The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-10-18
our Letter Box.
..suDscriber'' Answered.

anu tllC DSO1lI SOlfb win u IN 1
ton, or third party. The writer of the
article in question takes as a text Oh which
to base his remarks, these words: Think
a Moment" which words he claims are
culled from a paper called Lightning,
printed in Camden, N. j., and are address
ed to Prohibition friends. That we may
not be in doubt as to his compliance with
the injunction expressed in the words
quoted, he gives us the assurance 81 nave
been thinking some" Then, to enlighten
us as to the subject of his thoughts, he
again quotes from the Lightninq these
words: you have had your Prohibition
or third party for some time, and will you
tell US what practical good you have &C.
complished for temperance" To this he
answers, Il will try" Then as an expo
sition of the question involved, and an ex-
hibition of his trying we have these words:
more lying to the square inch than any
paper in the land" Now by just what
rule of deduction the writer has proved to
his mind his fact stated, from the question
propounded, the writer of this article fails
to comprehend. Why does he not give us
some tangible reason for the faith that is
in him? Has he the presumption that
your readers believe black is white and
white is black on his ipse Dirt? When
Jove mods the Gods tremble, In judica-
ture facts are established on incontestable
proof, not assertion, barring the instance
under consideration. Admit the Lightning
is doing more lying to the square inch
than any other paper-go further and ad-
nit it can and does out-lie the p%rogenitor
Of all liars-wherein does the admission
enlighten US as to what practical good the
Prohibition or third party has accomplish
ed for temperance.
Again, the writer quotes from the same
source these words: 1.-THE Republican
party has raised the temperance banner
and is going on to glorious victory This
declaration of the Lightning is as a red rag
to an angry bull. 1t stirs up the bad in
him. He goes for the Republican party
with a vengeance. One can almost see
blood in his eye and sand on his horns.
And, strange as it may seem, all this bel
lowing and paving of dirt is in behalf of
temperance, which his party claims is the
great moral question of the day. Tenn
perance, as defined by Webster, is habit
ual moderation in regard to the indulgence
of the natural appetites and passions. Tenn
perance has a two-fold Specification. There
is a temperance of appetite and a temper
ance of passion. The one has relation TO
the animal, the other to the spiritual in
man. As the spiritual is high above the
animal, SO is the one important above the
other. And yet the writer, in his zeal for
animal sobriety, becomes spiritually
drunken with the wine of hate.
Only on the ground of inebriation can
we account for the following language, in
answer to the Lightniag's declaration that
1.-THE Republican party has raised the tenn
perance banner and is going on to glorious
victory" Hear him: ut is passing
strange han any one man can contain
enough brass and spleen to give expression
to sucL a sentiment as that How he
gets ''brass'' and spleen out of a fact
stated is beyond our knowledge of mental
chemistry. Does he possess some occult
power, some mental alchemy that, like the
head of Medusa, transforms all things?
Or does he, in the intoxication of bis pas
sions, see s'spooks" as the physically
drunken see sssnakes?"
He next attempts to paint in words the
great Republican party-the party that
has withstood the attack of armed seces-
sion and third party hate. Behold his
| picture. A great idol, " ugly as Jugger-
naut; encircled with the folds of more
snakes than clothed the heads of the
Furies; "worshipped by would-be respect
| able beer b~arons." Such is the Baal of
itIS iAAaS Wv VA 10
baleful influence he has lived and thrived
for a quarter of a century to the disgust
of his idea of the fitness of things. For
his private benefit and the public good we
make him a suggestion with two words
Observation-Disclosures.
That he may assuage the terror he in
spires by the genius of his creation, he as
sures us this great IDOL is ''defunct." De-
funct because 'srum barons have infused
into it the virus of liquid poison" De-
funct, if we comprehend the Specification
| of the word, means dead. Most men, in
the presence of death, are disarmed OF
hate. This man, as beseems him best,
harrows up his feelings and gathers to-
gether his mighty energies to pour vitu-
p~eration on a corpse. And all this har-
rowing up, all this mighty energy of fac
ulty to show what practical good the
Prohibition or third party has accom-
plished for temperance"
He then pirates about whether it is bet
ter to be ''plunged headlong into a drunk
ards grave and down to a drunkard's hell
by rum purchased in a gilded saloon at a
high price, or in a filthy groggery at a low
price, "-insinuating the inference there is
no escaping the one or the other; and that,
as for himself in his asceticism, he would
sooner go down from a dung-hill than a
palace.
He next asserts, but does not attempt to
prove-takes for granted that it goes for
the saying-that the local option law was
only a farce and a sham; that it was no
practical use where it was carried Now
it is a we'll known fact, "A Subscriber to
the contrary Notwithstanding, that not a
single place was licensed for the sale of
strong drink in this county while the local
option law was in force. True, quart
places were opened to test the binding
force of existing laws, but in every Instance
the proprietors were indicted for keeping
a disorderly house. l doubt if there is a
reasonable thinking man who believes
there would be an open saloon in Salem
county to-day had the local option law re-
manned in force. Local option enforced
temperance as far as it is possible to en-
force it by legislative enactments. But
before we realized the full fruition of the
local option law, ''the vigorous, youthful
Prohibition party on the one flank, and
the Democratic party, that pleads guilty
of sympathy with the rum power on the
other flank, by a combined effort over
threw the Republican party, secured the
repeal of the local option law and the re-
~opeping of the saloon. This coalescing in
the overthrow of the Republican party,
the repeal of the local option Law, and the
re-establishing of the saloon Subscriber
characterizes as twisting the rum devils
-.