of God. Attention has often been called to the fact that, but for a storm that wrecked a Mohammedan fleet, America might have been discovered by an Oriental nation, and Moslem temples might have covered its virgin soil. But for other marked providences it might have been brought, in its feeble beginning, under the sway of Romanism; France, Italy and Spain contended for its control. The words of Alexander Hamilton, as recently given by Dr. Harper, spoken in circumstances widely different from these' in which we repeat them to-day, are still true as when spoken: "It is ours to be either the grave in which the hopes of the world shall be entombed; or the pillar of cloud that shall pilot the race onward to its millennial glory. Let us not forget our immortal trust."

It is certainly true that we are, to a considerable degree, to determine the destiny of the world; it is still true as when Emerson said it, as quoted in "Our Country," that wonderful little volume by Dr. Strong, our honored secretary: "We live in a new and exceptional age. America is another name for Opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of the Divine Providence in behalf of the human race." It is certain that many of the greatest economic, social and religious problems of the present and the future are to be solved in America. The nation which slew and buried the monster, Slavery, after four years of tears and blood, can slay and bury the twin monster, Intemperance. For this work, O Church of the living God, now gird thyself in the might of thy conquering Lord. The conflict is long and bitter. It was begun in Eden; it shall end in Eden restored. Jesus Christ is king. The seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent. Into the glorious warfare the church is now entering afresh "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.”

THE SALOON.

BY REV. A. G. HAYGOOD, D. D., LL. D., OF GEORGIA.

A large volume would suffice for only a partial discussion of the subject upon which I am asked to read a short paper, “The Saloon," considered as one of the "Perils" that menace our institutions. It is like trying to set forth in a paragraph in the morning paper the combined horrors of war, famine and pestilence. But subjects, vast and manifold, can never be adequately discussed; they can only be talked about, as men talk of the ocean, seeing a little of it from the shore.

My subject is indeed hackneyed, but it is not commonplace; it is a very old theme, but it concerns a very live issue. We are not talking of an evil afar off; it is imminent, ever-present and omnipresent. It is not of an endurable inconvenience that we speak; it is a monstrous and terrible thing-cruel, remorseless, pressing its iron hand hard upon all that is good in human life. This paper considers only an admitted evil; it has not to do with remedies. This, however, is true, and it gives us hope; when once the people really see the evil thing the saloon is, they will find the remedy.

In this discussion "Saloon" stands for the liquor traffic-particularly the retail sale of intoxicating drinks-to which the drunkenness, not only of our own country, but of the civilized world is, confessedly, mostly due. Some consideration of the evils of drunkenness is relevant to a discussion of the "Peril" that lurks in the "Saloon," for the reason that drinking-places create and foster drinking habits. drunkenness brings upon the human race, and no ingenuity of statement can separate drunkenness from the trade that lives upon it. and fosters it that it may live upon it. Allowing that some drinking begins and goes on independently of the

No form of words can over-state the curse that

traffic, it remains substantially true that the saloon is respon. sible for the drunkenness that is in the civilized world, and for all the evils that grow out of it. The defenders of the saloon are wont to dismiss all statements that condemn their trade, with sneers at the fanaticism of temperance cranks. At this place I introduce a few sayings of men who cannot be put aside as fanatics. A volume could not contain the important testimony that might be brought for confirmation. The few presented here are taken from an admirable work entitled, "Alcohol and the State," by Judge Robert C. Pitman, of Massachusetts.

The London Times: "The use of strong drink produces more idleness, crime, want and misery than all other causes put together." Governor Dix of New York, vetoing a local option bill: "Intemperance is the undoubted cause of four-fifths of all the crime, pauperism and domestic misery of the state." With Governor Dix will agree all judges, magistrates, keepers of prisons, directors of hospitals, and superintendents of asylums for the insane, and all others who have to do with the crimes and miseries of men.

Charles Buxton, M. P., the noted English brewer: "If we add together all the miseries generated in our times by war, famine and pestilence the three great scourges of mankind-they do not exceed those that spring from this one calamity."

Mr. Bruce, Home Secretary under the Gladstone ministry: "Intemperance is not only a great evil, but the greatest of all evils with which social reformers have to contend."

