The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1882-09-23
PROHIBITION.

OF Its bearings upon the public veal, we
do not doubt. They are marshalling
their forces in regular order, with trained
battalions Of speakers, lecturers and
drummers, with an energy and purpose
never before witnessed. They are re-
solved upon a Waterloo defeat or Wa
terloo victory. Already they have de-
clared the secular press bought up, OF
bribed, in the interest of whisky capital,
and the religious organs handicapped
with influences which they cannot disre-
gard. How true these allegations are
we do not know We can speak for
ourself only, and say that not one cent
OF bribery or "blood money" was ever
offered us, and we hereby say that we
do not believe it will be, and we will say
more, it would never be accepted. Yet,
we are not prepared to say that the ends
Of the Prohibitionists will ever be ac-
complished, even though they succeed
in throwing around the whisky traffic
the strongest legal embarrassments. In
dlvidually, we are free to say, we wish
they could so far succeed as to wipe out
its very memories, and SO we coula say
of cholera, yellow fever, and all other
plaques, physical and social, that afiiict
the human family.
First, if stricken from public use, SO
that it can neither be bought nor sold,
how long before the ingenuity of the
lovers of strong drink will invent the
means of manufacturing it at home,
from the crude implements to be found
on every farm las many did during the
war; and making it for their own use
This will beget an illegal traffic and sly
use of it, much more damaging to indi-
vidual character than the purchase of it
in an open market. 1t will end in
wide spread army of private moonshi-
ners, who will protect the fortified castle
OF home life and home enterprise with
courage and recklessness that would defy
the State or national authorities
But, again. Suppose that whisky land
we use that as a SYNONYM for all strong
liquors were placed beyond the reach
of every man in the State or even United
States, does any one suppose that sub
stitute would be long wanting? for that
restless, eager desire to improve upon
natures vacuum, which she has left
untitled in SO many human bosoms,
would find an outlet in some other way.
Men do not drink and get drunk simply
because they wish to be worse than their
they drink to crafty cra-
wing born within them, which their |
neighbors never suffered. What is a
glorious taste to one man, is abhorent to
What is pleasant stimulant
to one man, is a nauseating draught to |
some one else. Men that never drink |
and never have the wish to drink, should |
not be taken as exemplars of sobriety,
for they are simply following the bent
Of their tastes-they really would have
to counteract the rulings Of appetite to
drink at all; not SO with the man cast
in a different mould and perhaps educa-
ted under different moral and intel |
lectual lights. AS well expect the same
results of bewildering lights and shadows
on canvas from the ambitious, aspiring
Ienxis and his dull master, Demophilus;
as well expect the same results in war
from the fiery spirit of Zhengis Khan
and his servile camel driver; as well |
look for the same eloquence in Cicero
and his stole teacher, Diodotus; as well |
look for the same knowledgs of natures
forces in Newton and the lackey that |
BACKED his boots. The natural elements |
in all these, and millions more, We're
He that undertakes to alter |
natures deereesby legislative enactment
is substituting human for superhuman
agencies. 10 close this article, already
too long, if the active springs of human
pride, il the splendid illuminations Of
if the sweets, and pleasures Of
high social position, ii the warmth and
magnetism of an eloquence that shot up
ike volcanic fires, ii the splendors of
dazzling the political heavens
like the brilliant Pleads, and above all,
i the Godlike teachings OF "Him who
never spake as man" could not rescue q
Prentiss or a Poe from that inward gulf
if excitement that rolled back upon each
lespite all the best teachings and prin-
'iples Of human philosophy and chris
ian duty, legislation cannot do it, but
~ giving the substitute of opium for
trong drink. In some form the vacuum
must be supplied. If this is nonsense, it
s the nonsense of history The subject
$ too profound for newspaper pars-
,raph.
-
Some ardent prohibitionist has de-
Jared upon the authority Of science that
lature never produces alcohol, but she
I4U . 49,. y 4 .