The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-03-01
81. PatrIek's Day and Local option.

1t is an suspicious omen that the
election for prohibition will be held on
st. Patrick's Day. Will not our Irish
citizens, as they remember and cele-
brate the many and great virtues of
st. Patrick, array themselves under the
prohibition banner around which clus-
ter the hallowed memories of Father
Mathew ? Respected and beloved, not
only by the Irish people, but by intel
ligent men everywhere, for his stately
culture, his scholarly attainments, and
above all and beyond all, the spotless
integrity of his life and the grand and
sublime devotion to the cause of pro-
hlbition which, under his careful guild
ance, had success unparalleled in
the worlds history. The Irish people,
under the terrible influence of strcng
drink, were going down, down, down
down into rags and poverty-down
into crime and pauperism.
Ireland's name was jeer and scoff,
and obloquy threatened to overwhelm
her people. Father Mathew appeared
upon the scene, and boldly throwing
the banner of prohibition to the
breeze, called upon the Irish people
to make one mighty effort to free
themselves from the CALLING chains of
intemperance. The people came to-
gether to meet HIM from long dis
tances and in great numbers, and
kneeling down in the fields and often
In the streets of village, town and
city, by tens of thousands, they called
God to witness their VOW never more
to take Intoxicating drink. Sometimes
these crowds contained as many as fifty
thousand people. Ireland was redeemed
from the curse of the liquor traffic,
and pauperism and crime disappeared
almost entirely from the country, and
the glorious results of prohibition are
seen to-day. "Bessbrook, a city in
Ireland of 1000 inhabitants, has no
liquOr-shop, and whisky and strong
drink are strictly prohibited. There
is no poor-house, pawn-shop or police
station. The city is entirely free from
strife, discord or disturbance. SIN
the county of Tyrone, containing 10,-
600 people, no whisky is allowed"
Hon. Claude Hamilton, NJ. p, said in
1870: "At present, in Tyrone county,
there is not single policeman. The
poor rates are half what they were be-
fore, and the magistrates testify to the
great absence of crime" These facts
demonstrate that prohibition IS not a
failure. Father Matthew, a short time
before his death, III letter to
Mr. Delavan, said: "The prin-
ciple of prohibition seems to
me to be the only safe and certain rem
edy for the evils of intemperance.
This opinion has been strengthened
and confirmed by the hard labor OF
more than twenty years in the temper
ance cause" This is the opinion of
one whose whole life was absorbed in
the cause OF temperance, and whose
fidelity and sublime devotion to the
welfare of the Irish people is incom-
parable in the annals of Ireland. ]
know speak the sentiments of intelli-
gent Irishmen everywhere when ] say
may the cause for which he lived con-
tinue to move onward, never halting
till its banner is crowned with final
victory and triumphantly placed on the
crumbling ruins of King Alcohops em-
pire. Let US as one celebrate st. Pat
rick's Day, go to the polls and with
those DOtent instruments