The Commoner
VOL. 15, NO. 9
28
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A Bloody Monster
By T. Do Witt Talmage.
(Excerpts from one of Mr. Tal
mago'a sermons.)
Joseph's brothers dipped his coat
In goat's blood, and then brought the
dabbled garmont to their father,
cheating him with tho idea that a
ferocious animal had slain Joseph.
Thus they hid their infamous be
havior, But there is no deception
about that which wo hold up to your
observation today. A monster such
as never ranged African thicket or
Hindustani jungle has tracked this
land, and with bloody maw has
strewn tho continent with the
manglod carcasses of wliold genera
tions; and thero aro tons of thou
sands of fathers and mothers who
could hold up tho garment of their
slain boy, truthfully exclaiming, "It
is my son's coat; an evil beast hath
devoured him."
There has, in all ages and climes,
been a tendency to tho improper use
of stimulants. Noah took to strong
drink. By this vice, Alexander the
Conqueror was conquered. The
Romans at their feasts fell off their
seats with intoxication. Today a
great multitude, which no man can
number, aro tho votaries of alcohol.
To it they bow. "Under it they are
trampled. In its trenches they fall.
On its ghastly holocaust they burn.
Could the muster-roll of this great
army bo called, and they could come
up from tho dead, what eye could en
dure the reeking, festering putrefac
tion? "What heart could endure the
groan of agony? Drunkenness! Does
it not jingle the burglar's key? Does
it not whot tho assassin's knife? Does
it not cock tho highwayman's pistol?
Does it not wavo tho incendiary's
torch? Has it not sent tho physician
reeling into tho sick-room, and the
Minister with his tonguo thick, into
tho pulpit? Did not an exquisite poet,
from tho very top of his fame, fall a
gibbering sot into tho gutter, on his
way to bo married to one of the fair
est daughters of New England, and
at the very hour the bride was deck
ing herself for tho altar? and did ho
not die of delirium tremens, almost
unattended, in a hospital? Tamer-
tho sheriff; wife's furs at pawn
broker's shop; clock gone; daugh
ter's jewels sold to get flour; car
pets gono off tho floor; daugh
ters in faded and patched dresses;
wifo sewing for tho stores; little
child with an ugly wound on her
face, struck by an angry blow; deep
shadow of wretchedness falling in
every room. The doorbell rings
little children hide, daughters turn
pale, wifo holds breath. Blundering
step in the hall; door opens; fiend,
brandishing his fist, cries "Out, out!
What -are you doing here?" Did I
call this house tho second? No, it is
tho same house. Rum transformed
it. Rum imbruted the man. Rum
sold the shawl. Rum tore up the
carpets. Rum shook his fist. Rum
desolated the hearth. Rum changed
that paradise into a hell.
I sketch two men that you know
well. The first was graduated from
one of our literary institutions. His
father, mother, brothers, and sisters
were present to see him graduate.
They heard the applauding thunders
that greeted his speech. They saw
tho bouquets tossed to his feet. They
saw tho degree conferred and the
diploma given. He had never looked
so well. Everybody said "What a
noble brow! What a fine eye! What
graceful manners! What brilliant
prospects!"
Man the second: Lies in the sta
tion house. The doctor has just been
sent for to bind up the gashes re
ceived in a fight. His hair is matted
and makes him look like a wild beast.
His lip is bloody and cut. Who is
this battered and bruised wretch that
was picked up by the police and
carried in drunk and foul and bleed
ing? Did I call him man tho sec
ond? He is man the first. Rum
transformed him. Rum destroyed
his prospects. Rum disappointed
parental expectation. Rum withered
those " garlands of commencement
day. Rum cut his lip. Rum dashed
out his manhood. Rum, accursed
rum!
This foul thing gives one swing
to its scythe, and our best merchants
fall; their stores are sold, and they
sink into dishonored graves. Again
lane asked for one hundred and sixty it swings its scythe, and some of our
physicians fall into suffering that
their wisest prescriptions can not
cure. Again it swings its scythe, and
ministers of the gospel fall from the
heights of Zion, with Ions resounding
crash of shame. Some of your own
households have already been shaken.
