Evening star., 1905-10-23
Poverty and Drunkenness.

| tree?
Poverty and Drunkenness.
DR.. Kent, at the Peoples Church. based
| his remarks largely on the following quota
ton:
For myself. twenty-one years of study
and observation have convinced me that
poverty is a prime cause of intemperance
and that misery is the mother and heredi-
tary appetite the father of the drink hallu-
cination. a.
In the slums they drink to forget; We
would make life something they would
gladly remember. We once said iDtemper-
ance was the cause of poverty: now we
have completed the circle of truth by say
ing that poverty causes intemperance.
Ten years ago could not have said it
honestly, five years ago l could not have
said in helpfulIy but now l fearlessly de-
clare that l believe it to be right and
duty of white ribbon women to help abo-
ish poverty in the largest sense Of that
great phrase; but must in the same breath
ask our friends of the labor movement to
recognize that one special work for the
abolition of poverty consists In the abolition
Of the public house and the saloon.
This language is quoted" he said, from
Frances E. Wizards presidential address
before the Worlds w. c. T. u, in London,
June 1896. The truth here voiced by Miss
Willard Is one too little recognized. Open
drunkenness disgraceful and there will be
more decent homes to fight the saloons"
Washington a Model City.
Rev. E. B. Bagby preached at the Ninth
Street Christian Church on Washington a
Model CITY," from the text, Acts 8:S-'And
there great joy in that city" He quot
ed from Dr. Gunsaulus: True statesman
ship consists in discovering which way God
is going and getting the obstacles out of
the way and said in part: The saloon is
one of the chief obstacles to be removed.
The evil effects of the low groggeries may
be seen in the debased countenanceS and de-
graded lives of those who frequent them,
and heard any morning in the tales of
crime before the Police Court. There is
danger too, in the gilded palaces of vice.
A dagger Is none the less dangerous for its
jeweled hilt, poison is not less fatal be-
cause taken in nectar, hell is not less hell
because the way thereto is by the primrose
path. 1t Is the business of the church to
remove everything that contaminates and
destroys and to hasten the day Of our Lords
coming
Restriction of Saloons.
Dr.. McKim at Epiphany Church spoke on
the subject at the morning service.
Advocating the restriction of the liquor
saloons. he said:
Il plead also for the laboring man, ex-
posed to even greater temptations. See him
going forth in the early morning to his daily
toll. His way is planted thick with those
nets of satan, the rum shops night and day
driving their ruinous traffice-traffic in hui
man souls, and in the homes and happiness
of men! He returns In the evening past the
same evil snareS, on every corner of the
street. Thus the sons of toll must run the
gauntlet of temptation every time they walk
the streets. All, my brothers. pause and
think of these, your fellows, in the battle
of life. Bear their burdens in your heart a
little while. It's no temptation to you to
leave your comfortable fireside for the gin
palace but remember that for many q
l aatin ,P -
are great. There are brightness and warmth
and boon companions, and games and pic
lures. He listens to the siren song that
issues from the half-open doors. He enters
the rum shop and too often, alas. succumbS
to its baleful influence.
'"These saloons are eating like a cancer
into the manhood and the virtue and the
happiness of the toiling masses of our popu-
lation They are the hotbeds of crime and
| of all ma inner of wckedness. In Gods name
| lest us abate them IL we cannot abolish
| them"
Influence Of Strong Drink.
Rev. David Barr, rector of Trinity Pro-
testant Episcopal Church. said;
'.Stronk drink has always ragged" to the
| deception Of mankind, since all nations
have made 1t and indulged the appetite
for It unto unwisdom; but, probably, no
day has seen the variety and seductive
| forms 1t ASSUMES today, and am l not safe
| in saying that both sexes have never SO
| extensively INDUCED as now they do In the
| great centers of population? Statistics of
! the results of such excesses in indulgence
are heart-rending in their study, but what
| we see in statistics given to the public.
| frightful as they are. does not afford us
| a true account of the extent of Incorporate
drinking. These are gathered from the pub
| lie records of the courts, the prisons, hos
pitals and insane asylums-those official
| records of the history of the thousands of
men and women who have thus come in
| offensive and distressing contact with So
| ciety in public, but make no mention of
| the other many thousands, of both sexes,
who make their homes abiding places
| the scenes of their degrading and otter
merciless passion, or hide their shame from
public view in places of woe screened off
| from heavens sunshine and light Hus-
bands, wives. fathers. mothers. children.
strong drink Is raging. From excess in
| "strong drink spring deception. lying,
theft impurity In thought and deed, muir
| der-aye, the violation of all of Gods holy
commandments.
| If, again. the drunkenness of the one in
| duging in strong drink, or its equivalent,
were the only result of the habit. 1t would
| then meris the lowest condemnation and op-
position ~ the decent and the good; but