The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-02-14
AMTI-RUM FANATICISM.
Hounded and Mobbed for Saving a
Child's Life.

and Mobbed for Saving a
Child's Life.
About two years ago, in the town of
Cameron, Mo-, a little child was sick
unto death. The faithful physician
had carefully watched and attended
it, and at length the disease appeared
to be broken; but the fever in gong
had taken with it the last remnant of
strength OF the little sufferer, and it
lay there almost pnlseless and ~lifeless.
'Oh, for q stimulentln said the doctor.
A little good French brandy, a little
wine, or even a little whiskey. would
be worth its weight in gold or dia-
monds; but with plenty of gold. which
would have been given as freely as
water, not one drop of alco-
holic stimuient could be OBJ
tanned in the whole town of Cameron
or county of Clinton, even on a
physicians prescriptions. There was
probably plenty of it there, but it
could be sold or given away for one
purpose only-to be used for sacra-
mental purposes, and b dying child
must do without it unless the doctor
be sent away and the priest called in,
for Cameron was cursed with a popu-
lation of ranting fanatics who, under
the name of temperance" had
adopted the State local option law
and reinforced it by regulations of
their own more stringent and sweep
ing than even Kansas or Maine
fanatics had eve thought of. In no
other spot in the whole world, prob
ably, could exactly such a condition
- 4It-.c 1o fo,1nd oarfnin1xy in NO
other country of the globe would a
dying child fail to be recognized as
all-sufficient and to be instantly filled.
Among the druggists of Cameron
was one man who, knowing the cir
cumstances, determined that cost
what it might, he would honor the
doctors prescription. He knew the
temper and fanatical fury Of his fellow
citizens too well, however, to dare to
do this openly, and so he filed the
prescription surreptitiously. The
remedy saved the child's life, and the
recovery was so remarkable that the
cause soon became noised abroad, and
it was not long before the druggist
who had furnished the brandy was
''spotted' or located by the Prohi-
bition leaders.
A mar with a human heart in his
breast and with a mind not unbal-
anced by fanaticism would imagine
that they would be willing to forgive
the violation of their law, or rather
of their construction of the law, on
account of theg good that had come from
of it, and would rejoice that a little
child had been snatched from the jaws
of death and returned to its parents.
He who imagines that such was the
case knows but little of the brutaliz-
ing and unhumanizing effect of rabid
fanaticism. In a short time after the
fact that Druggist r. N. Williams
for that was his name-had dared to
furnish the liquor became known the
streets around his place were full of
angry men, with murder in their
hearts, and, but for lacking a leader,
ready then and there to execute mob
vengeance upon him. An eyewitness
has told us, and it has since been con-
firmed by others, that had Williams
been guilty of the most awful and
dastardly crimes known to man his
life could not have been in any greater
peril from mob violence.
Calmer counsels prevailed, how
ever, and Williams was arrested and
taken before a magistrate. Here the
whole story was told, the physician,
DIR. A. M. Colling. and the child's
father appearing in his defense. Not
withstandjng the facts as related;
Notwithstanding the high moral, o
cial and business character of the ac-
cused, the magistrate imposed a fine
of $500 upon him. From this out
rageous decision an appeal was taken
to the Circuit Court, and when it
came to trial the Judgment of the
lower court was affirmed. The Judge,
in rendering the decision, admitted
the hardships of the case, but said he
must enforce the law as he found it
and understood it. Mr.. Williams at
once gave bond for the amount, with
costs, and appealed to the Supreme
Court.
After nearly two years the case had
finally reached a hearing, and, as was
expected by everybody except the fan
atics of Cameron, the Appellate Court,
December 8, promptly reversed the
decisions of the lower court.-Nd-
tdoaal Druggist.