The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-11-01
81 John in IndianapolIs.

st John ia Indianapolis.
Indianapolis people enjoyed a rare treat
on last Sunday afternoon in an address by
Ex-Gov. st. John.
After opening devotional exercises, st.
John, taking for his text Isaiah 5:t1, %, %
and a part of Ezekiel s:19, spoke of the sin
OF the drinker, the seller, the voter and the
inevitable woes to each of these, with such
force of argument and illustrations as to
excel even himself and evoke from his au-
dience uncomfortable applause.
In closing he drew from his pocket and
read the following newspaper clipping
which our readers may have seen in Satur-
days edition of the Indianapolis Journal:
.'Strong is the irony of fate. The wife
ofJohn P st. John. Jr., son Of the prohibit
ton apostle, has just sued for divorce at
Santa re, on the ground of her husbands
habltual drunkenness. Somebody should
hire the Kansas ex-governor at $50 per
night to talk prohibition to his son."
With a fathers heart break in the tones
of his voice, that held the audience in breath
less sympathy, he replied as follows:
"That will be cheered ia every saloon
and granddaughter in the land. 1t will be
paraded by every republican organ and re-
cieved with fiendish delight in the partisan
club. beer-garden and brothel-not because
a suit for divorce has been commenced, for
the Journal can find such proceedings in
it's own political household-but because it
is my boy who is the defendant; not because
a boy gets drunk, for there are thousands
of drunken boys here in Indiana, but it is
because it is my boy who is charged W it'll
being an habitual drunkard, which, al
though not strictly true, serves as food for
the run power throughout the country
the very purpose for which the Journal in
tended it.
Eyes, | have a boy who gets drunk, al
though not an .llabitual' drunkard. Ihave
a dear brother whose greatest enemy is
strong drink. I had a kind-hearted, gen.
erous father here in this, my native state,
who in the very prime of his manhood,
right here in this capital city, first fell a
victim to the legalized home and soul-des
troying curse of Jun.
"Se~yenty-fve thousand sons. each one
some mothers boy, go down to d~runkard's
graves annually in this boosted land o.
Christianity in this government whose
duty ought to be to protect rather thar
destroy the manhood. upon which its lf'
depends.
l.D-A - - I ~. -. . lie Lila.
apolis journal? What does it care how
many mothers hearts bleed, if it can onl,
coin political capital by parading before
the world the misfortunes of their sons
misfortuncs which result from a business
it helps to ~perpetuate and protect.
know something of the sleepless nights my
self and faithful wife have spent watchin!
and waiting for the return of our dear boy
There are other fathers and mothers here
to-day who have, or may be now, passin;
through the same hour of heart-ache, ant
the journal that would make political cap
ital out of the heart breaks of parents an,
the sorrows of their sons. is not fit to ente
the home Of any Christian man or roman
The feelings of his audience could no
longer be repressed and such a scene follow
ed as has never been seen in an Indianapo
lis church. The church trembled with thu
prolonged and repeated thundcrs of ap
plause that burst forth spontaneously atnit
tears and sobs, and the loud ''amens" an
"God bless hims'' Of the indignant AM
sympathetic audience. Truly, the Journd
was well rebuked for it's cruel and vindic
tive slur. The people could not be hell
back until the close Of the meeting, Blu
crowded TO the platform 10 shake hand
with the Governor. Full fifty men an
women as they grasped his hand said, 8
have a boy who drinks, aud as many mel
said, sIf l had it to do over again, | woul'
vote the Prohibition ticket at the city cleo
ton. "-Organtzer.