Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1885 — The License Curse. [ARTICLE]

The License Curse.

horace Waters. * The license law is a great curse to this ration. The government has no more moral right to license men to make drunkards than it would have to 'license mea break the Ten Gommandments. Tne enormity oftbeevil of intemperance is almostinconcivable. There are nearly l,oi 0,000 drunkards in the United States. an . < * t 8.000,000 women and children are sffering disgrace and proverty on ac count of their drunk less- JJ tirly 100,000 men die drunkards every year and go to a drunkard’s grave- and I fear to a drunkard’s hell, as w? r<-a<l in God’s book that ‘No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of G<»d ’ Ist Cor , 6-10. Statistics show, also that 84 per cent, of all the crime committeu in this country is the result of intempeance How long shall we lamely and quitely tolerate a slavery that not orly dt oases the body but destorys the sou? The Federal Government recives $8,000,000 revenue annually from the manufacture of all kinds of liquors, and the states recive $20,000,000 more for licenses, making a total revenue ofsloo.000.000 a year, sothe gove-nmeut makes $ 1,000 on every man who dies a drunkard. To balance the financial account. however, the debit side must include the cost of 84 percent- '>♦’ ’he pauperism and crime, and this would show that for everv dollar recive from this source ten dollars (or^l,000,000.000) are called for to susain the paupers and punish the criminals which this liquor traffic ejeatgs. The time for holding the spring elections will soon be here and we think it well for piohibitionists to lot jt be known that they live, move, and expect to •” , ve a being tor all time. Wo beleiv< it of grest importance, first, that ( we thoroughly organize. het eyery i county, township, and school distrect , organixe its prohibition party forces, ; ho were few thoso forces are. If there

are but two voters in a township let them have an organ’z&tioo, and work under the name and with the nerve ol organized life and power, this Heine d<>ne, the membars will steadily it not rapidly incrcas* Second' put your tickets ni the field and vote them. Do not fa) >er in the least because vour number is small .and because you are ao greatly overshaded by the old parties. The war is upon us- Let us meet the demands of the hour zealously and heroically. As a party, the prohibitionists ought to wisely and Judgiclouslv assert tlieir existence and their right to live and moye Id tbc arena ot political action. In our Judgements the eause for whicli we are working and the end toward which our political action h immediately directed, will be most successfully promoted by voting squarely on the line or prohibition all tbe time. Therefore we urge the importance of being ever present in the field, and of thus demon-" sirating that we piupore staying with this question at the ballot box. We shall make more rapid progress by thus impressing the fact of our existence an the nature of our rumoses upon every commnnltv at eyery possible opportunity We should be very careful however, in our work lest our spirit and manner aft ord just ground for criticism, and offer a pertoxt for cur enomies to misjudge <>ur motivesand aims. We earnestly advise that there be maintained that selfpossession and unpretentious sptriiand manner in all our movements which are always tiements of great strength in individual action, and of much weight in any body of people associated for concert of effort. Loud boastful assumptions and bombast, or hasty overdrawn assertions as to party prospects and possibilities, will not prove tne most effective means of estabishing and advancing our glorious cause. Meekly, yet fearlessly lift up and maintain the standard, on every hill top, in every vallev, and let the prohibition sentiment ot evey neighborhood be crystalized and express itself at every ballot box in the land.

Peterson’s Maga«ine for April comes to us with a lovely steel-engrav-ing of ‘Adeline,’ one of Tennyson’s herojnes; a beautiful, double-size, steel, colored fashion-plate; and half a hundred other illustrations for stories, worktable, fashion etc., etc. The stories—th ugh ‘Peterson’ is cel eb ruled for good stories —are better than ever. Frank Lee Benedict’s, ‘The Burglar' at Archers’,’ Is full of humor. Mrs gtepnen’s, 'The Motherless Girl,’ gets more pathetic and powerful as it goes on. i’he brilliant novelet of New York fashionable life, by Mrs John Sherwood, ‘The Lost Ariadne,’ comes to conculsion, in which the parties who deserve it are properly made happy. A novele: by a new author. *A Tale of Louisiana PineLands.’ opens with great vfgor; is full local color, and promises to auilc rivaj Gable, in its pictuies of creole life. Certainly every woman of ren emeut ought to have this magazine, for it is emphatically the iady’s-book; and the t erms are but two dollars a year, with great deduction to clubs: This is a good time to subscribe. Specimens are sent gratis, if written for, to those wishing to get up clubs. Address (’has. J. Peterson’ 306 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa.