The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-14

But you know that every fellow he licenses he
licenses to make drunkards out of everybody
elseis boy in town. Don't you know that2
Tramp tramp, tramp, the boys are marching,
sixty Thousand a year. into a drunkards grave.
and Indianapolis is furnishing her pro rata And
for every old drunkard that tumbles into his
grave these recruiting officers Of hell, these bar
rooms, around drumming up your boys to
fill up the ranks; and the Mayor and your alder
men give them the privilege of debauching
children for hundred dollars apiece
That is big business Applause.
Over In some States they run a
higher license. / would just as soon put
high license on highway robbery, or murder, or
smallpox, or cholera l had. would as leave
let one fellow pay big license, and do all the
killing for the State. just let him go around
and shoot just whom or anybody down that he
wants to, and if anybody went to bother him.
let him say, II am the only man in the State
that can pay the license, and for this license that
pay | can kill anybody that please" fellow
going around with basket of old smallpox
scabs and peddling them around, offering them
to your children, you say to him, Here. don't
you do that Don't bring those things into my
home, sir He says, ssOh, but have right to-
have paid license; / have license to sell
these things" Let me tell you | would rather
man would sell small pox to my boy than TO sell
whisky. Smallpox kills the body only. but
whisky kills both body and soul and puts the
soul in hell forever
Now, believe, if was going to sell liquor,
would come to Indianapolis. You have quite
nice city here. You have got nice councilmen
and nice aldermen I don't know how many Of
them belong tothe church I don't know wheth-
er your Mayor belongs to the church. don't
know his name nor who he is, but will tell you
if ever sold whisky would want to 60 to
town whore the Mayor was Presby terrain elder,
and the councilmen were Methodist stewards,
and the board of aldermen were Baptist deacons.
l would get my license signed up and take 1T
home and say to my wife, preserve that put
that in the trunk, and lock Ii up we'll, and when
die, want them to put that in my coffin with
me, and when the trump should wake me from
the dead, the first thing | would think about
would be my license; and when God summoned
me before the great white throne and showed
me the devastation l had made among
the children of men, I would pull out my
license and say, Lord, didn't know it was any
harm; here is my license, signed by Presbyterian
elders, acknowledgements and Baptist deacons'
and God Almighty will put the whole shebang in
hell together Now you mark that. You all
have got this liquor question in a great muddle
here in Indiana. Let me tell you, we fred our
gun down in old Georgia, and you will hear it
reverberating all over this country pretty soon.
if you have not already heard it here. will
tell you we are running on liquor down In
Georgia. We voting on liquor. We have
not got any politics in it at all and liquor is 40
more political question than "thou shalt not
steal" is political question:; not one bit We
have stripped it of politics down there. Now,
in our counties where we have elections, the
tickets read this way: 'For whisky"-"Again
whisky" And as l have told them on the ssump
down in Georgia, when fellow can walk up
and vote one of those tickets 'for whisky" he is
eleven tenrhs dog. All the human in him is
dog, and the animal Is turned to dog, too, and he
is just dog all over You all strip politics out of
this question up here in Indiana and vote on it
as simply moral question. That is what it is.
1t is moral Question, and you politicians get
out of the way. There is no politician in Gods
world that can saddle my vote against whisky
and ride into Office on it; and If you fellows
want offices you can 60 saddle barrel. That
is the best way to get IN Let US TEL
lows that want to put it out. put it out.
It is whisky that we want to put out, and not
some fellows into Office Whenever fellow
goes to mixing politics aud whisky, you can just
put it down. he is beaten out on the other side
and wants to get in office on the prohibition eide.
Now put that down. l never voted for ST.
John, but am strong prohibitionist as ever
lived and died. and | will tell you what did do.
Every time got chance to vote against whisky
in my State or to speak against it. was against
it, through and through Let us strip this
from politics and all that is personal and let US
put the question it's own merits. If you all
want it here. vote it in and If you don't want it,
vote it out. That is the way to do it. We have
got it out of 100 counties in Georgia. We have
got seventeen counties left and we are manu-
featuring legs now for the barrels in those coun-
ties. and we are just going TO walk them OUT
and, thank God, shall live to see the day when
can say to my boys Boys, stay in Georgia,
and you will live and die sober men. You can
not find a drop of whisky for sale in my State"
That is what want my wife to tell my boys and
your BOYS. When she goes to die want her to
feel, "Well glory be to God, will leave my
boys in State where whisky cannot be sold or
bought by them, and thank God for such a
heritage to leave our children" [Cries of amen.
You Indiana people come up to the front and put
it out forever / know there are some fellows
here that will not stay with you, If you put
whisky out. Well, God bless them, let them
emigrate. We don't want them. nohow. [Ap-
plausel That is what I told them down in
Georgia. eff you fellows don't want to stay in a
her State will furnish you emigrant tickets
anywhere you want to go; we don't want you
nohow; you need never have come to start with"
That is the way we feel about it. And we want
to wake up the conscience of this country on the
liquor question. Hear me- my brother, it is
your conscience that must be stirred on that,
for it no longer is a question of dollars and
cents. 1t is not a question of how many men
are engaged in it 1t is not a question of how
many bushels of grain are distilled up. We can
put ND with all that. But these precious wives
are tired seeing their husbands stagger home,
and these poor mothers are tired seeing their
boys stagger into the drunkard's grave. 1t lisa
question of blood, and DEATH and hell. 1t is not
a question of money, and grain, and dollars and
cents.
Now they say wherever / go, Jones is
fanatic on whisky. on prohibition" I will tell
why. used to drink it somewhat, bat | have
tried sober life, and if you eyer looked into the
face of sober man you see ohe now. A hun
dred gallons of what drink now wouldn't make
a man drunk in a year, and | intend to die
sober, no matter where or how die I said
when was preaching in Chattanooga. nobody
but an Internal fool will drink liquor, and no.
body but an internal scoundrel will sell it.
Some folks got angry at that. and
talked about riding the boy on rail next day.
They said it was a hard saying for
a preacher to make Why. Jesus Christ said
some things sometimes himself that He could
not have said if He had had better crowd lis
tening to Him. If He had been preaching to
angels He wouldn't have said anything about
adultery. You see, you have to come down to
your crowd Laughter. You have to put the
reach it, from giraffe to goat Laughter
Some will stamp it under their feet but re-