The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1883-02-15
Praying for Temperance.


announced for Wednesday, of this
week, at the M. E. Church, in this
place. This is to be a Union Prayer
Meeting of all the Churches, and tenn
perance people generally. The meet
ing will last from nine o'clock in the
morning until four in the afternoon,
the special object being to call down
Divine aid in urging the Legislature
to do duty in the matter of submitting
Prohibitory Amendment to the Con-
stitution.
It would seem that Divine power is
the only power which can make the
average politician think upon the
temperance question The time seems
almost to have passed when the friends
of temperance may appeal to politi-
clans intellect--the appeal must be
made to his stomach. The picture,
then, as presented to us, is that Of a
multitude of noble women-whose
leaders have no intellectual superiors
among the male citizens of the State
bringing to bear every argument
against the curse of intemperance;
every appeal on behalf of the suffer-
ing families Of drunken brutes; every
plea in favor of humanity, reign of
law and order, and better social at
mosphere; even sounding the alarm
at the crowded .fInfrmaries, Asylums
and Prisons; and these noble women
address all these appeals and argu-
ments-to what? To the heads Of
men in official position-to their
hearts, to the noblest impulses of hu-
manity? No. The appeal must be
made to the only sensitive point, SEEM
ingly, in the make up Of the average
politician. The appeal must be made
to his stomach.
While there are some excellent men
in the Ohio Legislature, there are
those there who see nothing in men,
bership of the Legislature save the
office itself, and these men. have for
some weeks been exceedingly funny
at the expense of the ''silly women"
who have been attempting to inter-
fere with mems personal liberty" If
some Of these smart statesmen would
take short walk among the gloomy
and destitute homes of some of their
constituents, as these noble women
have done. they would doubtless be
willing to do everything that could be
reasonably done, for the cause Of tenn
perance.
If those men right here in our
midst who affect. to sneer at temper
ance work, would pause and look
about them. and see the rapid growth
of this great curse and the evils re-
sulting therefrom, they might be led
to think and act more seriously with
regard to this important matter. A
man can scarcely look out upon the
streets of Jackson without seeing
young men, who might have led
brilliant -lives-and who might yet be
saved going about SO bloated and
blistered by the excessive use of in
toxicating drinks as to be almost be-
yond all semblance of humanity. And
there are older men in the sam con-
dition. Some of these have families
who are suffering for the necessaries
of life while these brutes seem to have
no aim in life but the satisfying of
this horrible appetite Is it not time
was done with view to
bringing about a better state Of
things? Or, will the good people
who have been laboring for the sue
cess of the temperance cause be COM
PEELED to give up the battle, and wit
ness the still more rapid growth of
vice, and still more harrowing-if pos
of misery? Truly, it
seems to be time for appealing to
Divine Power for aid.