WANTED-PROHIBITION.

BY W. M. ANDREWS.

The cause of prohibition has taken phenomenal strides during the past decade. Its advocates have striven with unprecedented success and puissance of proselytism. Nil desperandum seems to have been their motto.

It is evident that intemperance can never be removed until the legalized traffic in intoxicating drink in suppressed. The insolence and criminality of the whisky rings and their wealth and political influence are increasing so rapidly that, unless a powerful political party outlaws the liquor traffic, there is reason to fear that municipal misrule may imperil republican institutions in all the larger cities. Thomas Carlyle predicted that all great modern cities will come finally to the position in which Paris was under the Commune, unless the reputable side of society organized itself aggressively to counteract the dangers which make universal suffrage a peril. Sooner or later it will be necessary for the intelligent and progressive elements of society to drop all lesser enterprises, and combine in one determined assault upon that evil which is to-day the heaviest clog upon progress, and the deepest disgrace of the nineteenth century. No government can set aside this subject. Despotic Russia and Republican America must both meet it; the evil is too enormous and atrocious to be hid, too destructive and cyclonic to be regulated, too insolent to be endured, too cruel not to excite indignation. It is true that the capital and influence invested in its defence are enormons and potent, but humanity is invested against it, childhood and womanhood out of the

depths lift up holy hands against it, and the "irrepressible conflict" must go on until our statesmen shall dare to assail in our halls at Washington any evil or monstrous wrong that is destructive to national welfare.

ever

Esthetically speaking, drink is the worst of curses; it mars the law of the universe-order; detracts from the subtle shapes and realization of beauty; makes chaos of correctness; mocks at time and punctuality; multiplies mistakes and consequent cost. Nature never gave to man so poisoned a draught. No maddening draughts of Hippocrene was given by her for human infatuation, remorse and guilt. No "bowl" that has been cursed from its very inception can ever bring to the parched lips of humanity the nectar that comes up rippling in diamond dew drops from the "old oaken bucket that hangs in the well." Cold water is good for the constitution. It puts no gout in the toes; it puts no dimness into the eyes; it puts no trembling into the limbs; it never sets a man at night interviewing a lamp post; it never precipitates respectable men into gutter inspectors; it never turns domestic arrangements upside down until the father is as bad off as the man who said that none of his children took after him except his eldest daughter, and she took after him with a broom stick.

From the time when thinking and observing men became alarmed at the dreadful work which alcohol was accomplishing in accomplishing in the world, the allegation has been made that it is an indispensable agent in its appli

cation in medicine and the arts. There was more truth in this assumption fifty, or even thirty years ago

than at present, as science had not at those periods made sufficient advancement to supply substitutes for the alcoholic liquids. It can now be conclusively shown that alcohol in

no

one of its forms is absolutely essential in the alleviation or removal of diseases, and that no useful industry is dependent upon it-that science and the arts would suffer no detriment in its absence.

Of all the strange paradoxes of our time, the strangest seems to be that of a person who openly admits that the saloon is morally and socially seductive and corrupting; who realizes the destructiveness of rum in all its hideous repugnance-a curse that makes once happy homes most wretchedly miserable, until finally the once blooming gardens of the fireside are left parched and barren like oriental lands swept by the burning Sirocco; yet who, in his relation as a citizen, casts his vote of approval of the deadly, poisonous, venomous, loathsome liquor traffic. This sort of people is aptly alluded to by Carlyle: "No man oppresses thee, O free and independent franchised, but does not this stupid pewter pot oppress thee? No son of Adam can bid thee come or go, but this absurd pot of heavy weight can and does. Thou art the thrall, not of Cedric the Saxon, but of thy own brutal appetites and this accursed dish of liquor. And thou pratest of thy liberty, thou entire blockhead! "

In twenty years there will be no prohibitionists, as to day there are no abolitionists. The man who ordered a picture of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, and was presented with a beautiful representation of a calm body of water, asked of the artist:

"But where are the Israelites?" "O," was the answer, "they have gone over."

"And where are the Egyptians?"

