The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-06-15
jThe 99ailg Argas.
DIo LEWIS CONFESSION.
Important Testimony as to the Effects of Pro-
h,bltion in Maine-"Maine Law"
aFailure.

To the Editor of the Cincinnati Gazette: =
Boston, Mass, June 6.-I have watch
ed with painful anxiety the progress of the
new temperance movement in your State
For ages society cursed the drunkard as !
sured him with solemn bitterness that he
was a miserable wretch: that he was
bound to hell, where he ought to go. Thir-
ty odd years ago, half dozen drunkards
in Baltimore made the discovery that curses
were not the medicine to cure drunkenness,
They made the great discovery that if you
would save the drunkard you must go
| down where he is, and putting the arm of
your love about him, lead him from the
darkness up into the light. That discov-
cry opened and filled the Washingtonian
temperance movement, during the pro-
gress of which the temperance sentiment
now existing in this country was developed.
| A little more than t1Celty gears ago ace be-
gan to legislate against the sale of intor-
icatinq drinks. Since that time the tenn
perance sentiment has refrigerated.
/ On last Christmas day, in the southern
part OF Ohio, few women made the dis
covery that if you would cure arum seller,
the way to do it was to put the arm of |
your love about him, and lead him from
the darkness up into the light. In the |
pure Christian spirit it has not been to any
, considerable extent carried forward even |
in Ohio But no thoughtful person doubts
that the wonderful power of the new tenn
perance movement known as the woman S
f crusade" has grown out OF the employ
: ment of the same divine agency which gave
n the Washingtoniap movement its wonder
fui success:
AS the elections approached this spring,
that mania for law making which has led
the Legislature of Massachusetts to turn
out thirty six hundred laws in year, that
, American madness for regulating every
;, thing by law, has seized upon even the
p good temperance women Of Ohio and they
have dropped the divine agencies, or con-
tinuing in form to pray and plead, that pc
culiar JUNCTION which gave them their Won
drous power at first has been lost, and ev
erything has been swept away in the 20
litical passion, In the plane of politics
a the rum party will beat the temperance
party every time Aud if, perchance, here
and there the temperance voters are in the
majority, the rum party will beat them all
the same-not in voting, but in lodging.
have just returned from Maine, where
30 | spent week in examining the results of
the prohibitory law Bangor has $4,000
ng inhabitants The Hon Lewis Barker, one
' pr of its most respected lawyers, and warm
ro- hearted temperance man, hoping still that
ost prohibition will work, has done a good dea
of law business for the friends of temper.
Err ance He told me there aoere three hundred
+, places arhere drinks 1rere sold an Bangor
simply because there rs patronage for tire
hundred places There is not a town i,
Ohio, and probably never has been, wher,
=, there is a drinking saloon for every fifty "
ost the inhabitants. That, you observe,is tn,
be proportion in Bangor. The friends of pro
70 hibition are circulating at this time state
in- ment by prominent citizen OF Bangor
'ish that there is only one-tenth part as mucl
5nd drinking in Bangor as formerly. lncreas
cry the present number of drinking places b
ten, and you have three th0usand,in a cit
ate. of fifteen thousand people, or one for ey
ter cry five persons, men, women and children
,oos | am sure the friends ia Ohio are sufi
/ Of GENTLY interested in the temperance caus
to send a committee to Maine to spend
'I we week or two investigating the workings {
rial, the prohi6itory law; and | am sure the
VIII would be amazed at the facts. And "
| did not see an open drinking place viii
| was in the State. There is no doubt til,
u the traffic has been drirea under oorer, an
there IS ,sot a shddosc Of doubt that ttis COZ
sumption of drinks an the State Of Maine
- enormous.
>, But let US admit that all that is elaine
III for prohibition is true, still there is gre
liz need for the cooperation of women, and
women can not make laws and enfor
them, it seems to me that one runs no ri
in advising the women of Ohioto use pun
" and constantly that power which accol
II plished the Washngtonian revolution, al
which has given the woman's crusade
marvellous success. Yours truly,
any Do LEWIS.