Public fountains should be established in every other block of cities or towns having over 1,000 inhabitants, with best-devised filters known, so that both man and beast could enjoy pure water to drink, free for the taking. During epidemics it should be not only compulsory in municipalities to have water filtered in each house before drinking, but it should be boiled. Every house ought to have a filter. If you cannot afford a $40 one, you can secure one for 40 cents.
CHAPTER VII.
"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
"But evil is wrought by want of thought
As well as by want of heart."
The following extract from the report of the Grand Jury of this city, given publicity December 5, 1889, is self-explanatory:—
"Some of the dives and variety theaters are the nurseries of vice and crime, where drunkenness is encouraged, our youth demoralized, the unwary roped in and robbed, and crimes committed which the authorities are unable to prevent or discover. There is, of course, a broad distinction to be noted between those places of public resort where the demand for distilled, fermented, and malt liquors is supplied in a legitimate manner, and the entertainment provided, if any, is not of an objectionable character, and those places where salacious performances are presented as an attraction, and lewd women, under the guise of waitresses to serve liquors, pursue a shameful vocation. These evils may be partly remedied if respectable citizens will refuse to rent their property for such uses, and also refuse to assist in obtaining licenses whereby such headquarters for drunkenness, lewdness, and crime are in a measure entrenched behind existing general laws.
"The so-called 'social evil' is aggressive on our thoroughfares, and should be restrained by the authorities within narrower limits."
But we add our interpretation and our suggestions for these twin evils which stalk up and down the earth and apparently defy control.
The minister treats lightly upon the liquor traffic, in many instances because certain of his church members either sell it at wholesale, retail, or furnish the barley, corn, grapes, hops, or rent to the man who does. The editors of all newspapers of general circulation must treat the subject likewise, for fear of his advertising patrons. His readers are never taken into account, for the simple reason that circulation alone does not pay newspapers issued daily, and very few that are issued weekly. It will be seen by the above report that the grand jurymen too have vital interests at stake. In order to keep their respective businesses from being boycotted by their fellow-merchants, they handle the subject with soft gloves, as if it were eggs, and the "social evil" by this same jury is done up in nineteen words. But they have indicated a great deal in those few words, namely, that such an evil does exist—something the different church organizations have refused to acknowledge.
High license, with personal responsibility for results, under a sufficient bond, will in time remedy the liquor traffic.