Year: 1866

From the Cincinnati Enquirer.J


The lighter grades of vice and immortality
in our city seem to be steadily increasing.
Drunkenness, especially, prevails to a fear
| fnl, a sickening extent OF the cases tried
before the Police Court during the past
week, the large majority are under the
specific charge of drunkenness and it is no
exaggeration 10 say that strong drink was
| the prime cause Of the other Ofienses. The
above proportion of inebriety has been
| largely exceeded within the past week or
/ two. Indulgence in the Circsean bowl is
not confined to the lower classes. Society
| at large is represented at the shrine of Bac-
chus. Youth and manhood, and, humiliat-
ing that it should be So even women quaff
| the poisonous venom that blasts character
health, hope, truth, comfort, joy, and wealth
the author, too, Of shame and death.
Many of our Police Court drunkards are
case-hardened, irreclaimable. But some of
them may be turned from the awful destiny
awaiting those who nurture the serpent Of
the still.


If our readers would mark the misery
which drunkenness infuses into the cup of
domestic happiness let them 60, with an old
writer, "to one Of these nurseries of crime, a
common tippling shop, and there hehold,
collected till midnight, the fathers, the hus-
bands. the sons and the brothers of a neigh
borhoOd Bear witness to the stencil and
the filthiness around them. Hearken TO the
oaths, the obscenity, and the ferocity of their
conversation. Observe their idiot laugh;
record the vulgar Jest with which they are
delighted, and tell us what potent sorcery
I r IL. ~ 4. IL
loathsome den tLeY should fOrego all the de-
lights of an innocent and lovely fireside. But
let us follow some of them home from the
scene Of their debauch. There is a young
man whose accent and gait and dress be-
speak the communion which he once has
held with something better than all this.
He is an only son. On him the hopes Of
parents and Of sisters have centered. Every
nerve Of that family has been strained to
give to that intellect, Of which they all were
proud, every means of choicest cultivation.
They have denied themselves, that nothing
should be wanting to enable him to enter his
profession under every advantage. They
gloried in his talents, they exulted in the
first buildings Of his youthful promise, and
they were looking forward to the time when
every labor should be repaid, and every self
denial rewarded by the joys of that hour
when he should stand forth in all the blaze
of well-earned and indisputable professional
pre-eminence.


Alas, these visions are less bright than
once they were Enter that family circle.
Behold those aged parents, surrounded by
children, lovely and beloved. Within that
circle reign peace virtue, intelligence and
refinement. The evening has been spent in
animated discussion, in innocent pleasantly,
in the sweet interchange of atlectionate en-
dearment. There is one who used to share
in this, who was the center of this circle.
Why is he not here? Do professional en-
gagements Of late so estrange him from his
hcme? The hour of devotion has arrived.
They kneel before their Father and their
God. A voice that used to mingle in their
praises is absent. An hour rolls away.
Where now has all that cheerfulness fled
Why does every effort to rally sink them
deeper in despondencY? Why do those pa
rents look so wistfully around, and why do
they start at the sound of every foOtstep?
Another hour has gone. That heightened
peal is too much for mothers endurance.
She can conceal the well-known cause no
longer. The unanswered question is wrung
from her lips. Where, oh!where is my son?
The step of that son and brother is heard.
The door is opened. He staggers in before
them, and is stretched out at their feet in all
the loathsomeness Of bcastly intoxication."
This picture has many counterparts in Gin
Cinnati