The Springdale news., 1908-04-24
LATE COL. INGERSOLL ON
 THE EVILS OF LIQUOR.

lowing from the late Col. Robert G. lngersoll on the question:
 II ain aware that there IS a prejudice against any man who manufactures alcohol. I believe that from the time 1t issues from the eoiled and poisonous worm ln the distillery until 1t emptles into the jaws of death, dishonor, and crime 1t denoralizes everybody that touches it from its source to where 1t ends. I do not believe anybody can contemplate the ob- ject without being prejudleed against the liquor crime. All we have to do gentlemen, IS to think of the wrecks on either bank of the stream of death, ot the suicides. of the insanity, of the ignorance, of the destitution. of tie little children tu9ging at the faded and withered breast of weeping and despairing mothers, of wives asking fer bread, of the men of genius 1t has wrecked, the men struggling with imagln- ary serpents, produced by this devilish thing; and when you think of the jaiIs, of the aims houses, of the asylums, of the prisons. of the scaffolds upon either bank, 1 do not wonder that every thoughtful man Is preJu- diced against this damned stuff called alcohol. - Intemperance cuts down youth in its vigor, manhood in it's strength, old age Tn it's weakness. It breaks the fathers heart, bereaves the doting mother, extinguishes natural af- lection, erases conjugal love, blots out filial attac Ilment. blights parental hopes, brings down mourning dge=in sorrow to the grave. It produces weakness lot strength. sickness not health; death, not life. It makes wives widows, children orphans. fathers flends; and all of= them Paupers and beggar>. It fec. .rheuma- tism, invites cholera, imports pestilence, and embraces con- sumption. It covers the land with idleness, misery, and crime. It fills your jails, supplies your almhouses, and demands your asylums. It engenders eontro- versies, fosters quarrels, and cherishes riots. It crowds your penitentiaries, and furnishes vic tims for your seaffolds. It IS the life blood of the gambler, the element of the burglar, the prop ot the hlghwayman, and support of the midnight incendiary. It countenances the liar, respects the thief, esteems the blasphem- CT. It violates obligation, rever- enees fraud and honors infamy. It defames benevolence. hates love, scorns virtue, and islanders innocence. It inciteS the father to butcher his helpless offspring, helps the husband to massacre his wife, and the child to grind the paricidal ax. It burns up men. consumes women, detests life, curses God, despises heaven. It suborns witnesses, nurses per jury, deflles the jury box, and stains the judicial ermine. It degrades the citizen, debases the
 
 legislator, dishonors the states men, and dlsarms the patriot. It brings shame, not honor; misery, not safety; despair, not hope; sorrow, not happiness, and with the malevolence of a fiend 1t calmly surveys its frightful desolation and unsatiated havoc. It poisons felicity, kills peace, ruins morals, blights confidence, stays reputation, and wipes out national honor, then curses the world and laughs at its ruin. It does that and more. It mur- ders the soul. It is the sum of all villainies, the father of all ~r;,,,ac tl,a mot bar Of a II ahot11if,-