Close the Saloons

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 11, 1883

Close the Saloons.

By the law we abate any nuisance that offends any of the senses; we forbid the publication of any lewd prints and impure literature; we force men to close a slaughter house or glue factory because they offend our olfactories and breed disease; there is a heavy fine for selling decayed food of any kind, and why in the name of reason and good morals shall we not destroy anything that offends the moral sense of a community?

Shall we allow a lazy man to place his beer shop or whisky mill right under our noses, so that the stench of stale ale, and sour beer, and mean whisky shall fill the air? Shall we permit such traps to be set for our sons, where they may be robbed of health, and character, and immortal hope? Shall we allow the nurseries of crime to spread and grow under legal protection? Shall these people fatten on the sins and follies of the hard working whose earnings they so greedily secure for drink? We say a thousand times, No!—Baltimore Methodist.