The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-03-17
HIS PRICE.
The Value Which Loving Father Places
upon His boy.

The Value which Loving Father Places
upon His Boy.
Consider me not avaricious, my |
friends, if tell you have set price
on my boy. This is necessary, from
the fact that live in a community that
puts Price upon the boys, the girls, |
the youth, the manhood and the wom-
anhood of that community. Then
judge me not harshly until you have
compared my price with that fixed by |
the community in which live, and Of
which you and form part.
But before giving you my price, per-
haps a brief description ., the boy may
not be out of place. He is now just
entering upon the teens, the same dear
little boy whom we have nursed and
| handled upon our knees, who has been
the object of our love and devotion
from his babyhood up to the present,
and is now the pride of his father and
the hope of his mother. He is in good
physical health. with mental faculties
all alert, quick to discern between right
and wrong. easily imbibing correct
moral principles. In short, he is
fair specimen physically, mentally
and morally of the youth of this
community, which, in its organized ca
pacity, treats him and all Others as
proper subjects for barter and sale.
Perhaps you may ask me by whom are
they put in the market? who are the
buyersp when, where and how is this
Internal traffic carried on against the
laws of God and manp Well, I'll tell
you who, when, where and how, on
one conditional is, if you will do
all in your power to put stop to it.
They are put upon the market by the
making power of this country,
this State and this municipality, by fix
ing a price, a valuable consideration
a license fee-upon the payment OF
which a man is permitted to do. is Ii
censed and granted the privilege to do
that which he had no right to do until
he bought the privilege. Now, it is
clear that something is sold by one par
ty-the community of the law-making
power-and bought by another party.
the individual who intends to use what
he has bought; and that is the privilege
to sell Intoxicating liquors as a bcver-
age. The permission to set up a bar
and sell liquors in this way means the en-
ticing, ensnaring, enslaving, the moral
degradation, the mental wreck, the phys
ical ruin and death of somebody's boy in
,, the vicinity where it exists. 1t means
chance at hundred boys, with GER
tainty that more than one will be en-
shared and degraded. When the Ii.
!, censc is granted the granters know this
fact as well as they know that day fol-
lows night, and yet for the considera-
:. tion--the permission is granted-the
license is given. Is not this clearly a
' sale of somebody's boy--together with
his health, his integrity, his intelll-
gence, his moral sensibilities, his very
:. life and all there is of him or in himp
!, And while it is sale of somebody s
:. boy, who is to be sacrificed to fill the
capacious nav of this monster which
= thrives upon misery, degradation and
: woe, it is the establishment of a shoot
ing alley in my neighborhood, and my
!, boy (being human, and no better OF
; stronger than thousands who have
fallen) is set up as a target, at whom
this skillful, fiendish archer is permit
= ted to shoot his poisoned arrows, with
v an absolute certainty Of bringing some
!, one down.
And l am asked by Christian COM
munity-at least by the Lawmakers
:, of what is called Christian people
how much l want for my consent
: to this bargain, my assent to this con-
= tract, my signature to this compact
- with Satan and agreement with hell!
: how high shall the license be? what
!, shall he the feep Oh, shame! that in
!. this enlightened age such question
y can be asked! ! answer, 0 We rum.
= sellers, 60 gather in your ill-gotten
:, gains for a thousand years, pile up
your gold until it is so high that il
: casts dark and dismal shadow ovel
! the highest mountain-peak, and lay il
u at my feet, and you have not tempted
. me. Go, bring from among your kin
" bred as many victims as you have made
. % in ours-as many desolate homes, u.
y many bitter tears, as many heart-sob'
y eye for eye, tooth for tooth, BLOOD
/, !, for blood, suil for soul-and you have
- only strengthened my resolution no
. to sell. You don't wish to buy at sucl
7, pricep But wait, l have not TOLD
"a you all. Before you get my signature
=. 20 to this hellish compact, you must, a
:, the peril of your life, sever my RICH
~ ~ arm from my body, disconnect it from
,. !. my heart and brain, before these fin
!, =, gers will sign your league with death
u This is my price, Mr.. Rummy, ant
- these are my terms. No sale, yo'
~ say? Very good. No sale, no saloon
70 --EIchaRge.