The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-02-24


got to the banquet; he sat next to the lawyer
friend whom she had spoken to. The lawyer
drank his wine, and for time the young hus-
band kept his word to his wife, but being ban
tered, he fell. He answered, ''Well, | sup
pose it must be a compromise; give me lit
tie champagne" In the end he lost his man
hood and his reason, and SO as not to offend
the general, who presided, was removed to a
hotel, where he still drank, until she found
him, and al the request of his wife, was borne
home to her. Then she heard his curses on
his friends, and threats of suicide. For every
drop of wine drank at the banquet, tears are
shed, and every moment of Bacchannalian joy
is followed by hours of sorrow. The bible,
she said, taught us to pray for the life and
personal government of Christ. How could
this be accomplished when we sanctioned the
evil in our midst? When for six, aye, in too
many cases seven days. drink was sold in our
midst to drown the reason and to kill the
soul? There was great deal of talk Of
the infringement of personal rights, but
since the days Of Justinian to those of Black
stone and Kent the rights of the few had and
must be restrained for the comfort Of the
many, and as Edmund Burke had wisely OBJ
served, the very first thing man is required
to do in civilized society is to yield up the
| must entrust his wrong and his rights to his
fellow-men. Abiding to Robinson Crusoe,
by way of example, Miss Willard pointed out
that he could eat, drink and act as he pleased,
and clothe himself as he thought fit, while
upon his desert island, but directly he came to
civilization, he must observe the law, laid
down for the good and protection of the many.
This he might regard as practical infringe
ment of his rights, but if he did not observe
| the law, he would find to his cost he would be
punished for the breach.
Two important questions were Asked
(lst) does license regulate, and candy does
prohibition prohibit. On the latter point she
said that for the past eight years she had
spent part of the year in the state Of Maine,
inquiring into the Maine law, and she had the
testimony of justices, ministers, jailors and OF
other disinterested persons, who were as COM
petent to give information on that point as the
audiences could upon the city of San Antonio
and what she gathered was this, that the main
law prohibited to the same extent as any other
law and in the same way. 1t did not entirely
stop the sale of alcohol any more than law
| against murder, arson, robbery would stop
| those crimes, but it reduced it to a minimum,
and in this fact great point was gained. As
men ruled the license did not regulate, where
day you can see that it is openly violated, and
the enactment that drink should not be sold to
an inebriated man was practically disregarded,
and murder, sin and ruin was thus to an ex-
tent legalized. Miss Willard, in the course of
remarks, spoke too of the evil example to
children, and cited the case of a man, accom-
panied by his little boy, going into saloon
for drink. "What will you take, little man."
asked the saloon keeper of the little boy, and
the answer was "I'll take the same as father"
This was true in too many cases. The boy was
the father of the man, and men but children
of larger growth, and examples are conta-
gious.
The world was getting tired of the picture
presented of church on the one hand, Sun
day school on the other, and of happy home
stead, injured by the presence of the drink
shop opposite, and of seeing its young men
educated through the saloon and billiard room
to ruin, instead of through the church and
Sunday school to happiness and prosperity.
They saw that 50 per cent of insanity and 81
per cent. of crime, according to Cole's'statis-
tics, was springing from this pandora box, and
wanted it closed forever. She compared drink
to cat, insidious and sly, stealthily and
surely creeping on mis- prey to devour it. Pub
lie opinion was like the elephant-slowly and
| surely IcdoinS oh"dlu, uiSlcSdIulllS all, Du
let it be aroused-see the ears fly, the eyes
brighten, and the vigor of anger impaired to
it, and then it works. The animal is on the
war path, and you've got to get out of the way
The story was told of King Robert Bruce,
of Scotland, who dying wished to carry his in
huence in his army, had his heart enclosed in
a casket Of silver, and gave directions that in
the thickest fight the heart should be thrown,
and recovered by his men. This was done;
the heart was thrown in the midst of the bat
tie with the cry of "Heart of Bruce I'll follow
thee" and was always rescued by his COM
patriots. So she would heave their cause in
the thickest of the fray, and follow it to VIC
tory. Miss Willard concluded with brilliant
perroration of women and homes and resumed
her seat amid much cheering.
Miss Willard is lady of great culture and
has considerable power as an orator. Her
voice is subdued and pleasant, she artculates
very clearly and has distinct utterance. Her
logic is good, her arguments concise, and she
has very pleasant way of saying disagreeable
| things. Her voice is rather too monotone
but the interest in her discourse never ceases,
and you feel regret when her discourse closes.
if you have not, like US, to follow her steno-
graphically. There is only one fault, if fault
it be, that she speaks rather too fast in many
parts, leaving scarcely sufficient time to i'm
press her facts clearly upon her hearers, and
to allow the average state reporter to give even
a summary of her address. This is the real
reason why SO few papers have attempted to
publish her discourses.
| Miss Willard addresses ladies only this af-
ternoon, in the same church, at 5 o'clock, and
| l--ll n r