This .serpent does not begin to hurt
until it has vound round and round.
Then it begins to tighten and stran
gle and crush until the bones crack,
and the blood trickles, and tho eyes
start irom tneir sockets, and the
mangled wretch cries, "O God!
help!" But it is too late.
I have shown you the evil beast.
Tho question is, Who will hunt him
down, and how shall we shoot -him?
I answer, first by getting our child
ren right on this subject. Let them
grow up with an utter aversion to
strong drink. Teach them, as faith
fully as you do tho truths of the
Bible, that rum is a fiend. Take
them to the almshouse, and show
tnem tne wreck and ruin it worim
Walk with them into the homes that
have been scourgof. by it. If a drunk
ard has fallen into a ditch, take them
right up where they can see his face,
bruised, savage, and swollen, and
say, "Look, my son, rum did that."
Looking out of your window at some
one who, intoxicated to madness
goes through the street brandishing
his fist, blaspheming God, a howling
defying, shouting, reeling, raving
and foaming maniac, say to your son,
"Look, that man was once a child
like you." As you go by the grog-
thousand skulls with which to build
a pyramid to his honor. Ho got the
skulls, and built tho pyramjtf. But
if tho bones of all those who have
fallen as a prey to dissipation could
be piled up, they would make a vast
er pyramid. Who will gird himself
for tho journey, and try with mo to
scale this mountain of the dead, go
ing up miles high on human carcass
es to find .still other peaks far .above,
mountain over mountain white with
the bleached bones of drunkards?
Wo have, in this country, at va
rious times tried to regulate this evil
by a tax on whisky. You might as
well try to regulate tho .Asiatic chol
, era or the smallpox by taxation. O,
th folly of trying to restrain an
vil by government tariff! If every
gallon of whisky made, if every flask
of wine produced, should be taxed a
thousand dollars, it would not bo
enough to pay for the tears it has
wrung from the eyes of widows and
orphans, nor for the blood it has
daahed on the Christian church, nor
for tho catastrophe of the millions it
h& destroyed forever.
Z sketch two houses in one street.
Th first as bright as home can be.
I The father comes at nightfall, and
' th children run out to meet him.
1 Bountiful evening meal; gratulation
, and 'sympathy and laughter; music
In the parlor; fine pictures on the
wlls; costly books on tho table;
-' rtll-clad household; plenty of ev
rjtking to m&ke home happy. House
;-tltf itcond: Piano sold yesterday by
shop, let the children know that that
is the place where men are slain and
their wives made paupers and their
children slaves. A man laughed at
my father for his scrupulous temper
ance principles, and said: 4I am more
liberal than you. I always give my
children the sugar in the glass after
we have been taking a drink:" Three
of his sons have died drunkards, and
the fourth is imbecile through intem
perate habits.
Again: We shall grapple this evil
by voting only for sober men. How
many men aro there who can rise
above the feelings of partizanship,
and demand that our officials shall
bo sober men? The question of so
briety is higher than the question of
availability; however eminent a
man's services may be, if he has hab
its of intoxication, he is unfit for any
office in the gift of a civilized people.
Our laws will bo no better than the
men who make them. Cast politics
aside, then, and vote only for sober
men.
We expect great things from asy
lums for inebriates. They havo al
ready dono a good work. I think,
that we aro coming at last to treat
inebriation as it ought to be treated;
namely, as an unlawful disease, self
inflicted, to be sure, but nevertheless
a disease. Once fastened upon a man,
sermons will not euro him, temper
ance lectures will not eradicate it.
Once under the power of this awful
thirst, tho man is bound to go on;
and if the foaming glass were on the
other side of perdition, he would
wade through the fires of hell to get
it. A young man in prison had such
a strong thirst for intoxicating li
quors that he cut off his hand at the
wrist, called for a bowl of brandy in
order to stop the bleeding, thrust
his wrist into the bowl, and then
drank the contents. Stand not, when
the thirst is On him, Between a man
and his cups. Clear tho track for
him. Away the children! he would
tread their life out. Away with the
wife! he would dash her to death.
