The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-12-14


A friend hands US the following ex-
tract from a speech recently delivered by
Hon. VIM. j. Groo, at Monticello, New
York, and suggests that it is quite APP
pIieable to leading question In Empo-
ria just now:
ssThe rum traffic Ia this country eX-
lists because the law permits st. The leg
islature passed an Act in 1870, permitting
you, ana 1, and every other man having
the power to vote upon this question and
to lift our voices in relation TO 1t, will be
held responsible to greater or less ex-
tent If we fail to exercise all the power
that has been given US to rid the statute
book Of this law that permits the thing to
exist and be carried on. Has not moral
suasion been used to its fullest extent,
and in one respect IS it not failure? Is
it not very unsatisfactory What has
been the result in various placesI
InSmy own village we had temper
ance Society, and have one still, and we
persuade men to come and join it, and
have in my mind at the present moment
two men who were induced TO join the
Sons of Temperance, and from the Sons
OF Temperance they went into the church
and became faithful members OF 1t. L
have heard those men repeatedly say,
with tears streaming down their cheeks,
that they thanked God that the appetite
for strong drink had been taken away
from them. Yet these very men relapse d
to their old habits, and the second state
seem ed worse than the first. One more
example. Last winter, in Newburgh, st.
Johns Methodist church, Mrs Van Colt
Iabored for the conversion OF souls, and
hundreds were brought to the altar and
prolesseI conversion. Among others was
young man of Is or 10 years of age; q
young man of incorporate habits. But
he was converted. He was restored tC
his parents, and for four or five months
he ran well. And then what occurred
He went down to q licensed saloon In
Newburgh, became intoxicated, and
came heme to his mothers house singing
some of the revival hymns, whereupoL
his mother SAID to him, "Homer, you are
not ina condition to sing those hymns
now; you ought not TO do it," He be-
came so enraged that he went to the dool
and locked it; took from his pocket 1
pistol, deliberately-as deliberately as
one could In like condition-endeavored
to shoot his mother. Sne lifted up bel
hands, and said, FLOR God's sake, Ho
mer, don't shoot your mOtherp and thu
ball passed just over her head. She raj
| out of doors, and he then turned his Al
tention to young gIIl, his cousin, an
shot her twice, but not fatally. TO-nigh
| that young man is in jail in Orange cOun
| ty, awaiting trial for this terrible crime
l ask you as intelligent men if the church
and temperance men had not done all II
that case that the laws of God and mar
and conscience required them TO do
They had persuaded him to give his hear
to Christ, and but for the rum-shop ht
| would have been a christian man to-day
| And still you, tell me that we are to e
| on persuading men not to drink, and ye
| leave hese temptations standing in thei
way. 1 say no! 1 say the time has COM
| when we are to band ourselves togethe
and stand side by side on this great ques
ton, and seeit something can not be don
to stay the tide of sorrow and woe il
this country