| From the Chattanooga Gazette and Advertiser |
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| January 25, 1862 |
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Drunkenness on Rail Roads
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There is not, perhaps, at this time any evil more common
nor half so aggravating as that of drunkenness. It is bad enough in
times of public quietude and general prosperity, when no one is so
much injured by it as the sot himself. But in times like the present,
when the country is in an unsettled state, when the civil authority
must succumb to the military, when the revolutionary character of the
times has not unfrequently thrown incompetent and irresponsible
parties into power, and when many of the officers as well as privates
in our army are making beasts of themselves by excessive drinking, the
people may be justly alarmed for their rights and interests, and
loudly call for the suppression of an evil so oppressive in its
character. Many of our rail roads and public thoroughfares have been
rendered dangerous to female passengers by this drunken, diabolical
spirit, which seems to have taken so deep a hold upon our soldiery.
Instances have been by no means rare where drunken Sergeants,
Lieutenants, and perhaps even Captains, at the head of a drunken group
of soldiers, have threatened the lives of rail road conductors because
they attempted to reserve a decent car for lady passengers, or because
they remonstrated against drinking, swearing, black-guarding and
smoking in the presence of ladies. We speak more particularly of the
rail roads in East Tennessee, as we have had occasion to travel over
them frequently of late. We are happy to learn, however, from the
proper authorities, that this shameful state of affairs is to cease,
and that the evil, so far as relates to rail road passengers, is to be
abated. Col. Ledbetter, a gallant and amiable officer, now in command
at Knoxville, has, at the request of Col. Wallace, the President of
the E. Tenn. & Ga. road, detailed a reliable officer with a file
of steady men to travel regularly on each train, and when necessary,
sustain the conductors in the discharge of their duties. A sufficient
number of cars is now set apart on this road for the accommodation of
families and gentlemen traveling with ladies, and in this way it is
hoped to save the traveling public from further annoyance and danger
from drunken men. We hope other rail road Presidents will profit by
this and render their vehicles a safe asylum for ladies against the
violence of drunken soldiers and unprincipled men.
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