Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1892-01-28

Gently from a valued friend ground.
ed on the unadvisability Il signing
petition for the removal OF a sa-
loon; forty-five seconds before |
met that friend | had seen on the
steps of that saloon four boys, TO.
gether, coming out. have been
sought out repeatedly by a parent
of each of those four boys, most
frequently by the mother, with a
mothers solicitude. in her face;
this argument will be lost upon a
saloonkeeper and his defenders,
(among whom do not count the
friend just mentioned for they
usually know aud care about ma
ternal solIcitude as little as Dig.
ger Indian about the Solar system.
But | have had vinita mothers ask.
ing me for five years for Gods
sake to be patient, TO be diligent
in season and out of season. to be
kind, and to help them make some.
thing of their boys. | have never
been able to tell these mothers the
worst knew; the atmosphere of
the academy is not heavenly by
a great deal, therefore we can do
very little for boy when hell gets
two OF his hours to our one; we
can do less still when hell gets our
share of the boys time along with
its own. Knowing these things.
and have told but little yet of
what know about the saloon, the
very friend who says am iniudi-
cious, would be the first in better
moment to tell me how deep and
indelible the taint of clwardice
would be in me if | ever lost an
opportunity TO enter a protest as
indignant and emphatic as could
make it against business whose
only influence will be to Mexican
ize America. | can see it; for every
year | have been here there has
come. under my observation not less
than one boy with the integrity the
intelligence, the ambition which
makes an American, changed into
such a disreputable, loahng para.
site that | would not dare to insult
Mexico, thousand miles away, by
calling such fellow "greaser. +"
Affairs are in a fine condition
indeed in the Beautiful Indian
Territory" when it is not the vic.
lator, but the invoker of a lust and
salu,ary law who is attempted to
be held up for public censure. A
comic paper had a series of pic
lures few years ago OF a pet kit.
ten which grew to be tiger; the
last picture showed the horror,
the dumb despair of little boy,
the whilom owner of the pet, as lie
beheld the glis;ening eyes, the
cruel teeth, and the upraised paw
of the monster once his sport, but
now his fate. The rum business
in the Indian Territory has grown
to such dimensions now that it
dares show its teeth; il dares to
threaten men with social and finan-
cial ruin; the degradation of our
people is such that drastic code
of laws and the strong arm of the
Federal power are impotent to
rescue them, and the rum beast
says woe 10 the man who shall
rob it of its prey. defy il. Any.
thing is preferable to a peace pur-
chased by tame aud dishonorable
acquiescence. am more that will
ling to base all my hope of future
consideration aud preferment on
uncompromising hostility to the
saloon, and contempt for it, its
methods and defenders.
Now for the prophecy. The sa-
loon will go. Doubtless it will
come first; there is much reason to
fear that when statehood comes we
shall have people incapable of
taking the high ground which our
neighbOr state of Kansas mas tax.
en-. bat the saloon will go Just the
same; America will not be Mex.
icanlzed; the Latin races. the races
which produced Znla. Rabelais and
Boccaccio have left a smutch on our
body polite, but they have not
tainted the whole body; there il
mighty weapon in the hands Of the
Almighty; YOU have heard of it; il
is Puritanism; recrudescence of
Lalinism means a revival of Pur-
itanism, and God help the man or
cause on whom Puritanism falls:
like the Stuart family it will be
better to nave never known exis-
tence than rest under the ignominy
of such a defeat and the inGmy Of
such a name. choose. II looks
as it this were the generation of
which every man must choose
"He who dal'ies is bastard and
he who doubts is damned"
JoHS MCCARTHY.
-
The possibilities of war with
Chill have disappeared