The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-27
SAM JONES ON THE WHISKY QUESTION
He Addresses Temperance Convention il
Language More Forcible than Choice.

He Addresses Temperance Convention in
Language More Forcible than Choice.
Report of Meeting.
II believe liquor is a good thing in its place,
and believe it's place is in hell. II l was IN he'll
| ght drink it, but so help me God will never
on this earth drink it again" Speaking of the
good that could be accomplished by prohibition
and the difficulties that stood in the way OF CD
tanning it, he said: ''The main trouble is with
these little politicians. They say it won't do to
bring this question into politics. They say 1T
will hurt your party. If your party has got to
ride into power on whisky barrel, then say IL
ought to be hurt. / am Democrat. was born
Democrat, but if you make Democracy mean
opposition to sumptuary laws and friendship to
liquor then | am anything bat a Democrat.
After all, this thing of politics is just question
of the 'ins and outs If the radicals get In four
years from they will adopt the good old
Democratic cry, Turn the rascals out
Some fellows say, don't mix pohtlcs
and religion. When you hear fellow talk that
way you may know that he hasn't got any rellg-
ion to mix. would mix religion with politics,
but not politics with religion. little religion
will help politics. 1t will make it clean and de-
cent. We want truth. justice and temperance
mixed with politics in this State. spoke to the
Legislature of Tennessee on this subject the
other day. They talking about a constitu-
tional amendment on the liquor question up
there. We want this question cleared up be-
You'd the reach of these little cross roads judges,
thing is unconstitutional We want to do away
with such judges and put decent men of brains
and character in their places. You can't reform
a State until YOU send good men to the
Legislature Some men come TO every
Legislature that meets in Georgia that amt
fit to go to the chain gang. There is not purer,
nobler man in Georgia than your Governor
| There are no better men in Georgia than your
Supreme Court judges / told them in Tennes-
see the other day. that you had for chief
| justice in Georgia man Who would sit up all
! night talking to a penitent at the altar.
| Georgia is all right at the top and the bottom
| We want to get all right in the middle, and if
| you refuse TO suppress the Infamous wrong that
| is being done by whisky, you rotten your
self. Some of you here don't know me. l
| speak plainly. use words you can understand.
Now, you can take the Latin word decayed, and
| it won't please fellow. If you take the good
old Anglo Saxon word rotten you can cut his
| head off. You see, choose my words. Of
course there are always some little spelling book
critics sitting around, who will go back on
| fellows grammar l wouldn't mind being swal
| lowed by whale, but would hate to be nib
! bed to death by minnows.
| You have one hundred counties in Georgia
where the liquor traffic is crippled. In eighty
counties there is prohibition. say look out for
| your drug stores Look out for your little sim
| lin-headed doctors. Some of them fill their
saddle bags with liquor and become travelling
bar rooms. God pity doctor that will perscribe
| liquor for mani might prescribe it to poor
|
until he was dead. Whisky is not good for one
thing in this world for which there is something
else that is better If the time every comes
when they say to me- You'll die if you don't
drink whisky | will say, Get my shroud
ready l mean to die sober. If fellow gets
so low that nothing but whisky will save him,
am ready to preach his funeral. And have
| text that will make him hope on, didn't mean
to talk here more than half an hour. If any of
you fellows get tired you know the way home.
We wouldn't have missed you if You hadn't
come at all.
rejoice tonight that in more than two-thirds
of the counties of this State whisky can't be
sold at ali. | am glad the Legislature is going to
turn whisky out of every county IN this State
at the first election. we will try it again. had
a great trial not long ago. have been poor
| man all my life, and when friends in Nashville
and back me up it was a great temptation; but
| looked down here and saw my old mother.
| Georgia. / never loved her so in all my life
before, I said: Brethren, no, can't take it.
| Not that love you less, but love Georgia more
| When die want to die in Georgia, and before
die 1 want to see every inch of her soil rid of
the curse of whisky. I am not mad with the
men who sell whisky. am not mad with the
whisky. I am mad with demijohns I am
| glad they haven't got legs. Those that have
wicker-work around them haven't got legs but
there are plenty of old rednosed demijohns
|
poor woman, who, every time she goes to church,
| has to put her tender arm in the handle of an
old demijohn? | put it in this way: The liquor
| traffic ought to be made so odious that nobody
| but an Internal scoundrel will sell, and nobody
but an Internal fool will drink it. Separate
| these liquor-dealers from their liquor, and they
will be all right. The church that will house
man who sells whisky is detestable fraud. The
church that will house man who rents house
to sell liquor is hateful hypocrite. Some of
these churches in Atlanta doing just this
| thing. If there is in this vast audience one man
Or woman who never had relative or loved one
| hurt, or ruined by whisky want him or her to
| stand up right now You have all had brother
| or son, or father or Son-lnaw ruined by
whisky. My goodness, these sonsin-law! I'd
rather have boa constructor around my neck
than to have a drunken sonin law. The devil
| can't do any worse than that. Some of you old
hypocrites that are dliydallying with the whisky
! question are going to get caught just that way.
| The devil is going to slip up On you with
drunken son -in-law. and bet he will make you
| a prohibitionist with vengeance.
| look around your city and see the bar-rooms
| as thick as the stars in the heavens. Each one
of the 800 bars in Atlanta represent at least ten
confirmed drunkards. Three thousand men in
Atlanta across the line and gone to ruin! You
can stop it IT you want to. There are church
members enough in this town to turn out any
day and vote liquor out of it. You are afraid to
do it. You will let some barkeeper with an old
rusty pistol cuss and rear around the polls and
scare you home. You don't want to have a fuss.
Well, I'll tell you every good man breads fuss,
but he don't fear anything that walks on the
earth. The church lays back on the
| idea that it must have peace. Old Joshua went
| out day and fought all day long. He was
| crowding the enemy, when he looked up and saw
/ the sun going down. He said Lord, if you will
! just give me three or four more hours of sun
shine, I'll clean these fellows up off the face of
sun rack back on the dial, and Joshua won a
victory, the fame of which has lasted until this
| day. God despises a coward. had rather die
at the mouth of cannon doing my duty than to
run away from it because was afraid God
intrusts all the noble causes this earth to men
| who are game.
| The Right Idea.