The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-05-16

the harm it brings. 1t is of no use
to tell man who means to do right
and will not do wrong. that to Ii
cense the liquor trade makes fewer
drunkards, any more than q law TO
license theft would make fewer
thieves, and law licensing assas-
sination (under restrictions, of
course) would make fewer murders.
And yet when this argument, as
the capstone, crowns the pyramid,
that TO license restricts the iniQuity,
I must not pass 1t by. There is q
theory that those who have made mp
their minds to make money in the
traffic that those who have chosen
to be brutes and sots while thew live,
and sleep in dIunkard's graves when
they die, really desire TO check the
sale and Use of all that tends to
bring about this dire result. That
the veDdor,true to his generous and
humane instincts, really wants to
curtaii his gains and reduce his sales,
Ia the yeArning of his heart that
fewer tipplers shall linger about his
bar and put their earnings in his
purse and they who crave the fiery
cup actually desire scantier drafts
to appease their raging thirst, and
both actuated by these praise-wor-
thy motives actually desire the help
of the license law. o, to what
shifts will sober men resort when
their pet projects must be sustain
ed J. But whatever results you cy-
pher out from fragmentary facts. it
is just as irresistible as the laws of
gravitation that you magnify the in
diligence as you make the means of
its qualification easy, and you can no
more force a different conclusion
than you can make water run up
hill. If to legaliZe intemperance
curtails its amount and diminishes
its woe, why do we always find that
the different classes Just as naturally
range themselves on the one side
or the other as fish and birds take to
their respective elements. Who OPP
pose license, those who drink and
sell liquor or those who love God
aud hate sin? I will admit that
now and then a good man like the
one who fell among thieves) gets
on the wrong side, but he is as much
out of place as CULVER among the
Liiliputs. Ask the wan and weary
wife who waits in cold and rags
through the long and weary night
yet breads to hear the staggering
tread, on which side she stands.
ASK the pinched and beaten child
on which side he stands. Ask the
mother, as the darling of her life
betrays his downward course BY
those signs mothers eye is first t.
see, on which side she stands of this
great question.
Friends, you have my Thoughts
upon this subject. Take them fol
what they are worth. If I havt
been earnest, 1 am glad of it.
should scorn myself if l were not
Ii have been warm have no apol
ogy. That is cold heart which
could not be warmed by such sub
ject. Now, where are you going t.
stand-not for day, not for a week
not for year, but through all you
liVesI 1t is of no account to say
that blame rests here or there. No
chiefly in the statute, though thar
may be defective not mainly witt
those whose official acts may havl
sprung from convictions of right
though they have doubtless erred
but the sentiment of the people i
where the great trouble lies. VIVA
they demand they will have, ant
with you who are before me rests
portion of the responsibility to ap
F ply the remedy. The moral pres
sure YOU can raise will sweep ever
sordid motive of policy before it a
the wind drives the chat. It is no
too late, though the ordinance i
passed; none are licensed and be
lieve that if true to your duty non
need be and then il will not b
said in Emporia, even for the yea
T before US, 'The drinking is accord
ing to the law"