protecting the innocent from the wolfish designs of bad men; who,
to compass their own selfish ends, would destroy them body and
soul. We are called fanatics, ultraists, designing, and all that,
because we ask our law-makers to stay the fiery ruin. Oh, no! we
must not touch the traffic. All the dearest and best interests of
society may suffer; but the rum-seller must be protected. He must
be allowed to get gain, if the jails and poorhouses are filled,
and the graveyards made fat with the bodies of young men stricken
down in the flower of their years, and of wives and mothers who
have died of broken hearts. Reform, we are told, must commence at
home. We must rear temperate children, and then we shall have
temperate men. That when there are none to desire liquor, the rum-
seller's traffic will cease. And all the while society's true
benefactors are engaged in doing this, the weak, the unsuspecting,
and the erring must be left an easy prey, even if the work
requires for its accomplishment a hundred years. Sir! a human soul
destroyed through the rum-seller's infernal agency, is a sacrifice
priceless in value. No considerations of worldly gain can, for an
instant, be placed in comparison therewith. And yet souls are
destroyed by thousands every year; and they will fall by tens of
thousands ere society awakens from its fatal indifference, and
lays its strong hand of power on the corrupt men who are
scattering disease, ruin, and death, broadcast over the land!

"I always get warm on this subject," he added, repressing his
enthusiasm. "And who that observes and reflects can help growing
excited? The evil is appalling; and the indifference of the
community one of the strangest facts of the day."

While he was yet speaking, the elder Mr. Hammond came in. He