The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-12-05
TIE GREAT
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
TILE VICE OF INTEAiPEEiNtE.
Manufacturing Mud Eoics-Evnry
Fam Sink a Slough Of Despend,
in Which Poo" Souls Are Mired
ard Primal

"a pikkh - o'S - DSSl"Aet
in Which Poor Souls Are Mired
ard Ruined.
The traffic in strong drink is re-
sponsible fo- a large proportion of
the entire expenses Of civil govern
ment. Dram-sellers benefit no one,
and injure every one with whom they
have to do.
They make honest men into rogues
and thieves and rioters, from whom
society must protect itself by the or
ganiZation and support of police, con-
stables, sherifs, judges, courts, jails,
~jailers, State prisons and execution
ers. They make lunatics, for whom
society must build costly asylums and
support physicians and keepers and
nurses. They cause personal injuries,
which must be repaired in hospitals,
provided, Offered and equipped at
public expense. They produce paul
pers, who must be cared for in costly
almshouses. mostly filled by broken
down drunkards, drunkards' wretch
ed wives and drunkards' orphan chill
dren. They produce idiots, begotten
by drunken fathers, for whose benefit
society must support asylums and
schools. They produce bankrupts
who, through their reckless misman-
agement or criminal waste, involve
themselves in financial ruin, leaving
society to bear the burden Of debt
and damage which they cause. They
incapacitate men for their duties, and
they render persons reckless in the
performance of their allotted tasks,
thus causing accidents, collisions,
shipwrecks, loss Of life and treasure;
all this wreck and ruin must be borne
and paid for by the temperate, hon
est, hard-working portion Of the COM
munity, who not only suffer emo
nous losses and damages, and pay
enormous taxes caused by this vii
famous traffic, but who also are con-
tinually importuned for the support
of voluntary charities, and constantly
called upon for private benefactions
to relieve the sore distresses Of those
who, but for intemperances, might
have been happy, prosperous and
even wealthy.
All these things society bears, and
the only men who are benefited by
the enterprise are a few dram-sellers,
who earl an easy living by dealing
out poison to their fcllowmen.
There is a story told of a man in
Ohio who, being short Of work and
short of money, turned a spring
which was on his land in such a way
that it ran down the road and formed
a mud hole at TIE bottom Of the hill.
When he got his mud hole in working
order, emigrants and teamsters trav-
cling that way were very sure to 60:
stuck in the mire, and he was gus
willing for a liberal consideration 20
yoke his team and drag them out.
The story ran that he made some
thousands Of dollars by the operation,
and finally sold his mud ho]a for a
large price, and went West.
1t would seem that a present So
ciety Is busy manufacturing mud
holes; for every ruT1 hole is a
slough of despond in which poor souls
are mired and ruined. But the diff
ference between the case of the man
of the mud hole, and the case of
those who favor and permit the sale
Of intoxicating drinks seems to be,
that they employ a man to make a
mud hole for them, and then get
stuck in it themselves; and so the
men who are responsible for the mud
hole are obliged to suffer the trouble
of getting into it, and pay the ex-
penses of being helped out, which
seems to make the speculation pecul-
iarly Improbable, to those who are
compelled by the tax gatherer to pay
the cost of the villainous operation.
If the taxpayers Of the world could
see the amount they pay to repair the
damage wrought by dealers In strong
drink; if they could see how many
weary days work, and how many
h~ard-earned dollars the strong. drink
takes from those who e lasts It,
they would not wait to discuss the
moral aspects Of the case, nor hest
tate as to the most desirable course
Of actNn, but they would rise in their
might and trample this serpent's
head beneath their shodden heels,
and blot out the vile traffic from un-
der Acknowledgement.