Smyrna times., 1874-04-29
Mark Twain on the Prayer Crusades,

If | seem to doubt that prayer is the agent
hat conquers these rumsellers, do it honestly c
nd not in a fippant spirit. If the crusaders I
we're to stay at home and pray for the RUM ;
eller, and tor his adoption of better way of
life, or, it they even assembled together in
,hurch and offered up such prayer with
United voice, and it accomplished victory, |
would then feel that it was the praying that
moved Heaven to do the miracle for, be.
ieve that, if the prayer is the agent that
brings about the desired result, it cannot be
necessary to pray the prayer in any particular
place, in order to get the ear or move the grace
of the Deity. When the crusaders 20 and in
vest a whisky shop and fall to praying,
one suspects they are praying rather less
to the Deity than at the rum.men. So | |
cannot help feellng-after carefully reading the |
details of the rum sieges-that as much as
of the credit of each of the 3, 3,GG0 |
victories achieved, thus far, belongs OF right
to the crusaders themselves, and it grieves me
to see them give it away with such spendthrift
generosity.
| will not aff1ict you with statistics, but
desire to say just word or two about the
character of this crusade. The crusaders are
young girs and women-not the inferior sorts,
but the very best in the village communities
The telegraph keeps the newspapers supplied
with the progress Of the war, and thus the
praying iHfection spreads from town to town,
day after day, week after week. When it
attacks a community it seems to seize upon
almost everybody in it at once. There is
meeting 10 church, speeches are made, reso-
lutlons are passed, a purse for expenses is
is made up, praying band" is appointed,
and if it be large town, a half a dozen praying
bands, each numbering as many as a hundred
women, are appointed, and the working dis
trict of each band marked out. Then comes
grand assault in force, all along the line.
Every stronghold Of rum is invested; first one
and then another champion ranges up before
the proprietor, and offers up special petition
for him; he has to stand meekly there behind
his bar, under the eyes OF a great cOncourse of
ladies who are better than he is, and are aware
Of it, and hear all the secret iniquities of his
business divulged to the angels above, accom-
panied by the sharp sting Of wishes for his re-
generation, which imply an amount of need
for it which is in the last degree uncomfOrta-
| BILE for him. IF he holds out bravely, the
crusaders hold out more bravely still-or, at
least more persistenty; though doubt not
if the grandeur of the erformance would not
be considerably heightened if one solitary cru
sader were to try praying at hundred rum
sellers in body fer a while, and see how il
felt to have every body against her instead o.
for her.
| W. yOu COuSlueE IHe COuuuCL OI IUeSt
crusaders justifabe2 | do-thoroughly justi
fable They find themselves vocoless in thu
making of laws and the election of officer
to execute them. Born with brains born il
the country, educated, having large interests
at stake, they find their tongues tied and thei
hands fettered, while every ignorant whisky
drinking, foreignb born savage in the land ma
hold Office, help to make the laws, degrade tn
dignity of the former, aud break the latter a
his own sweet will. They see their fathers
husbands aud brothers sit innatOly at hom
and permit the scum of the country to assem-
bic at the primaries" name the candidate
buked, elect them. The live in the midst Of
country where there is no end to the laws an
no beginning to the execution of them. An
when the laws intended to protect thei
sons from destruction by intemperance lie tor
5 pid and without sign of life, year after year
they recognize that here is a matter tina
interest them personally, matter which come
stright home to them, and since they ar
, allowed to lift no legal voice against the out
rageous state of things they suffer under i
this regard, | think it is no wonder that thc
patience has broken down, at last, and the
r have tried to persuade themselves that they ar
justi6ablG in breaking the law of trespass whe
the laws that should make the trespass nesC
less are allowed by the voters to lie dead an
imperative.
t The present crusade will, doubtless, do br
little work against intemperance that will b
really permanent, but it will do what is as much
! or even more to the purpose, think. | thin
' it will suggest to more than one man that
women could vote they would vote on the sid
: of morality. even if they did vote and spea
, rather frantically and furiously, and it will ais
). suggest that when the women once made IL
IL - L. Al,
s all-powerful primaries in the hands
9 loafers. thieves and perncious little politician
they would not sit indOlently at home, as the
y husbands and brothers do now, but would hOi
their praying banners, take field in force, pra
the assembled political scum back to the hol'
u and slumbs where they belong, and set up SON
! candidates fit for decent human beings to vO
for. dearly want the women to be raised
& the political attitude of the negro, the in
u ported savage and the pardon thief, and alowe
n to vote 1t is our last chance, | think. III
:: women will be voting before long, and then if
IS B. L. Butler can continue to lord 1t IN CO
% gress; if the highest offices in the land can st
!, continue to be occupied by perjurers and ro
bers; if another Congress, like the Fort
!" second, consisting of fifteen honest men at
70 two hundred and ninety six of the other kin
u can once more be created, it will at last
e time, fear, to give over trying TO save Il
u country by human means, ana appeal 10 r.
T. violence. Both the great parties have faile
't [ wish we might have a woman's party nO'
o and see how that would work. | feel pu
IS suaded that, in extending the suffrage
}; women, this country could absolutely 10
u nothing, and might gain great deal. r
10 thirty centuries history has been iterating a,
A. reiterating that in a moral fight woman
5, simply dauntlesss and we all know, even wi
S. our eyes shut upon Congress and our voter
= that, from the day that Adam ate of thsspp
Is and told on Eve. down to the present da
70 man, in a moral fight, has pretty uniform
* shown himself to be an arrant coward.
q Farewell, Susan-you have driven me
ly the grave" wrote John Larch, of Alabam
as four years ago, and left the nOto on the riv
| h.oL IL MOS orra.Lad Tho othor dav in ii