"O, they have gone under."

So, in a score of years when men ask "where are the prohibitionists?" the answer will come "they have gone over," and if it be inquired, "where are the other fellows?" it will be said "they have "they have gone under." So may it be.

THE HOME AND THE SALOON.

The amazing indifference of good people to this evil is among the astounding spectacles presented by an apathetic community. If it were only small-pox or Asiatic cholera, we should have public meetings held, ordinances passed, edicts issued, and every precaution would be taken to rid us of the scourge; but since it is something else that causes most of the evil and wretchedness, the misery and squalor, there is no alarm sounded, little notice taken, almost nothing done to save the homes in our city from destruction. Do not think because your home happens to be free from the scourge you need not be concerned in the infliction. What about the house next you? or two or three on your block? "Am I my brother's keeper?" By every word of God, and every best thought of man, Yes. "What can I do?" do you ask," to help overcome the power of the saloon?" I'll tell you. Keep out of them. Shun these guilded palaces. Do not contribute so much as your presence to the support of these places, where conscience in dispensing drinks has long ago vanished, where the talk is far from edifying, where the pictures are not chaste, where the men who keep alivelie down every night and sleep, knowing there are wives and children in misery and want because of their loose traffic in liquor. For God's sake, do this much, brother men, if you do nothing more than this! If you want a drink, must have it, the

liquor-saloon is not the proper place for a self-respecting man to get it. Do not help the devil in his work of destroying souls by supporting such places. Men who go there are halfashamed of themselves, or they would not care to hide behind stained-glass windows and wicker screens at the doors. Only think of this city tonight, and the drunken men and women in back slums-ay, in conspicuous places, too-and see the inconsistency of our singing "Home, Sweet Home," while we contribute in any way to the support of these dens of iniquity. The best of them is not good; the worst beggars description.

THE ALCOHOL HABIT.

"1. The continued use of alcohol produces structural changes in the brain, and other portions of the body. These changes form the organic basis of habit, and of various mental and physical disorders, and constitute a morbid condition which is in itself a constantly recurring plea for the continued use of the drug.

2. The habitual use of alcohol may be the result of indulgence for sensual or social gratification only, or it may be the outcome of an inherited or acquired impairment of the nervous system. It is important to distinguish between these two classes when possible.

"3. The alcohol habit leads to inebriety, a disease of the higher nerve centers, which requires proper medical treatment in institutions especially equipped for this purpose.

"4. These institutions should have full legal powers of detention and control, but they should have no connection with public asylums for the

insane.

5. Our laws should provide for the judicial commitment of the habitual or periodic inebriate to these

special institutions, rather than to the county jails or insane asylums."

A FATAL ADMISSION.

Senator Ingalls of Kansas, who is openly opposed to Prohibition gives this invaluable testimony in its favor, which our friends will do well to insert in the local papers far and wide. He says: 66 My disbelief in Prohibition probably renders me a more disinterested observer of its results, and I do not hesitate to say that, though attended with some deplorable tendencies, it has been of great advantage to the state of Kansas, both morally and from the material and economic standpoint * * * The grocery merchants and other dealers say that their bills are more promptly paid, and the records of the courts show a marked decrease in debt and crime. The predictions of its opponents have not been verified. Immigration has not been hindered nor capital averted from the state." The Senator also says: "There can be no doubt that the dramshop is an intolerable drainage of the national resources; the nursery of crime; the enemy of domestic happiness; the threshold of the poor-house; the vestibule of the jail; the portal of hell.”

JOHN CHINAMAN was right. Rum drives sound sense out of the brain, and good feeling out of the heart. It changes all its slaves into hardhearted fools. Don't touch it boys. Don't smile on any boy who drinks it, girls! The poet truly says of the rum drinker:

"He is but the wreck of his former self, And a shocking wreck is he;

With his tattered clothes, and his battered nose,

And a gait like a ship at sea."

STEEL assassinates; the passions kill; where is the difference?

INFLUENCE OF WIVES.

