Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-07-24
1 STRANGE list OF WITNESSES
THAT COL. HICKMAN SAYS WILL
BE AVAILABLE AT AN IMPOR-
TANT HEARING.

BE- AFAlLABLE AT AIN IMFOfI-
TANT HEARING.
Thursday night at the Opera House, Col.
J. J. Hickman, the Grand National Lee
turer of the Good Templars, made his sec
ond address. The good impression he
made ON Wednesday night had given him
larger crowd than heard him then, and
what is unusual at a Temperance meeting,
had brought more men than women. The
men far outnumbered the women in the
six hundred persons who were present to
hear his last address. The orator was still
suffering from sickness and came in lean
ing on the arm of Mayor Fultz. Maj. New
ton explained on Col. Hlckman's behalf
that he was so indisposed that at first he
had determined not to attempt an address,
but on seeing the large audience that had
gathered he had felt that sick OF well he
must talk to them.
Col. Hickman on taking the platform
said he had been suffering so much that
while he only had one more appointment In
Virginia to fill on this tour, he did not feel
certain that he would be able to fill that.
He opened by giving picture of the arm
Of the church, and the arm of the evil one
in the saloon, both stretched out to catch
men, and said that SO powerful was the
latter and SO seductive the wiles Of the sa-
loon that sometimes man wouldstep right
out of church into one Of these holes and
go to perdition. In this Local Option fight
now going on in Staunton the church mem
bers were to be held responsible for the re-
suit, for If the church people did their duty
the city would certainly go dry.
He didn't blame the liquor man for
wanting license. If he had a place where
he delt out ruin, he should want a license
too. He should want a license at his back,
and at it's back the men who made the laws
granting that license, and at their back all
the church members who voted for the
men who made those laws, and all the church
members who voted at the polls against
taking that license away. And so, when at
Judgment day he was called before the bar
of God for selling ruin to men, souls and
bodies over his bar, he could produce his
credentials. He would call up all his wit
nesses-all the citizens who had said liquor
was necessary for the business and pros
perity of the city; all the church members
who, while other men not church members,
had gone to the polls and voted against
license, had gone up and put in their bal
lots to grant license. All these should be
the witnesses for the saloon man at Judg-
ment Day. A strange list Of witnesses
But was there ever any stranger sight
than member of Christian church put
ting in his ballot to give men the right to
sell liquor to men that the church is try
ing to save from liquor and the ruin it
brought. The Christian who takes the
ground that Local Option will not stop the
trade in liquor and will only remove it to
secret alleys and put it in the hands Of
irresponsible men, Simply takes the ground
that it is better to have legal drunkards
and legal drunkards' widows and orphans.
Some of them claim that whiskey in
creases business. Whiskey kills business,
and two of your streets in Staunton stand
as monuments of that to-day. Whiskey
increase business If that were SO every
street car in Staunton ought to be filled.
the sidewalks crowded and the stores busy,
for where q city has a saloon for about
every seventy-five of it's grown men it may
be said to be thoroughly testing just how
far whislley can increase business.
Atlanta, Ca, is often referred to by the
LIQUOR men as a city that was once dry and
afterwards went wet. Anybody that wants
information on that can get it from the
Mayor Of Atlanta, and he will find that in
the two years that Atlanta was dry the
value of property increased from Is to SO
per cent. and on the streets On which liquor
saloons had been, property had increased
from 25 to so per cent. The public schools
there never were so well attended as during
that two years. The scholars were not
taken away during the session to work in
factories for the support of drunken par
ents.
The men that need local option most are
for 1.-THE drunkards. At any local option
election you will find five drunkards voting
Dry where you will find one church mem
bel voting wet
One of the striking features of the evil of
inebriety was it's universally, for it could
be found in the palace of the rich as well as
in the hut of the poor. Everybody sank
into the dust before the monster of intern
perance, which had no respect of persons.
It was the just fruit of the liquor traffic,
which was countenanced even by the men,
bers of the church.
The selling of liquor shouldbe prohibited;
it could not be regulated, for regulation
meant liberation. The liquor business les
sened the value Of profits and decreased the
value of property. Real estate agents could
testify to that fact, for no good citizen
was willing to have a saloon neal his place
of business, and much less near his home.
Whenever Gods people were arrayed in a
solid phalanx against the liquor traffic they
were bound to win, as numerous events in
the past had shown. Some people seemed
to be blind to all the evil effects of drink
and deaf to all warnings. They argued
that they believed in moderation in all
things, but they lost sight of the fact that
not the drunkard but the moderate dram
drinker kept up the saloons. There were
in this country 100000 drunkards and
5,OOO,0 900 moderate drinkers. The United
States supported 100000 saloons, OF in
round numbers 200. 800. This would make
three drunkards to one saloon. Surely it
was impossible to think that a saloon could
be kept going by three drunkards only.
This showed conclusively how important
sustenance of the saloons. Of the 100000
drunkards one-sixth sank down into the