Judge Pitman follows these and many other expressions from eminent and well-informed men with a suggestive reflection: "But to admit a truth is one thing; to realize it, is another. I have for years had a growing conviction that these general and sweeping statements fail to impress, not only the public, but some of the most thoughtful men." He strengthens his position by an apt quotation from Coleridge: "Truths, of all others the most awful and interesting, are too often considered as so true that they lose all the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors."

In dealing with the saloon, the thing most to be feared is, that the mass of the people do not fear it. We are used to it. As soldiers in war look on wounds and death till they grow hard of heart, so

the people are so familiar with the plague of drunkenness, that they do not realize the ruin it is bringing to everything in our civilization that is good.

We may consider

THE SALOON IN ITS RELATIONS TO BUSINESS AND MONEY-VALUES.

What is business? In the conception of political economy, business is the sum total of a whole people's productive industries and legitimate exchanges. The terms "industries" and "exchanges are qualified, because real business does not include products that are harmful or exchanges that are without fair equivalents. Making dynamite bombs is not manufacturing; gambling-whether by cards, dice, lotteries, "cotton futures" or "corners" on food supplies, is not trade. A sound political economy excludes the liquor traffic from business, because it is destructive of all other business. As well class vampires among useful animals. Intoxicants do not create or increase productive energy; they add nothing to skillthey destroy. Strong drink is not an aid to progress, it is a hindrance; it is not an engine, it is a brake, retarding movement up the steep grade the human race is trying to climb.

Allowing what little medicine claims for the cure of disease, and what little science and the mechanic arts require, the fact remains, that the liquor traffic in all its branches lives upon the drink-habits of the great and unnumbered multitude that does not use intoxicants as a medicine-that does not use alcohol in the arts. If the traffic

depended on medicine and the arts for its profits, the saloon would speedily disappear from civilization. Its occupation would

be gone.

The last report of the Secretary of the Treasury gives us a suggestive and illustrative statement. On page 449 is a table g ing the "Quantity of distilled spirits of the different kinds known to the trade, produced, withdrawn, and remaining in warehouse in the United States, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886." The totals are, bourbon whisky, 52,442,462 gallons; rye whisky, 21,492,829; alcohol, 11,998,296; rum, 2,469,161; gin, 755,838. How much of this sea of intoxicating liquors did science claim, for the year ending June 30, 1886? The Secretary says: Of bourbon whisky, 7,009 gallons; of rye whisky, none; of alcohol, 20,798 gallons; of rum, none; of gin, none. The rest went through the liquor traffic, that depends on the saloon for its sales and profits.

It comes to this: the money spent for intoxicants is wasted and worse. It means so much taken from legitimate business and so used as to hinder business; it means so much less for what is good, useful and needful.

It does not answer to say the maker and the seller get this money and it is not wasted, it remains in the country. As well say because the swindling lottery managers get rich, their victims have not wasted money. The money that goes for nought is wasted, no matter where it goes.

It is estimated, with good reason, that about 600,000 men are employed in one way and another in the liquor traffic; say one in every one hundred of the whole population. Very high authorities say that the nation's drink bill averages $900,000,000 per annum. Who realizes what such figures mean? As well talk of the distances to the fixed stars! All this money goes to the comparatively few who make and sell intoxicants; all this money comes out of the pockets of the whole people, only one in one hundred of them making any profits out of the vast sum that changes hands. I say whole people and not merely the drinking people, for this great sum of $900,000,000 represents not merely what the drinkers waste; it means also the custom that every other trade has lost. And far more; for if the drinkers can earn somehow $900,000,000 for drink, sober they could earn vastly more for honest trade.

What men pay for their drinks, does not complete the bill of costs the saloon imposes upon the country. I am not speaking of the moral desolations that flow from the saloon over the homes of the people (figures are impotent here); I am considering the lowest values-money values. Dr. William Hargreaves, in a work issued by the National Temperance Society, justly adds to what is paid for drinks, what should be charged to "consequential damages against the saloon-that under legal sanction exists by the will of the people it oppresses and robs. To the drink bill, add the loss to productive industry of the persons employed in the traffic, and of habitual drunkards; add the cost of supporting drink-made paupers, lunatics and criminals; add the cost of police and of the criminal courts, most of which drunkenness makes necessary; and of the entire enginery society employs, in a wholly inadequate and nearly hopeless way, in its irresolute and hesitating effort to protect itself against the saloon, and to support the burdens it imposes and we have a total of nearly $2,000,000,000. The