In domestic happiness, the wife's influence is much greater than her husband's; for the one, the first cause -mutual love and confidence-being granted, the whole comfort of the household depends upon trifles more immediately under her jurisdiction. By her management of small sums her husband's respectability and credit are created or destroyed. No fortune can stand the constant leakages of extravagance and mismanagement; and more is spent in trifles than women would easily believe. The one great expense, whatever it may be, is turned over and carefully reflected on ere it occurs; the income is prepared to meet it; but it is pennies imperceptibly sliding away which do the mischief: and this the wife alone can stop for it does not come within man's province. There are often unsuspected trifles to be saved in every household. It is not in economy alone that the wife's at

tention is so necessary, but in those niceties which make a well regulated house. An unfurnished cruet-stand, a missing key, a buttonless shirt, a soiled table cloth, a mustard-pot with its old contents sticking hard and brown about it, are severally nothings; but each can raise an angry word, or cause discomfort. Depend on it, there's a great deal of happiness in a well dressed mutton-chop, or a tidy breakfast table. Men grow sated of beauty, tired of music, are often too wearied for conversation, however intellectual, but they can always appreciate a well-swept hearth and smiling comfort. A woman may love her husband devotedly, may sacrifice fortune, friends, family, country for him; she may have the genius of a Sappho, the enchanting beauties of an Armida-but, melancholy fact, if with these she fail to make his home comfortable, his heart will enevitably escape her. And women live so entirely in the affections, that without

love, their existence is a void. Better submit, then, to household tasks, however repugnant they may be to your tastes, than doom yourself to a loveless home. Women of a higher order of mind will not run this risk; they know that their feminine, their domestic, are their first duties.Mrs. Ellis.

A CHEERFUL FACE.

Next to the sunlight of heaven is the cheerful face. There is no mistaking it the bright eye, the unclouded brow, the sunny smile, all tell of that which dwells within. Who has not felt its electrifying influence? One glance at this face lifts us out of the mists and shadows into the beautiful realms of hope. One cheerful face in the household will keep everything warm bright within, A host of evil passions may lurk around the door, but they never enter and abide there; the cheerful face will put them to shame and flight. It may be a very plain face, but there is something in it we feel yet cannot express; and its chee

ry

and

smile sends the blood dancing through the veins for every joy. Ah there is a world of magic in the plain, cheerful face! It charms us with a spell of eternity and we should not exchange it for all the soulless beauty that ever graced the fairest form on earth.

It may be a very little face, but somehow this cheery little face ever shines, and the shining is so bright that the shadows cannot remain, and silently they creep away into the dark corners where the pleasant face is gone.

It

may be a wrinkled face, but it is all the dearer for that, and none the less cheerful. We linger near it, and gaze tenderly upon it, and say: "God bless this dear, happy face!" We must keep it with us as long as we can, for home will lose much of its

brightness when this sweet face is gone. And after it is gone, how the rememberance of it softens our wayward natures. When care and sorrow would snap our heart strings asunder, this wrinkled face looks down upon us, and the painful tension grows lighter, the way seems less dreary, and the sorrow less heavy. God bless the cheerful face? What a dreary world this world be without this heaven-born light! And he who has it not should pray for his daily bread.

PATRIOTS IN HUMBLE LIFE.

In 1809, at the time when the French marched upon Vienna, a peasant of the neighborhood was summoned to act as guide of a column of troops. When the proposal was made to him he cried, "God preserve me from it! That is what I shall never do."

The officer who commanded the advanced French guards insisted eagerly; the Austrian steadfastly refused. The officer offered him more gold than the poor man had ever seen in his life, but it was useless. In the meantime the bulk of the army arrived; the general was displeased when he found the advanced guards still in this place.

When they told him that the only peasant who knew the road refused to serve as a guide he had the man led before him, and said to him with a terrible voice, "You will go and show us the road at once, or I will have you shot."

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"Very well," replied the peasant,. "you will cause me to die as an honest man, and I shall be saved from betraying my country."

At these words, the general's anger melted away; he held out his hand to his loyal enemy, and sent him home, saying, "Ah, well; we will do without a guide."