PROHIBITION.

Hastings Standard, Issue 37, 9 June 1896, Page 3

PROHIBITION.

[To THK KbTT'iß.] Sir,-—I read \vit«i :«»;•:!• interest the two articles you publish lon Prohibition ; and how in the name of common sense your correspondent, " Common Sense," can call the article that appeared in yesterday's issue a reply to the one that appeared in Saturday's issue of your valuable paper is beyond all comprehension. The article from The Mail is a tirade of abuse, misrepresentation, and nonsense. There is a wonderful comparison between the agitation now .tuning on in this country over the drink and that which prevailed over the question of slavery. Men and women are slaves to the drink. When wo try to interest ourselves in their freedom we are met with the liberty of the subject, the capital invested, the rights of the owners, the teaching of the Bible, the fads of the few, Ac. All these points were raised when slaverv was at stake.

Will " Common Sense " give his at tention to these facts :

1. Intoxicating liqour is poisonous. Lead poisons the muscles of the wrist; manganese poisons the liver ; iodine poisons the lymphatic glands; chromate of potash poisons the membranes of the eyelids ; mercury poisons the salivary glands; arsenic poisons the mucous membranes of the alimentary passages ; nicotone paralyses the heart; strychnine poisons the spinal cord ; but alcohol poisons the brain. Why should till tin-other poisons lie prohibited except for legitimate purposes and alcohol be sold for common consumption? Let Common Sense answer. 2. Another fact, this time from the Bible, " Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink." Again it says, Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it nioveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." As a matter (if fact, there are two classes of drink referred to in the liible, the good and the bad, the intoxicating ami the nonintoxieatiug. The one is a blessing, the other is a curse. There is no comparison between the wine made at the marriage in Cana of Galilee and the fire-water, the devil-in-solution, the poisonous decoctions dealt out to-day as beverages, to stead away men's brains and blast, their lives. If " Common Sense " will deal with these facts, more will follow from Yours, A:c., John lloskino.