Walt Whitman's Franklin Evans
New York Daily Tribune
23 November 1842, p. 1.
Too long have the rapture, the inspiration, the joys of the wine-cup,
been the theme of Romance and Poem; it is time that the paint were stripped
from the face of the foul hag, Alcohol, and that her native hideousness
and horror should stand revealed to a shuddering world. Especially
is this desirable for the sake of our Youth, many of whom grow up in a
happy but perilous ignorance of the snares which lurk beneath the smiling
surface of the intoxicating bowl. The true nature of the subtle poison
should be made known in every possible manner; and as Literature and Romance
have aided to corrupt, so should they aid to cleanse and purify.
This work is well calculated to aid in hastening such a consummation; and
to the friends of Temperance, for the good it must effect; to the novel-reader
for its exciting scenes, and to all for its intrinsic interest and worth,
we heartily commend it. It is published in a mammoth New-World, so
as to be available at newspaper postage, and sold at barely 12 1/2 cents.
Shall it not be widely circulated? There are thousands who will read
a novel who would not touch a Temperance tract or periodical, and many
villages in which a few copies would do silently the work of an efficient
Lecturer. Give it a trial.
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