Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-08-18
Prohibition the Best Way to Destroy In
temperance.

l tctAPcIdnecs
| Man may be incorporate in many
ways. He may SO far forget the
laws of health and propriety as to eat
like cormorant and deserve the
name of glutton /; he may continue
in the use OF tobacco till his unstrung
nerves refuse to do the bidding of
his mind he may yield to the baser
passions of his nature and frequent
the haunts of sin, till poverty and
distress, disease and corruption mark
him as their own. Yea, he may Of
fend against the principles of temper
ance in thousand ways.
! But the widespread vice of drunk
enness, the trail of the serpent that
taints the fairest flowers of earth and
blights the brightest hopes of heaven,
the curse of modern times, is the SUBJ
| ject of my remarks.
There is no need to enter into de-
scription of the effects of drunken>
ness that you may appreciate its
evils. There is no need to paint up
on the canvass of your minds the
dark picture that hangs over the
mantel Of SO many miserable homes.
No, no, this view of weak and fallen
humanity is too familiar to need de-
scribing. 1t Is not to prove that
"wine is mocker, strong drink is
raging" that stand before you. 1t
is not to argue the desirability of
suppressing intemperance. / appeal
to the universal convictions OF man
kind to bear ma outin this statement,
that intemperance should by all man
ner of means be destroyed.
The question, the living, burning,
vital question of the day is how
shall it be done? Men and women
of America, this is the problem
which the sins of humanity and the
eternal fates have put before you to
be solved. God at divers times in
the past history of the world has
brought nation face to face with
some great mountain of sin, and
said "O'ercome it or be forever un-
done!" In these last days the Amer
lean people have come to stand be-
fore the frowning cliffs of intemper-
ance; and a greater rock than ever
Hannibal split with fire and vinegar
must be shattered by the fervent zeal
and acid convictions of people de-
termined to succeed. The mainte-
nance of our free institutions depends
upon our efforts in this direction.
Don't say that / am excited on this
subject-you would waste your
breath In telling that which / am
frank to admit. 1t is high time
that we all were excited, Every pa
triot owes it to his country TO ''strike
till the last armed foe expires, to
strike for the green graves of their
sires, God and their native land"
Oh, that many more were excited on
this all important subject. All, yes,
we should keep COOL" they say,
stand by, and, without raising a
voice of protestation, see our fellow
citizens, our friends, our relatives,
the poor victims OF a fouler deity
than Jugg' rnaut, crushed beneath
the triumphal car of the rum power
10 politics. Chicago and many other
large cities are completely under the
control of the saloon keepers and
their henchmen. Yes, listen to the
Voice of the enemy, and you will
never do anything until the chains
of slavery are fast upon you. They
say to you "peace, peace;' but there
is no peace. The conflict is upon us
whether we will it or not.
Friends, christians, citizens, "lend
me your ears;'' give me the sym
pathy of your h, arts for a few min
utes while l speak Of the best way TO
destroy intemperance. Prohibition
is that way.
My first reason for saying this is
the difficulty experienced by all tenn
perance workers when they try TO re-
form drunkard. You know rs well |
as |, and some OF you far better than
/, what this difficulty is. You know /
it is the ever-present saloon, which |
the devil and the vote Of Tennes-
see have opened in our midst. or how |
much force, think you, Is the reform
ing pledge of a drunkard, when he
comes suddenly upon this snare set
for his soul by the voters OF christian
men? Away with the sophistry that