michael Leddy has made
. nation think! Maddened BY whiskey,
this man, gives the police case which
is pronounced by the Magistrate TO be tho
most narrowing Of all his experiences.
This rumcrazed man goes to his little
home IN the suburbs OF Greater New York
on q. beautiful Sunday afternoon and al
most instantly transforms it into hell!
daughter, he forces open her mouth and
pours . glass of whiskey down her throat!
The mother, shocked at the outrageous
action Of her husband, screams out in her
indignation, and the brute hurls plate at
her head, cutting deep cash in her scalp!
Stunned by the blow, the woman falls
heavily to the floor. when the brutal fellow
advances toward her, lifts his heavy boot
and, with the malice Of iend, stamps her
he kicked out one of the poor woman's
eyes. Sunday he crushed out the other
one!
Il was . picturesfor hell to gloat over
the little girl reeiing and delirious from
the fumes Of the whiskey that had been
forced down her throat, the mother pros
trate on the floor, insensible from her
wounds and hall strangled by the blood
that flowed from them, and the father.
furious as a demon, glaring about him up
ON the ruin he had wrought!
Father is good to US when he is sober"
sobbed one Of the children, and we may
The crime that shocked New York as Il
had not been shocked for long time, and
that sent shudder throughout the whole
country, was the WORK OF WHliSk1EEHY;m1;
THE WORK OF THE DEVILS RIGHT
ARM. go.
There are q great many people who still
persist in believing that there 10 some
where in the universe Q being OF infinite
malice and spite whose motto II Evil, be
thou my good" and whose supreme de:
light is found in promoting the misery and
wretchedness OF mankind. :. !.
Il Is not for me to say whether the belief
in true or false; but this know, that an
infinitely malicious being, bent on the de.
struction of human goodness and human
happiness, could not possibly hit upon .
more effective means Of accomplishing his
nished in the whiskey bottle.
II whiskey were out Of the way nine
tenths Of the crime, degradation, brutality
and misery Of the world would disappear.
There Is no doubt about it. With whiskcy
out of the way the homes that are now
dark would be bright, the homes that arc
now wretched would be happy, the homes
that are now q disgrace would be an honor.
Everybody. knows that this is true. The
knows it. In fact, the drunkard knows it
q great deal more thoroughly than the man
He has been maddened and degraded ty
;t. That has burned its Generalization
into his very soul and made him hate and
despise himself. It has caused him time
and again to be ashamed to look at the
sun, ashamed to look into the eyes OF nis
wife, children or neizhbor.
his rational moments he loathed and do.
| tested with his whole heart, and awaking
| from his delirium he has had all he could
do to keep from destroying himself!
The unspeakable accursedness OF the
| vhiskey habit Is fact which none but the
rum-imbruited victim OF intemperance HIM
SELF would think Of disputing, and even be
would not dispute it, except while in tho
midst of his mad, unreasoning orgies. .,
| :, To destroy the reign OF whiskey would
be to destroy the reign Of crime. To thor
ouehly sober the race would be to prac-
tically civilize and Christianize the race.
"The ignoble blood that has cre2s
| through scoundrels ever since the Hood.
| has been drunken blood-blood inhamed,
perverted, poisoned by strong drink. Get
! the yhiskey corpusclea out OF the world Q
blood and il win be largely humane, decent
| and moral. The scoundrelism - mainly
the result Of the Generalization induced
! by drunkenness.
The pathetic words Of the little girl.
"Father is good to Us when he Is sober,
are applicable to the overwhelming major
ity Of mankind. Nine hundred and ninety.
| nine human beings out Of the thousand arc
inclined, when sober, to be reasonable ana
Il Is natural for men to think; it is also
natural for them to be kind and consider
ete; but when maddened by rhiskey they
are but beasts.
mitted an awful crime Sunday, and for the
beastliness nothing but whiskey IL respon'
sible. ,,
II was whiskey that committed tina!
crime, for it was whiskey that transformed
Michael Leddy from human being into
q demon.
Every man who has ever swallowed q
glass OF whiskey well know: that even one
| glass disturbed to certain extent the fine
balance Of his moral nature and upset
however slightly it might have been, the
natural poise OF his human reason. And
when the one drink becomes the dozen. on
the score, the man falls from the living
perpendicular OF his rational. moral man
hood to the dead level Of the unreasonina
brute. -,
time being mastered by the APE and
tiger" forces; reason no longer appeals %
him, affection has but little influence ovel
him, and he Is ready for the most silly OF
the most savage deeds.
| In fighting whiskey we are fighting hu'
manity's most deadly foe. It il the one
enemy OF mankind which II put out OF the
way would almost insure the departure oi
| all other evils.
It is the whisley bottle that fills oul
tails with criminals and out asylums with
iunatics. It il the whiskey bottle that
burdens the State with the mighty army
| of paupers and incapables. II 10 the whis
kew bottle that is responsible for nearly
every instance Of domestic infelicity, from
the first ugly scene between husband and
wife to the divorce, which breaks up the
home and turns the little ones adrift upon
| the world.
Il is the whiskey bottle that dehauche.
our public servants and causes so many o!
them to betray their trusts. 1t is the
whiskey bottle that il mainly responsible
for the low ebb to which. in so many In
stances. our municipal politics has fallen
Il is the whiskey bottle that stands be-
tween US and the coming OF the Kingdom
of God. =. =,
Smash the whiskey bottle and you break
the devils right arm.-New York Ameri'
can.
Two sententious OpInions.
L