Blue-grass blade., 1891-11-28

He is not a modern sentimenta
aggregation of pistil and petal
stamen and corolla, "bOrn to blusl
unseen and waste its fragrance OF
the desert air." but his presenc
will be felt in every moral breez'
that fans the fevered br ow of hop
deferred, wherever good womer
and good men are struggling fol
the pure, the beautiful an j tn
good, like a spice laden zephyl
from "Araby the blest."
Mr.. Flower was, / belle We, borr
in Illinois, and he is the son offs
preacher in what is variously
known as the Christian, Reform
Disciples and Campbellite church
and he had a brother who was also
a minister in that church. Mr..
Flower was educated at Kentucky
University in Lexington, and
Rev. j. w. Nc Garvey, who is pro.
fessor of theol logy in that institu.
ton said rece ntly to me, that
young Flower. while a student
there, stood at the head of his
classes.
1t seems to me that no scholarly
moralist can afford to do with out
his magazine.
Lest anyone should think that
what I say is one of the many in
sinuating varieties of advertise
ments that editors dishonesty
smuggle into their editorials, I
will say that, to the best of my
knowledge, Editor Flower does
not know of my existence on the
earth, and that to guard against
suspicion and to "avoid the very
appearance of evil" I would not,
for what 1 am now saying, even
accept his magazine for a year,
nor will l send him a marked
copy" of this paper.
Rev. McGarvey and Congress-
man Breckinridge of this city
have each written articles for the
"Arena;" but in each of their de-
partments, theologic and political,
Flower gives us an Intellectual
and moral pabulum that is as su-
perior to theirs as is a "saddle
rock" On the "half SHELF to q
'Cove" oyster, or the lonely
bivalve that floats in the consomme
of a church fair, "grand, gloomy
and peculiar in the solitude of his
own originality"
Religiously, Editor Flower Il in
sympathy with such men as Nc
Queary, Briggs, Harper, Swing,
Newman, Cave and George c.
Lorimer. Politically he is a Pro-
and Woman Sufragist
of the strictest sect.
Almost every issue has an ed
itorial in support of the Prohibi-
ton movement.
His championship of Prohibi-
ton comes with unusual force,
from the fact that the magazine
is, of course, not edited in the in
terest of Prohibition, but of good
morals generally; though, like us
who make a specially Of combat
ting the liquor traffic, he seems to
regard that as the greatest and
most formidable foe to all that is
good.
Speaking of this evil he says:
"The saloon, the black plague of
the nineteenth century life, overlaps
all other degrading evils, it's miasma
of death fills every rendezvous of
degradation, and, until It's ever in
creasing power is checked, nay, more
until it's power in American politics is
broken, other allies in crime, de-
and moral death will -four
ish."
Like our most competent Pro-
Inhibition writers and speakers he
holds the churches responsible for
the existence of the liquor traffic,
and proposes a remedy for it.
He says:
Processing Christians are more
loyal to party hacks and demagogues
than they are to their own homes and
country.
The saloon is a unit in its voting
strength, loyal to it's tools and relent-
less to its foes, and the voting power
ofthe saloon element in any great city
when united with the voting strength
ofthe Christian element in either of
the great parties, turns the scales for
the minions of the rum power"
He proposes a plan to break the
alliance of the church with the
rum power, from which ! give an
extract.
Suppose in every church four or
six earnest men and women form a
league for the protection of home; let
them secure the pledge of every voter
in the church who has love for his fel-
low-men and respect for decent gov
that he will vote for no man
for any Office, who patronizes a saloon,
who ffaternizes with the hqpor .ele--
ment, or who is supported by tho rum
shops, and that he will use all honor
able means to further good govern
ment, by seeking the advancement of
pure and upright citizens"
Accept the Amendment.