Health and Temperance by Christian Statesman

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 14, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 15.

Health and Temperance.

By Christian Statesman

THE SALOON SYSTEM.

THE saloon system is ever expanding, and broadening, carrying lawlessness with it. It fits up saloons with the greatest elegance and taste. It pushes out into new communities. A dozen families cannot dwell together but the hideous monster will sit down among them and demand a tribute of human souls. The father of the saloon system invaded our earth and cursed it. He sends this evil into every community. Were there 200,000 drinking-places in this nation one hundred years ago? No; not one-tenth of that number. But the business has kept pace with the population. It means to do so. It demands sons. It demands daughters. It is no better than the old arena with its lion, fierce and roaring, and thirsting for blood, let loose upon some noble, but captive victim. It is no better than the heathen ruler who rides his powerful horse over the backs of prostrate victims, grinding flesh and bones into the dust. Yes, the saloon system is aggressive. But behold the highway of its progress! On either side it is lined with graves, and through the midst is a stream deep with human blood, and filled with bones and skulls, the whole washed on with floods of tears! It is like a river bursting its banks and spreading havoc and ruin in its path of desolation and death.—Christian Statesman.