The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-15
KANSAS AND IOWA.


What Is Left of PrOhibition-A DIockrery of
Temperance Reform.
Charles city Iowa Special.
"How is the temperance cause progressing in
the State of KansasH
''The what
"The temperance cause" repeated the re.
porter.
Il am grieved to say" replied Eli Perkins
who has just returned from st. Johns State
Il say | am grieved to say that there is no
temperance cause in Kansas. 1t seems 20 be ut
tery destroyed. Bar-rooms and saloons are open
all over the State. In Newton, where a year ago
not drop of liquor could be bought the bars
are all open. So it is in Topeka, and, IN fact
all over the State. There seems to be no more
restraint against intemperance now in Kansas
and other Western temperance States than there
is around Five Points in New York"
What has made this change for the worseP
ut is the indifference Of the Republican
party"
But how should that interfere with intern
perance or temperance" asked the reporter.
Well said Mr. Perkins, Il asked that same
question of the people in Kansas. The reply in
variably was: Why, the Republican party is
the wall behind which the temperance party al
ways fought The Republican party protected
the temperance people 1t enforced the temper
ance laws. 1t kept the whisky -men back from
the radical temperance reformers. But when
these same temperance men went and stabbed
their best friend in the back, that friend, whilo
1t will not retaliate. proposes to let the temper
ance assaslns strictly alone. As the officials
marshals, and police magistrates are all Re
publlcans, there is one-eft to enforce the law.
The temperance people are impOtent and use
less themselves. The mob just laughs at Them
Did you talk with any of these Republican
constablesin
yes, frequently. In Emporia I saw all the
saloons wide open, and young men standing in
the doors drinking to St. John. When l asked
marshal why he did not close them, he said:
81 am Republican. The men who got these
l,vr 1. HI
have mortaly wounded the Old Guard who car
ried them to victory. We propose to let them
run the temperance cause alone now. | will not
60 across the street for the ungrateful men who
have tried to kill their best friends No. sir! l
will not stab them back, but L will let them
alone-a-lon-e, sirE'
What are the temperance men doing in
Kansas and IowaP asked the reporter
TO tell you the truth, they are dazed They
don't know what to do. Many of them are
mourning because of the damage they have
done. More than one clergyman has said to me
within two weeks, as he would wiring his hands:
%, we did not know what we were doing. We
have destroyed the fort which we fought behind.
bishop of the Evangelical Church said I
voted for st. John and against the Republican
party, but | repented and prayed every day for
two weeks that the Republican party should not
be hurt; and, if God spares my life, I will try
and undo the damage we have caused"
Il passed through Olathe the other day
where st. John lives" continued Mr. Perkins
st John on the train, but everybody
boycotted him No one spoke to him. He Is q
man TO be pitied. Temperance men are every
where denouncing him as the Judas who sold
them out to the whisky party. Yes said a
clergyman Indignantly, the shrewd scoundrel
deceived us all. He took the influence and votes
of clergymen college professors, and of the
whole moral community and battered them for
money over the bar to the whisky and slavery
party which would grind US to powder if it
could"
ance organization in Dakota which Kissed st.
Johns name and shouted He sold US Quit"