The Cost of Intemperance.
TEMPERANCE orators are accustomed to dwell much on the enormous sum of money spent upon strong drink. And the millions of dollars thus wasted are appalling as we think of it. If there were no strong drink the workingman would live in luxury to-day; for bread would be cheap. Men turn down their throats enough drink to feed the whole nation. There would be no hard times if it were not for the drink bill of the nation. But this is not the worst feature of the question. It costs manhood to keep up the awful drink traffic. It means the debauchery and ruin of brilliant manhood, which is thus rendered of little account. It wastes and destroys men; and men are the most precious treasures that a nation possesses. It costs the nation much in the crime that is generated and increased by strong drink. Our jails and prisons are filled by intemperance, and we have to support them by our increased taxes. Strong drink has cost some nations their existence, as, for instance, Chaldea under Belshazzar. And every nation is in peril that tampers with the awful drink traffic and tolerates it. Like all other sins, the drink traffic finds those who apologize for it and do nothing to destroy it.—Selected.