St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1902-07-23
Ingers0Il on Intemperance.

A subscriber of the CALIFORNIAN in Mas
sachusetts has sent to this Office Inger
soils arrangement OF intemperance. In
sending the article the subscriber says:
am glad of the conflict you are hav-
ing on the subject of intemperance in
Vermont, il it results 10 the education
of the public mind and conscience in reIa-
ton to the terrible evils connected with
the sale Of Intoxicating drinks. From
my point of view free sale of rum would
be preferable to high license. To license
an evil of any kind is contrary to the law
OF God, and any state, or nation guilty
OF such horrible act, invites the iudg-
ment of God. enclose tract contain
ing an extract from an article upon the
terrible effects ofintoxicating drinks, by
Col. Robert Ingersoll. He knew full well
the truth of his scathiug arraignment,
not only by observation but personal
experience in his early life. l wish his
words could be thundered from every
pulpit, read in every school and repeated
in every pap.r in the Green Mountain
state.
cannot believe that the fair name and
fame of Vermont will be smirched at the
behest of men personally interested III
the Internal traffic that curses and
bIghts every person connected with it.
Here is Mr.. Ingersoll's statement OF the
case:
"Intemperance cuts down youth in its
vigor, manhood in its strength, and age
in its weakness. 1t breaks thu fathers
heart, oereaves the doting mother, extln-
guishes natural affection, grasses conjugal
love, blights parental hope, and brings
down mourning age in sorrow to the
grave. 1t produces weakness, not
strength; sickness, not health; death, not
life. 1t makes wives widows. children
orphans, fathers fends, and al of them
paupers and beggars, 1t feeds rheuma
tism nurses govt, welcomes epidemcs
invites cholera, imports pestilcnce, aud
embraces consumption. 1t covers the
land with idleness, misery aud crime. 1t
fills your jails, supplies your almshouses,
and demands your asylums. 1t engend-
ers controversies, fosters qnarrels, and
cherishes riots. 1t crowds your peniten-
tiaries and furnishes victims to your
scaffolds. 1t is the Likelihood of the gam
bier, the element of the burglar, the prop
of the highwaymdn, and the support OF
the midnight incendiary. 1t counte-
nances the liar, respects the thief, esteelns
the blasphemer. 1t violates Obligations,
reverences fraud and honors infamy. 1t
| detameS benevolence, hates love, scOrns
virtue, AMI ISLANDERS innocence 1t inciteS
| the father to butcher his helpless off
spring, helps the husband to massacre
his wife, and the child to grind the parri-
cidal axe. 1t burns up men, consumes
women, detests life, curses God, and de-
spises heaven 1t suborns wine 3ses,
nurses perjury, de6les the jury box, and
stains the judicial ermine 1t degrades
the citizen, debases the legislator, dis
| honors the statesman, and diSarms the
patriot. 1t brings shame, and not hon
or; terror, not SAFETY; despair, not hope
misery, not happiness; and with the ma
Ievolence Of hend calmly surveys its
frightful desolatOn; and unsatis6ed with
its havoc, it posons felicity, kills peace
ruins morals, blights confidence, sIay:
reputation and wipes out national hon
or, then curses the world and laughs al
it's ruin. 1t does all that, ard more-it
murders the soul. 1t is the son of vii
lainies, the father of crime, the mothe,
of abomiuations, the devils best frien(
and Gods worst enemy"