The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-03-26
| ready to assert, and I expect to bring

| ready to assert, and expect to bring
| howl about my ears, that as far as
evil effects are concerned, the opium
| tiend" is more to be desired than the
i drunkard. He alone suffers from
his eXcesses. He seldom marries, so
| the evil tendency is not transmit
ted; he is quiet, seldom commits q
crime, but simply dreams and sleeps.
| His whole life is a dull blur. Opium
is food, drink, home, friend, wife and
children. That he suffers, yes, SUI
fers exquisite torture that no tongue
can describe, is well known. But he
suffers alone, in nine cases out of
| ten.
Some months ago it became neces-
sary for me to go to a saloOnkeeper
and warn him against selling my son
liquor. L had positive proof that my
son was personally known to this
man; that he ran small bills; that
liquor was sold him when intoxi-
Gated. Yet this man declared he did
not know him; that he never sold
to an intoxicated man, and brought
out witnesses to prove his state
ments. Yet in that mans pocket was
my rent, food, clothes and my sons
| soul! But [ had no redress!
l went to another saloonkeeper,
and warned him. He also denied
any knowledge of my son. Then [
told him l had in my possession a
! MI l..
Der on it.
Then" said he, frightened into
confession, when he comes in here
again I'll kick him into the street,"
But he didn't know him.
When the law requires that regis
tration shall follow the purchase of d
drink, and that these books shall be
open to inspection so that in case of
crime, suicide and other outrages, the
district prosecutor will be able to
hold the saloonkeeper as accessory to
these crimes, then will our fresides
| be protected, our children clothed,
and crime be unknown. The mutila-
ton of these registers, or any eraS-
ures, should be made a penal offense,
and all crimes committed could be
traced to their rightful source. Only
in publicity can the evils of intern
torney Jerome, the Carrie Nation of
gambling houses, splits open the
doors of those evil doors, confiscatcs
their goods, arrests the proprietors
and patrons, ararigns them in our
courts, convicts them, and sends them
side by side to the prison, where they
suffer their punishment together. But
the red light" of the saloon shines
on and on and on, while thousands of
men are on their road to hell by way
of the electric chair, and millions of
innocent victims are slaughtered be-
fore this juggernaut of state income
and mems appetite.
Another thing, at the foot of every
81" station there is not one saloon,
there are two, three, four. Not only
are our sons tempted, but our daugh-
! ters are insulted and outraged by
the rowdies who lounge around the
doors. They ogle the women who
| pass them on their way home; they
use language that is only fit for the
vilest resorts, and yet we are forced
to submit to this because our legis-
lators will not remove menace, be-
cause mems appetites must be sat
| isfed.
In summing up, make it possible
for a mother to save her son, a wife
her husband a daughter her father,
by some system Of espionage by
which the seller of the liquor is
equally culpable with the drunkard
Is there no way to help the weak,
no way to save a besOtted soul? Ard
l sit in the shadow of horrors 1
can feel, and yet not avert, for law
is against me, and 1 beat my breast
and cry aloud: 80 Lord, how long,
how long!"