The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-08-18
OUR TEMPERANCE COLUMN.
REPORTS OF PROGRESS OF THE
+. BATTLE AGAINST RUM. .
Bow Stealing.


A few days ago a murderer was
chained to a kidnaper on their way
{ to prison, the murderer for a few
years, the kidnaper for life. A
! Pittsburg paper said, contrasting the
murderer, who, If he behaved well
enough, would be released in four
years, with the life-sentenced kid
naper: HE didn't kill a man, he
stole a boy!"
The liuuor seller is constantly COM
hitting both crimes: Nearly all muir
ierers are saloon customers, and the
doomed boys and young men begin
their dolorous downward way in and
out of the swinging doors of the
drink shop, into jail and prison and
Doorhouse and drunkard's graves.
Which is worst to give or sell
liquor to a hopeless sot, or to a youth
who has never tasted it? To whom
! :hall we decide to give liquor, a lost
irunkard or a youth from whom the
world expects so much Of high en-
ieavor?
The heightened club room, the
fashionable cafe and bar room, the
respectable saloon want the custom
not of drunkards but of youths who
are susceptible to their meretricious
attractions, and the moderate drink
ers who giSe their example and in
! Auence and vote to sustain the liquor
traffic.
The Presbyterian Banner had a re-
port of a. speech made at a; liquor
dealers convention in Ohio to this
effect: "~Gentlemen, the drunkards
will soon die. We must toll in the
boys and young men. A nickel spent
! now among boys means dollars to US
bye and bye"
Youths who have been we'll trained
do not learn to drink in low dives,
they take their first glass in respecta-
, BILE club room, cafe, restaurant, bar
! room, saloon. They begin in yondsr
and are kicked or stagger at last out
Of. low drink shops into gutter and
grave. .~.
Phe more respectable and attrac-
tive a drink shop, the more danger
u it is. If a boy has been well nur-
tured he never will learn to drink
If he has to- go to a low disreputable
The undergraduates of colleges and
universities learned to drink in the
gilded reputable places, not in the
dives.
Webster avenue, Wiley avenue sa-
looms do not tempt well trained
youths. The Fifth and Sixth avenues
and Forbes street places lure them to
begin the downward way.
In,Professor Hopkins most excel
Vz-k Lo21x HD~oR& orI r Ncc IN Mon ~
there are figures obtained by the Y.
NJ. CA. ,"In a city of $4,000 inhabi-
tants, 600 young men entered five OF
the prominent saloons in one hour.
There are 1875 saloons in the city.
In a city Of 10000 population, 452
young men entered four saloons in
one hour. In a large Western city,
478 young men were seen to enter a
single saloon in%one night. In an
other large city, 236 young men went
into a prominent saloon in n hour.
|, In a town of 1900 population, 725
young men. visited ~thirty-four of the
fifty saloons, of the city in n night.
In an Eastern city, the Y. M. G. A.
! secretary visited nineteen saloons IN
one evening and found 275 young
men. In another Eastern city with
q population Of 10000, during one
Saturday evening $50 young men
entered five saloons in two hours. In
q city of 10000 population there are
$50 saloons, and 1045 young men
entered seven of them, n Saturday
night, and, only seventy-five attended
all the churches in the city the next
! dayi In a city of 1900 population
more than one-third of all the young
men went into the drinking saloons
in one hour"
Call conventions to plan for chill
dren's Fairgrounds! Why not join
all the real temperance forces to
make the streets safe for the youth?
Remarkable and commendable inter-
est is shown for the sanitary and
! moral welfare of the children. Most
of what children need can be fur
nished by sober fathers! More than
food and proper surroundings can
be had for our young people when
the time and money now wasted for
drink Is used for the building and
blessings of homes. Our boys and
young men are in mortal danger from
licensed and illegal drink shops. De-
stroy these ante rooms to perdSt1on.
Vote to prohibit them and to elect
officials who believe in sobriety and
civic Righteousness and therefore can
be depended upon to destroy the
drink traffic and to strengthen the
foundations Of home and school and
church.-The People,