cumbed, and weak
ones turned to brutes in its clutch. And were they not his brothers, the
strong men and the weak ones alike? And how could he, their keeper, see
them desperately beset and not fly to their help? Ah! he could not and
did not walk by on the other side, but, stripling though he was, rushed
to do battle with the giant vice, which was slaying the souls and the
bodies of his fellow citizens. Rum during the three first decades of the
present century was, like death, no respecter of persons, entering with
equal freedom the homes of the rich, and the hovels of the poor. It was
in universal demand by all classes and conditions of men. No occasion
was esteemed too sacred for its presence and use. It was an honored
guest at a wedding, a christening, or a funeral. The minister whose
hands were laid in baptismal blessing on babes, or raised in the holy
sacrament of love over brides, lifted also the glass; and the selfsame
lips which had spoken the last words over the dead, drank and made merry
presently afterward among the decanters on the side-board. It mattered
not for what the building was intended--whether for church, school, or
parsonage, rum was the grand master of ceremonies, the indispensable
celebrant at the various stages of its completion. The party who dug the
parson out after a snow-storm, verily got their reward, a sort of
prelibation of the visionary sweets of that land, flowing not, according
to the Jewish notion, with milk and _honey_, but according to the
revised version of Yankeedom, with milk and _rum_. Rum was, forsooth, a
very decent devil, if judged by the exalted character of the company it
kept. It stood high on the rungs of the social ladder and pulled and
pushed men from it by thousands to wretchedness and ruin. So flagrant
and universal was the drinking customs of Boston then that dealers
offered on the commons during holidays, without let or hindrance, the
drunkard's glass to the crowds thronging by extemporized booths and
bars. Shocking as was the excesses of this period "nothing comparatively
was heard on the subject of intemperance--it was seldom a theme for the
essayist--the newspapers scarcely acknowledged its existence, excepting
occasionally in connection with some catastrophes or crimes--the
Christian and patriot, while they perceived its ravages, formed no plans
for its overthrow--and it did not occur to any that a paper devoted
mainly to its suppression, might be made a direct and