The traffic is a temptation and a snare, a man trap and a woman trap, luring ever its victims to death and damnation. No wonder that Lord Chesterfield, in words as eloquent as they were burning, should say of rumsellers: "Let us crush out these artists in human slaughter who have reconciled their countrymen to sickness and ruin and spread over the pitfalls of debauchery such baits as men cannot resist." And his suggestions continue to be repeated, serving as a nucleus to which many cling and receive strength for present and future action. Yet there is room for more, as the battle is fierce and will possibly be long. The traffic is a monster of cruelty. It has ever been one of tears and groans and blood, in vice, crime, and misery; ever conscienceless, unprincipled, and as cruel as the grave, while the trafficker is rarely ever moved by widows' woes, though they swell into rivers of tears. His heart seems to be incased in stone, while he applies his infamous trade and hoards his unhallowed wealth, regardless alike of the claims of God and the cries of his murdered victims. For heartless cruelty and desolating results, the highway robber is not to be compared with the vender of alcoholic beverages, because the robber simply demands your money or your life, while the liquor seller demands your money and your life; and there being more than half a million of them, they seem to be determined to rule the remaining faction of sixty millions with worse than a rod of iron, even proving insolent and defiant to the last degree. Sitting supreme in our national Congress and walking with a swing of conscious triumph up and down our legislative halls, monarchs of all they survey, succeeding in every effort made to muzzle ministers, bribe lawmakers, control officers and business men of our country, and place the nation in great peril. The traffic is an intolerable burden to the state, a burden on every back, a blight on every industry, sapping the heartblood out of all concerned. Think of $900,000,000 as a direct annual drink bill, and an equal sum to cover the sad consequence. Two-thirds of this amount is expended by laboring men at the sacrifice of personal comforts and family necessities. Then why, O why, will not a greater number of our male relatives assist in striking every saloon until they are all crushed into hopeless flinders? and why will not a greater number of our women unite with those who are making efforts to raise up many who have fallen through and by the use of intoxicating liquors, and in many ways assist our husbands, brothers, and fathers in laying plans that will in the near future annihilate the demon rum? Last, but not least, the liquor traffic is a deadly foe to the Church. Well and truly did Charles Buxton say that "the struggle of the Church, school, and the library all united against the beer shop and the gin place is but one development of the war between Heaven and