The Newtown bee., 1892-02-19
THE OPEN PARLIAMENT
MIR MARKHAM's DREAM.

he was a good man, he was even MT Markham was a phil anthropist and he had organizing talent, with good deal of perseverance. If sometimes his friends thought him ob- stinate, that at least went to show that he had firmness.
 This excellent person saw the evils of intemperance and threw himself with all his strength on the side of opposing the prevalent vice. He did what he could to break incorporate men from their habits. He enrolled them in good society and conseientiously labored for their good. He also threw his influence with those who opposed the drink traffic. But he had never lived where there was not some form of the saloon; he had not thought it possible to dry up the foun- tain, so he had spent his energy in keep ing men from drinking of it's stream. The drink traffic had always been, and so he felt as if it must always be. To him it had come to be like this extraor- dinary mixture of gases which we call atmospheric air. That the air could be in some measure purified, if not entirely expurgated of all it's evils, he also be- lieved. Now to him the drink traffic was like that. If you were living where the air was bad, the natural thing to do was to go and live where the air was better; or, if confined to your location, to fetch some germicide and so cleanse the air you were compelled to breathe.
 The fallacy of this unconscious reason ing on the part of the excellent MT Markham is apparent to every one who may happen to know that human beings are so constituted that every one of them must have the atmospheric air in order toS live, whereas, fortunately, not one of them is so constituted that he must have alcoholic beverages III order to exist. But MT Markham did not see that. He had always felt, since his moral sense had been aroused to the horrors of the saloon, that something ought to be done to restrain the evils of that deadly insti- tuition. Of course he advocated ''li- cense.'' When that had been tried for long time in moderate way and was perceived to have no ability to restrain the evil of the traffic and that great and good man, John B. Finch, mistakenly, as he admitted before he died, proposed high license, very high license, MT Markham took up the idea with enthus- iasm and advocated it with the passion of partisanship. The more ardent his partisanship for high license, the more violent became his opposition to prohi- bition. Unconsciously to himself, he came to believe every statement, wheth- CT of proposed argument or alleged fact which made against prohibition. Every thing in it's favor seemed to him insig- nificant. His dislike to prohibition also rested on his belief that that method of dealing with the drink question was the formidable opponent of his pet high li- cense' scheme.
 That he might contribute his portion of influence to the Encouragement of prohibition, he took a journey to the State of Maine. On the spot, he investi- gated that deeply interesting question , whether it be possible to get a drink in the land of Neal Dow. He had very lit tie difficulty in ascertaining that there was such possibility. Indeed he had a whole array of facts, real facts and no mistake, to show that intoxicating bev- erages were actually sold and bought and drunk in the State of Maine. He was confirmed in what he supposed to be the truth of the old saying: "Prohibi- tion does not prohibit.''
 He went back to his own town and gave the whole weight of his influence against prohibition, arranging what things he had seen and heard in such a way as to impress illogical minds with the belief that if, after years of prohibi- tive legislation, man could get his drink in Maine, therefore all strength ex- pended in that mode of remedy was vast ed. He dampened the zeal and enfeebled the energy of many temperance man. He did not intend to deceive his fellows or to fool himself, but he forgot to tell his audience that in the whole State of Maine there did not exist, there had not for years existed, single distillery nor single brewery and that not drop of spirits drunk in Maine had been produced in Maine; but the text, the introduction, the body, the perOration of his talks were always found to be the same thing -"Prohibition does not prohibit" He travelled, he labored, he talked he wrote and every movement of this excellent man only strengthened the power of the saloon and weakened the efforts of men who were striving to break away from the evil habit. It was melancholy to see so good man so thoroughly delud- ed.
 But the delusion broke. It was not dspelled by fact or argu ment. It found it's dissolution in dream.
 One night MT Markham went home from one of his so-called temperance meetings, complacent with himself, for he had told for the hundredth time how he found that liquor was sold in Maine, the State in which there had been pro- hibitory law for years and he retired to his virtuous couch to fall into the slum- Der of the just. In his sleep he dreamed and this was his dream:
 He was dead. He faced his Judge and his Judge catechised him as to his be- havior in this neither world. He had been baptized and confirmed and had avoided bad habits. He had stood in good repute amoug his fellow men and had had conscience which allowed him to accumulate flesh and he had been a r,b;la ptbro,,;et and ba ba5 u-orlyad in tho