The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-04-30

thousands OF my feloWmen. Their
blood stains its walls, and from that
pit" they have gone down to. an
other pit where no sounds Of mrth
ever come. Now I ask, what right
have I to enter place where the
tragedies that are played off before
me by painted women and dissolute
men are as nothing to the tragedies
of lost souls that are enacted IN some
parts Of that house every night9
What right have I to give my money
and my presence to sustain that moral
slaughter-house, and by walking into
the theatre myself to aid in deeoying
others to follow me7
Now, on the same principle not Of
self-preservation merely, but Of avoid
ing what is dangerous to others),
what right have to sustain those
fountain-heads of death from which
the drink-poison is sold? What right
have I to advocate their license, to
patronize the traffic, or even in any
way to abet the whole system OF
drinking alcoholic stimulants at
home or abroad? If a glass of wine
on my table will entrap some young
man or some one who is inclined to
stimulants into dissipation, then am
I thoughtlessly setting trap for his
life. I am his tempter. I give the
usage Of my sanction to him the
direct inducement tc partake Of the
bottled demon that sparkles so Sc
duetively before him If the contents
Of that sparkling glass make my
brother to stumble, he stunbles over
me. If he goes away from my table
and commits some outrage under the
effects Of that stimulant, 1 am to q
certain. degree guilty of that outrage.
I have a partnership in every blow
he strikes, or in every oath he may
utter, or in every bitter wound he
may infict on the hearts Of those he
loves while under the spell of my
glass of "Cognac'' or Burgundy. =
l gave him the incentive to do what
otherwise he might have left pndones
The man who puts the bottle to his
! neighbor's lips is accountable for
what comes from those lips under the
influence of the dram, and is ac-sE
countable, too, for every outrage
that the maddened victim Of the cup
may perpetrate during his temporary
insanity. ..
In this view of the question, is it
too much to ask of every professed
Christian, and every lover OF his
kind, that they will wholly abstain
from everything that can intoxicate?
! For the sake Of your children do it.
For the sake Of brother, a husband,
friend. For the sake of those who
will plead your example; for the sake
of frail tempted ones who cannot
say No!> For your fellow travellers
sake to Gods bar and to the eternal
world, touch not the bottled devil,
under whose shining scales damna-
ton hides its adder-sting!
It is old-fashioned total abstinence
that We are pleading for. We ask it,
as Paul did,. for the sake Of those
who "stumble. /" Oh, those stumblerse
those stumblers! We dare not speak
of them. It would touch many Of US
too tenderly. It would reveal too
many wreeks-wreeks that angels
have wept over. It would open tombs
whose charitable green turf hides out
Of sight what many a survivor would
love to have forgotten. It would re-
| call to me many a college friend who
went down at midday into blackness
of darkness. .a
/ And to-day I see this social curse
coming back into our houses, into
our streets, into our daily usages Of
life, with redoubled power. Would
that every parent were a "prohib-
itory law" to his family! Would I
that every pulpit and every platform
would thunder forth the old warning
erv. "Look not on the wine when it
is red, when it giveth its color in the
cup, for at last it biteth like a ser
pent and stingeth like an adder" At :
the last! at the last! But, oh! who
can tell when that "last" shall ever
end? When will the victims last
qroan be heard9 When will the last
horror seize upon has wretched souls
At any rate, the. Wright brothers
are two American BOYS to whom even