Blue-grass blade. [volume] (Lexington, Ky.) 188?-19??, 1892-01-16
FOR PROHIBITION,
TRUTH STRONGLY STATED.


on Wednesday evening of
last week was in its main points the
same as that delivered by him at the
twenty other places in the state says
the Indiana Phalanx After making
some pleasant references to Indianap-
oils as he first knew it in his young
he said we had met as demo-
Gratis, republicans, prohibitionists and
and that he did not speak
the latter name derisively, for he had
profound respect for the mugwump.
You show me a man who is politically
called mugwump, and w IL show you
q man who has begun to do his own
thinking. What the world needs is
more men who do their own thinking.
The trouble with us is, we believe the
political parties too much. All our
lives we have been accustomed to think
ing along a certain line. We have
taken the literature of the party to
which we belong; we have run polit-
ically in ruts; we have fallen into the
habit of allowing our party to hand our
thinking down to us in Original pack
ages;" we have taken it in unbrolken
doses. But, we are just beginning to
find out that during the past ten or if
teen years the more we have taken of
1t the worse we are off.
We live in day and age of progress
progress in all things that tend to
build us up in our material interests;
progress in the art and sciences; and
am one of those who believe that we
are Just now at the Threshold OF
great political revolution, one that
shall lift the world upon a higher moral
plane, a revolution that shall give to us
a better government; a revolution that
shall give protection to all the homes
Of this nation; and in such a eevolution,
It seems TO me, no one will be ashamed
to take part.
As a proof of progress, he called to
mind the fact that back in the tifties,
in the neighboring state of Illinois,
there existed law making it felony,
punishable by heavy fire and imprison-
ment, to feed or shelter colored per-
son. The speaker knew this was SO,
because he himself had been indicted
for feeding q colored boy at Charles
town, in that state. He rejoiced that
Indiana had never disgraced her statute
book with such law as that--never got
down so low as to declare it crime to
feed the hungry. But you have seven
thousand soul and Misunderstanding
liquor houses within your bounds IL
censed by this commonwealth l de-
clare unto you that the saloon Jaws Of
r trlr
disgraceful and ldamnablg tn. b those
black laws of Illinois, bad as they were.
Behind every saloon counter in the
state stands republican or democratic
saloon-keeper. belong to a patty that
has never furnished saloon-keeper.
(Applause).
1.-The black-laws, infamous as they
were, never debauched the colored man
and his family-never destroyed his
hope of immortality. He could be
driven out into the midnight storm to
perish, because the law forbade the
giving to him of shelter. but nothing
stood as a stumbling block between
him and his God. But your saloons in
Indiana rob the state of its manhood,
rob the mother of her boy, and, worse
than that, rob the victim of his hope OF
immortality, for the Bible says no drunk.
ard shall enter the kingdom of God
"Under democratic and republican
rule there are in round numbers 200. O0(
retail liquor houses in this nation. Jam
them up side by side, allow each 9
twenty-foot front, and it gives us row
800 miles Tonga licensed street of hell
What a monument to democratic and
republican rule! What comes from
this business? Murderers, thieves rob
bers, ruffians. thugs, bribe-givers and
bribe- takers, degradation and disgrace
misery, poverty and crime. Seventy
five per cent of all the prisoners come
from the saloon. Justice Field, in ar
opinion in the supreme court, says that
liquor is the particular source of disor
der, pauperism and crime of the coun
try in which we live.
"A few years ago, in giving statistics
we said that $4,000 human souls went
down annually to drunkards GRAVES
The number has increased, and the
victims to this internal business mum
Der $50, 900 every twelve months l wan
to ask you democrats and republican,
if you can tell me a single blessing
that had come from the saloon since
Indiana was admitted into the union
/ have told you some of the evils; car
you tell me some of the blessings
don't ask for one as big as bed-blanke
just little one as big as my thumb
nail
Eight hundred miles of saloons, ant
| every democratic and republican vote
is brick in the building of that block
But, says the average old party man
we get a revenue from it. Yes, you do
and if there is any one thing to-day
that hangs over this nation as darl
and damning disgrace it is the govern
ment's completely with the liquor traf
fic. 1t gets 500, OOo 900 a year from i
annually DIR. Hargraeves, who is ;
statistician, tells us our expenditure
because of this traffic are 81, $50, 900, 0O
| annually This leaves the liquor traffi,
81, $50, 900, 900 ahead. Splendid fnancier
ing, that! Forty-three million eigh
hundred and twenty thousand of thi
is furnished by Indiana-more thai
one-third of what it costs to pension
the soldiers. In spite of this destruc
ton of human life and this enormou
expense, ask fellow if he is going on
to hear st. John. Nav he will say
as he slivers piece off a drygoods boz
with his pocket-knife. L wouldn'
walk across the street to hear him. Tn,
| great question before the people to-day
is the tariff The amount expendet
over the liquor counter is six time
greater than the amount involved il
the tariff. Ask democrat, and he vii
say he is for tariff reform; ask the re
publican and he will say he is for re
form of the tariff. That's all the differ
ence there is between them"
He pictured the republican process
sions of 'SS-the band, the old men VIII
had voted for the grandfather, the los
cabin with barrel of hard cider an,
stuffed coon, followed by the shouting
sdherepts Oh, what campaign o