The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-11-22
The Temperance Cause.

Last Sabbath one OF the leading
doctors in one of Austin's most fash
ionable churches said in the course of
his remarks that the United States
was fast becoming a prohibition ma
tion. That not only were intoXicants
soon to be banished from this country
but tobacco too would have to go be-
fore the growing public sentiment.
We felt happy as we heard the state
ment, and we knew the good man
would not tell us so unless he knew it
to be true. We went home from
church and on our way lighted cigar
and said to ourselves 1--WE will have
one more before thou art gone for
ever.' Four o'clock came and as we
walked along the streets of the most
religious city in the state of Texas
we saw the saloons thronged with
men. "Drink on while you may, for
soon saloons will no longer live and
thrivei The day CT your greatness
is about to decay into the darkness of
a prohibition death" we said to our
selves, with the good mans words
of prophesy still ringing in our
ear; but we could not help wondering
how it was that Austin, with an or
thodoX church on every street, nearly,
should be so far behind the rest of
the United States in the great tide of
public Indignation against the evils OF
drink and the follies of tobacco. We
went to our sanctum to write severe
castlgation on the moral tone of this
city, in being so far behind the rest
of the country in its public sentiment.
Why is it, we thought, that the city in
which the learned doctor had uttered
his prophetic defamation. is so slow
to catch the moral inspiration of the
times? We would show the citizens
of Austin, so we soliloquiZed, how
the country had advanced away from
them in this WORK of prohibition, and
for this purpose we opened, as we sat
at our table, the report of the commits
sioner of internal revenue to show
from cold statistics how public senti
ment was affecting this question.
Certainly, if the declaration of the
eloquent doctor were true, the de-
crease would startle our readers. I'm
agine our horror when we found
1927, 1856, ,092 cigars were manufac-
tured and sold in the United States
last year, besides GAO, ,021 ,653 cigarettes.
We stopped, took out another cigar,
and as we lighted it we thought, show
you are hated in this country, you
Viewed The American people are get
ting tired of yourItyranny sure enough.
Like the wild man of the forest you
are going from us forever" Then we
looked at the statistics in regard to
smoking and chewing tobacco, and
found that nearly a pound had been
used to every cigar.
VNa f,I,po6 70 tho 1i011or ototicti no
and found that 1854, ,789 bushels of
les; and 2,372, LOG gallons of molasses
it's made from this grain was 72, ,235, ,175
gallons-a gallon and a half, ne arly,I ito
every man, woman and child in Ameri-
ca; but as women and children do not
drink, men on the average
apiece of pure liquor from the dis
tillery, and in addition about four
gallons each of "rot-gut" or "40-rod," i"
and the moonshiners give a sly nip
now and then. too. The amount of rev.
| enue paid from spirits was $74, ,OOO,O 900;
from tobacco. $42, 900, 900; and another
mild intoxicant that we have not re-
ferred to, ale, beer, ETC., paid $17,OOO,-
600. We figured, and we found that
every man, on an average, in the
United States must drink about twen-
ty gallons of beer. How is this, we
said. Six gallons of pure liquor to a
man; four gallons of "forty-rod;" the
sly-nips from the moonshiners, and
twenty gallons of beer to every man in
the United States; 800 cigars year
and lib cigarettes. Well, we felt fully
] convinced that the grand era of pro-
hibition had about captured all
of the United States, except Austin,
and that the doctor was a well-posted
man on worldly matters-and Ger.
tain prophet.