Away with the cross! he would run
it down. Away with the Bible! he
would tear it up for the winds. Away
with the heaven! he considers it
worthless as a straw. "Give me the
drink! Give it to me!" There is no
homo so beautiful but that i may be
devastated by the awful curse. It
throws its jargon into the sweetest
harmony.
Have nothing to do with strong
drink. It has turned the earth into
a place of skulls, and has stood open
ing the gate to a lost world to let in
its victims, until now the door swing3
no more upon its hinges, but, day
and night, stands wide open to let in
the agonized procession of doomed
men.
To the Saloon-Keeper
If woo be pronounced unon the
man who gives his neighbor a drink,
how many woes must be hanging over
the man who does this every day and
every hour of the day! Do not think
because human government may li
cense you that therefore God licenses
you. No enactment, national, state,
or municipal, can give you the right
to carry on a buainess whose effect is
instruction.
I tell you plainly that you will
meet your customers one day when
there will be no counter between you.
When your work is done on earth,
and you enter the reward of your
business, all the souls of tho men
whom you have destroyed will, as it
were, crowd around you, and pour
their bitterness into your cup. They
will show you their wnnmi
"You made them," and point to their
unquenchable thirst and say, "You
and say, "You forged them." Then
their united groans will smite your
ear; and with the hands out of whch
you once picked tho vJ I J
I dimes they will push you off the verge
nf firrp.at nrAinlfo trV.nn .i.
from beneath, and breaking awa?
among the crags of death, will thun
der, "Woo unto him that gtveth h,
neighbor drink!" m
THEIR OWN RISK
Thero 1 no necessity for tho
United State to get excited over tho
plunking of the Arabic by the Ger
man submarine. The Arabic was an
English ship which had been busy
bringing cargoes of ammunition from
America to the Allies and was on
its way for another load. It was
surely up to the Germanso prevent
that if they could.
The theory that because two Amer
ican citizens took a chance and were
killed, thQ. United States ought to
involve itself in a bloody war is too
ridiculous to merit the serious atten
tion which it receives. As it happens
the two Americans were not the most
genuine article. Wood was an Eng
lishman by birth and had gono to
England to serve in the English
army. He was only making a trip
to this country, of which ho was a
naturalized citizen, in order to shape
his affairs to return to the English
service. Mrs. Brugiere, the other
American lost, had lived for nine
years In Paris because America was
not good enough, but was coming
back to avoid the war troubles.
These folks took the same chance
when they embarked on a belligerent
ship to go through the war zone that
they would if they rode on land near
the fighting line and were killed by
a stray shell.
In time of war American citizens
ought to keep out of the war zone
and not be putting their country into
danger of a war in order to serve
their own personal interest. At least
they should have taken a ship of a
neutral country. It would certainly
be a horrible thing to involve the
United States in a war which would
mean the loss of thousands of lives
for a reason like this.
In time of war no one observes all
the rules and Amezican citizens who
persist in going close to tho firing
line ought to carry their own risk,
and not put the insurance onto their
country. Hutchinson (Kans.) News.
PEACE OR WAR
By C. E. Sugg, Henderson, Ky.
Ye men who cry for battleships,
For war on land and sea,
How far! How far! you are away
From HIM of Galilee.
You stir the flame of Hate that He
Sought to banish from our hearts.
Your task belongs within the realm
Of Satan's mischief-making arts.
Not "Peace on Earth, Good will to
men,"
Can come from your campaign;
But strife and anger, jealousy
And their attendant pain.
"Prepare for war" you say Oh
men!
That'B first what brings it on;
We'll never gain the love that binds
With bayonets and guns.
GOD made men so that they respond
To invitation, and in kind;
And battleships and soldiers
Invite resentment in men's minds.
Armaments of Peace bring Peace,
And armaments of War brine
War;
His coming was not heralded
By lightning's flash, but by a Star.
A Peaceful Sta whose soothing
beams
Stirred not to anger but to love;
His Son-ship was proclaimeu
Not by a lion but by a Dove.
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