PROPS OF THE RUM TRAFFIC, AND WEAPONS OF THE ENEMY. In actual warfare, it is not only natural for, but important to those engaged in conflict, to ascertain, with as much accuracy as possible, not only the numerical strength of their opponents, but their means of offence and defence; or, in other words, the number and character of those instruments with which they may protect themselves and assail others. With this view, spies are often sent to the enemy's camp, at imminent hazard to their own lives; and in this way, information has often been obtained which has enabled the party obtaining it to secure signal advantages over their enemies. Believing that it may be of some service to the temperance army to have a tolerably clear understanding of the means of defence and offence now in the hands of their legitimate opponents, we propose, in this article, to give to it the results of a pretty extensive observation, which we have been enabled to make, of the enemy's camp and defences. If we should be hanged as a spy for our pains, we shall have the consolation of knowing that better men than ourselves have ascended the scaffold, and the last request we shall make of our executioners shall be, that they will approach us on the leeward side of the platform, that the air which shall last visit our lungs may be uninfected. The rum host encamped over against us, place their whole reliance, both for offence and defence, on four distinct instrumentalities. They are, First-SECRECY. Secondly-FALSEHOOD. Thirdly THE ENTIRE DEVOTION OF THEIR POLITICAL POWER TO THE SUPPORT OF THE RUM TRAFFIC. Fourthly, and lastly- THE INFLUENCE OF FEAR IN OUR CAMP, WHICH THEY CREATE BY OCCASIONAL AND MOST DASTARDLY ATTACKS UPON THE PERSONS AND PROPERTY OF THOSE WHO RENDER THEMSELVES CONSPICUOUS BY THEIR EFFORTS TO SUPPRESS THE TRAFFIC IN POISON. These comprise their whole enginery for defence and assault; and, if we could find means to deprive them of the use of those four weapons, they would be rendered powerless in an instant, and the murderous system they are now sustaining would fall to the ground, with a crash which devils would hear with dismay. We will proceed to remark, briefly, upon each of those instrumentalities the mode or modes of its employment its power, &c., as compared with others; hoping that we may thus aid the friends of temperance in the great work before them. SECRECY. Secrecy is not always indicative of mischief; but where public sentiment is not utterly and hopelessly corrupt, a vile and infamous system cannot long continue to exist without it. Our opponents understand this, and avail themselves of its aid in the prosecution of their nefarious designs. They have sought to hang an impenetrable veil around those establishments where factitious wines and adulterated liquors are prepared, with which the mass of drinkers are both imposed upon and poisoned. Enough, however, has been learned of those liquors, and the destructive and disgusting materials employed in their manufacture, to associate them forever, in the minds of those who have investigated the subject, with the delicate compound prepared by Macbeth's witches, some of the pre cious ingredients of which were, as enumerated by the second witch "Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing- Like a hell-broth boil and bubble." They place screens before the bar, that the machinery and movements behind it may not be seen from the street. They curtain the windows of the liquor saloons and drinking establishments, of every grade, that the public eye may not look in on the infernal orgies of their inmates. They have invented a thousand names for their drinks, that the deluded men who swallow them may be enabled to call for what they desire in a language not understood by the uninitiated. The poorer victims of this infamous system they secrete, when they become helplessly drunk, in back rooms, sheds, barns, or narrow lanes, not troubling themselves to inquire whether they be thinly clad or otherwise, or whether the thermometer be above or below zero. The rich customer, whom they have rendered helpless by their poisonous draughts, they send home in a coach, when that old water-drinker, the sun, has gone to bed, and their auxiliary, night, has drawn her curtain around the The coachman wont' peach,' as he shares the plunder, and understands the game.' Secrecy, we repeat, is to the system indispensable. Pull off the disguises that are thrown around it tear down the curtains, and push aside the screens, and let the blessed light of the sun, and the eyes of men, look in upon the doings within those hells upon earth, and they would be closed in a month, or the earth, which they pollute and curse, would be strewn with their fragments, by an injured and indignant community. scene. 9 FALSEHOOD. This stands number two on the list of their weapons of war. The whole system, comprising the manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors, as a drink, when at the highest niche of its popularity, stood on a stupendous lie. It was established, and rested on the notion that the moderate use of alcoholic liquors was promotive of human health and happiness. This doctrine was long since exploded. The laws licensing the traffic, in accordance with the notion that it was promotive of the public good, should have been abolished long since; for they are now known to rest on a false foundation, and are a disgrace to the statute-book of an intelligent and Christian people. But aside from the false notions of former days, the false system built upon them, and the false and destructive legislation which sanctioned and sustained the traffic, the whole system, as it now exists, from the mouth of the still to the stomach of the drunkard, is sustained by falsehood. Every link in the chain of its connections and dependences, has attached to it a well-understood and barefaced lie. The wholesale dealers, with very few exceptions, season half the sales they make with falsehoods, so as to veil the character of their business. They sell for imported wines and liquors, vile compounds of domestic manufacture. Casks, in which liquors have been imported, and which have the importer's brand upon them, they preserve, after they have been emptied of their contents, and filling them with cheap liquors, of their own mixing, they sell them for imported liquors. If any doubt is expressed, by the purchaser, as to the quality of the liquor, he is pointed to the importer's brand on the cask; and, to place the matter beyond dispute, the dealer will draw, from his desk or pocket-book, the certificate of importation, which he has been careful to preserve! Thus, by the monstrous frauds and falsehoods of the wholesale dealers, the consumers are imposed upon, and swallow oftentimes, with the alcohol, poisons even more destructive. Retail ers of liquors, nine out of every ten, whatever may be the cut of their coat, or the quality of its fabric, are systematic and notorious liars made so from the nature of their business. They will, almost to a man, protest that they do not sell to men whom they know to be intemperate yet not one in ten will scruple to do so. "He did not get his liquor here," is their stereotyped language, in relation to individual cases of drunkenness, attended with unusual circumstances of disaster or shame; yet the language is more frequently false than true. "Your husband is not here, madam; I have not seen him this evening," is often the reply to the anxious inquiry of the half-distracted wife, in pursuit of the father of her famishing little ones, when the black-hearted and cold-blooded villain, who utters those words, knows that the dissolute man is, at that very moment, within his doors, revelling with his drunken companions. It is seldom that an inquirer, however respectful, can get from a retailer of intoxicating drinks any thing like the truth in relation to any material point connected with his traffic. Moderate drinkers, in nine cases out of ten, labor to deceive their friends in relation to the amount of liquors they consume. Men who would scorn to lie in relation to any other matter, will utter falsehood, without hesitation, if falsehood will contribute to secure to them the means of gratifying the allcontrolling appetite for intoxicating stimulants. The wretched drunkard will stealthily creep to his concealed bottle, twenty times in the day, and saturate his bloated bulk with the contents; and then, turning his glazed eye full upon you, and puffing in your face, at every breath, an atmosphere saturated with rum, he will declare to you that he has only drank two or three glasses in the course of the day, and will hiccup out a dozen oaths to confirm his statement. Casks, demijohns, and other inanimate receptacles of liquors, are often made to lie in the service, and for the support of this false and wicked system, bearing on their heads, or some prominent part of their bodies, the words, "turpentine," "oil," "vinegar," |