| Show THE CURSE OF WILL THE WAVE OF UNIVERSAL lJ SWEEP THE LAMB encouraging signs apparent on every baad correspondence of the ENQUIRES no intelligent and thoughtful reader of the journals and periodicals of the day can fail to have noted the increasing prominence which is being given to the discussion of the temperance question in publications of every grade from the conservative stately and dignified reviews and quarterlies down to the smallest sheets hawked on the streets the subject of the liquor traffic its evils its restriction ita suppression is being pressed upon the attention of the people men of affairs statesmen legislators who have until vory recently cither utterly ignored the liquor question or have treated it in a remote way as a matter of slight importance are now it up and handling it with a vigor and earnestness that shows something of a true appreciation of its magnitude and importance within the past year or iwo there is hardly a country in europe or a state in the union that has not been called upon to deal with the alisky traffic in some form to consider its fearful evils and to take more or less radical measures for their suppression even the governments ern ments of prance and spain two of the leading wine drinking coun tries of the globe have been forced at last to taka cognizance of the terrible ravages of the drink habit among their people and have appointed commissions to investigate the subject and to suggest measures of relief another fact of significance in this connection is the added prominence which has recently been given to the dark question in the discussions of various deliberate bodies both secular and religious in nearly all the conferences conventions and assemblies of the churches held during the past year the liquor curse has been the subject of the most thoughtful and serious consideration and nearly all have taken strong and determined action on the subject the methodist general conference at its recent session speaking uio usini of to declared that the liquor traffic cannot without sin and other denominations have adopted an attitude towards the traffic no less firm and ing thus also we have had clear and strong utterances with respect to the perils of the drink trade and the duties of individuals and commini ties with regard to it from labor conventions vent ions missionary conferences and councils for the promotion of various social and political reforms the same problem at the same time has engaged the attention of the great presbyterian council in their recent session and the national conference of charities and correction in one the liquor traffic was denounced for its interference in the work of foreign missions and in the other the saloons were declared to be the chief recruiting agencies for the prisons and the work honses thus wo have fresh and continuing evidence day by day of alio truth that the traffic in strong drink is a business which antagonizes all things that are right and good of whatever name or nature all movements all enterprises all methods of organized action that have for their end and aim tho advancement of the spiritual moral or material interests of mankind whichever way urn turn in their efforts to amelios ate the condition of their fellow men to purify society to reform the state they tind everywhere before them as one of ane most stubborn most defiant and aggressive enemies the mighty remorseless mor seless satanic power that lies entrenched behind tho saloon the dark and baleful shadow of the drink traffic lies across every avenue of human progress the missionary on the congo tho reformer in the legislature the teacher in the school the preacher in the pulpit all find this same giant thing of evil in tho pathway before them to embarrass to defeat and destroy the work of their hands aad the hopes of their lives it corrupts the ballot it demoralizes 1 the legislature it paralyzes para lizes industry it debauches society it poisons the minds and bodies of the young it empties the churches chure hes and fills the jails it desolates homes and destroys tho souls of men over against every institution of learning stands a score of the schools of vice and crime over against every church stands a hundred of the pitfalls of hell nothing good nothing pure nothing that ennobles or uplifts tha heart and soul of man springs into existence that does not find a badly foe in the rum power only when men shall come to see and know this truth in all its terrible reality will the traffic in strong drink and the fearful wrongs that go with it be swept from the face of the earth une of the most encouraging tea tho temperance agitation now sweeping over the country is the opposition which it has called forth irom the lianor interests tho reso 1 lations adopted at the recent meeting of rum sellers in buffalo nearly all directed at temperance leeiria tion the renewed activity of the personal liberty leagues organizations devoted work of bre arins down our sabbath laws in favor of tL saloons and otherwise prompting the interests of the rum traffic is another good sign Last week another organization the rational Rt ional po association of the wine and spirit trade held a two days session in new york city considering ways and moans for resisting the enactment of temperance laws and preventing the spread of the fanatical ideas of the prohibitionists the membership of this association is largely composed of distillers and wholesale dealers gentlemen of large wealth and influence who are not to be confounded as one of them said with the class popularly known as urn sellers but neither tho tono of the addresses delivered bei j fore the protective association nor j the character of tho solutions ic adopted show that any notable not able difference in feeling and sentiment exist between the gentlemen who compose tho protective association aad the rum sellers who M in convention in buffalo a few days before both alike professed their devotion to temperance and morality their anxiety for aust and equitable excise laws and their great concern for the cause of personal liberty and the well being of the poor both also in the strongest language that the liquor vocabulary commands prohibition high licensee local option stringent excise regulations and every other known and tried means for diminishing the evils of the liquor traffic another point of similarity between the two liquor conventions was the sensitiveness shown by the members of both as to the status of their business in the eyes of the public both protested vehemently against being classed as the enemies of morality md good society and both came to the unanimous conclusion that they are a much abused and misrepresented class af men it is however that when a body of men come together and pass resolutions affirming and insisting that they are respectable it does not necessarily follow that such is in fact the case wo presume that no difficulty will be in inducing the inmates of almost any lunatic asylum to unite in a declaration that they were not non compos mentis as alleged by a cruel world but fit subjects rather to over kingdoms and states such a declaration however would not unlock any door or confer any dignities neither can the liquor sellers escape from the odium which public senti i attaches to their business by any resolutions about their respectability the very fact that they feel so sorely upon this point is in itself suspicious it is the galled jade we know of no class of men engaged ia any other line of business who feel it necessary to meet te gother frequently and resolve that they are respectable most men are satisfied to let their business speak for itself point but this is hinloi o do thay have to do all the speaking there is done on the subject of respectability ability their business speaks another language it contradicts and falsifies all their claims in that regard it throws tha lie in their faces while they aro holding their mutual admiration conventions and m unctuous and high sounding phrases about law justice liberty and the rights of man their business ia speaking from the dives and tho brothels the language of crime disease misery and woe it is speaking from the asylums and prisons overflowing with the victims of the rum traffic it is speaking from the graves of suicides and murdered innocents from the homes which it has darkened and ruined this is not mere senti moat it is hard pitiless fact it would be in vain for us to attempt to put in language all that tho trade of the rum seller speaks to the world no the business of debauching debau ching and destroying ying the bodies and souls of men cannot be made respectable by resolutions lut ions any more than it can be made respectable by law the gentlemen and merchants who compose tha protective association and kindred organizations may fume and writhe under the stigma which christian society has affixed to their occupation but they cannot get away from the black and fearful record which the centuries havo been rolling up against the liquor traffic theirs is a business stained to the coro by pin and crime and not all he waters of the multitudinous seas can wash that stain away |
