Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-07-25
WOMENS' CHRISTIAN
Temperance Union Column.
EDITED BIZ THE W. q 7. UNION


That devoted sister, broken-hearted
over a drunken brother, pleading,
counselling him to reform, is a weak,
simpering crank, you say, Mr.. Barley
corn, while he who besotted him is a
level-headed enterprising man.
That spirit-stricken father, trem-
bling in his tears over the suicide
grave of once promising child, is an
old, gray-haircd crank, you say, but the
mar who crazed him with whisky paid
for the privilege.
That mother standing ON Niagara's
brink, mingled her lamentations with
the thunder-roar of the cataract, as
she sees her darling boy shooting like
a swift fleeing arrow into the deep,
seething abyss, is an excited crank,
YOU say, but the man who sent him
adrift ON the bosom of the rapids had
n personal right to do 50, and is pro-
tected by law.
The peniIess woman, in her discon-
solate widowhood, is a sorrowing
crank, you say, whom the Church or
charity should pension, but the man
who converted her husbands labor
earnings into whisky that killed him
carries on legalized trade that no
fanatic should question.
That true wife, who led her hus-
hand into the Good Templar Lodge
and reformed him, is witless tenn
perance crank, you say, bat he who
had debauched him is an honorable
man.
That tender, loving young wife who
Unattached her chamber door in mid
night silence at the drunken approach
of him whose lips had but recently
whispered plighted love is a crank in
her beseechings and prayers, you say,
-Sut the club house that enticed him TO
neglect her is thoroughbred, respec-
table institution. Those noble Chris
tian Temperance women who would
close the saloons to save their hus-
bands, brothers, and sons from the
sting of the still, are whining franks,
you cay, while they whose. business
would plumber manhood of its price
less riches are privileged class; petted
and pampered by law.
That those prohibition amendment
Legislators, and the Tennessee State
Temperance Allience, in seeking
through constitutional enactment to
Outlaw the liquor traffic are weak,
prurient cranks, you say, but the ma
kers and sellers of whisky are the fac
tors 10 control parties and shape legls-
lation.
That Rev. Drs.B arbee, Witherspoon,
Strickland, Sum Jones, and their
brothers in Christian service, who
throw ropes of succor TO sin-burdened
humanity, are professional pulpiteers,
you say disturbers of the public con-
science, but the men whose business
hinders godliness are a law unto them
selves.
That Conferences, Synods, Assem-
blies in steadily resolving againts
whisky are ecclesiastical cranks, you
say, moody pietists, but the men who
furnish the money sinews of political
campaigns are the powers that he to
make and unmake candidates and.
make laws. Preachers, you say, are
paid 10 pray, while rum pays to rule.
Preachers, you say, work through
faith ON the hearts of men, while rum
works through the ballot-box ON the
laws of men. The voting power of
the pew, YOU say, is an old crank's
scattering blunderbuss, but the voting
power of rum is single-shot needle
gun.
Does all this mean that the patriots
and phihnthropists, the mothers and
fathers of the land, who would stretch
forth Imploring hands to rescue their
household treasures from the destruc-
ton that turks in the gilded rum pal
aces that line our thoroughfares-that
these interested and importunate ones
are fanatics" and "ranters," while the
trappers OF mems souls, and their
aiders and abettors, are the conserva-
tors of the public peace 81?
Have parents, and wives and sisters
no rights that the dram-dealer should
respect Shall fathers and mothers
quietly surrender their sons to the
keeping and trimming of bar-keepers,
and not r1sist, lest the kissing cry OF
"Cranks" be hurled against them? Is
our civilization more concerned to fill
work-houses and prison abodes with
criminals than to hll our homes with
sober, upright men Is rum to crowd
the ballOt-box, AID control legislation?
Heaven forbid that these agents of
evil should longer haye the Law as a
shield to protect them in sacking our
home affairs, and in dishonoring the
shrines ut which freemen worship.