Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1907 — COL. R. G. INGERSOLL ON ALCOHOL [ARTICLE]

COL. R. G. INGERSOLL ON ALCOHOL

“I am aware that there is a prejudice against any man engaged in the manufacture of alcohol I believe from the time it issues from the coiled and poisoned worm in the distillery until it enters into the hell of death, dishonor and crime, that it dishonors everybody who touches it—-from its source to where it ends. I do not believe anybody can contemplate the subject without becoming prejudiced against the liquor crime. All we have to do, gentlemen, is to think of the wrecks on either side of the stream, of suicides, of the insanity, of the poverty, of the ignorance, of the destitution, of the' little children tugging at the faded knd withered breasts, of weeping and despairing wives asking for bread, of the men of genius it has wrecked—the men struggling with imaginary serpents produced by the devlish thing! And when you think of the jails, of the almshouses, of the asylums, of the prisons, of the scaffolds upon either bank, I do not wonder that every thoughtful man is prejudiced against the damned stuff called alcohol! Intemperance cuts down youth in its vigor, manhood in its strength, age in its weakness! It breaks the father’s heart, it bereaves the doting mother, extinguishes natural affection, erases conjugal love, blots out filial attachments, blights paternal hope, and brings down weary age in sorrow to the grave. It produces weakness, not health; .death, not life. It makes wives widows, children orphans, fathers fiends, and ,all of them paupers and beggars! It feeds rheumatism, nurses gout, welcomes epidemics, invites cholera, imports pestilence, and embraces consumption! It covers the land with idleness, misery, and crime! It fills your jails, supplies your almshouses and demands your asylums! It crowds your penitentiaries and furnishes victims to your scaffolds! It engenders controversies, fosters quarrels, and cherishes riots! it is the lifeblood of the gambler, the prop of the highwayman, and the support of the midnight incendiary! It countenances the liar, respects the thief, esteems the blasphemer! It violates obligations, reverences, fraud, and honors infamy! It deforms ffenevolences. hates love, scorns virtue and slanders innocence! It incites the father to butcher his helpless offspringrhelps the husband to massacre his wife, and the child to grind the paricidal ax.

It burns up man, consumes woman. desolates and devastates life; curses God, despises heaven! It suborns witnesses, nurses perjury, defies the jury box and stains the judicial ermine! It bribes votes, disqualifies voters, corrupts elections, pollutes our institutioss and endagers governments. It degrades the citizen, debases the legislator, dishonors the statesman and disarms the patriot! It brings shame, not honor; error, not safety; despair, not hope; misery, not happiness, and with the malevolence of a fiend it calmly surveys its frightful desolation and, unsatisfied with havoc, it poisons felicity, kills peace, ruins morals, blights confidence, slays reputation and wipes out national honor; then curses the world and laughs at its ruin. It does all that and more. It murders the soul! It is the sum of all villiapies, the father of all crimes, the mother of abominations, the devil’s best friehd and man’s worst enemy.”