Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-03-06

so 'low,' though it make it's bed in
hell, that the shrieks of the souls lost
through its accursed agency will not
descend beneath it,"
Yes, this excellent measure is a
law engrafted into the new code of
Mississippi to raise revenue from a
business of which the heather Queen
of Madagascar said: 81 cannot con-
sent, as your Queen, to derive any
revenue from that which destroys the
souls and bodies of my subjects" Yes,
this "excellent MEASURE is one of
which Isaiah said, 5:23: "Woe unto
them which justify the wicked for re-
ward" the reward being, in this in
stance according to the remarkable
article under review, $3.50 i'm the
county or villages, 5000 in towns of
over five hundred inhabitants and ST.
200 in cities of over two thousand in
habitants, all of which is paid into the
State treasury" And then the privi-
lege is granted to towns and cities to
take an additional reward according
to their willingness to bear Gods woes
for their iniquitous gains. And then
in justification of No. Z of the article
under review, the writer grows en-
thusiastic and SAYS: "Another very
admirable provision is, that any vio-
lation of these laws racafes the license,
bat not dollar paid into the treasury
for snch license shall be re
turned. Italics partly ours.
Here the State compromises its honor
and forfeits its dignity by an effort to
increase its revenues on a game of
chance that is to turn on the results
of fidelity to principle and law of men
who will stoop to the low calling of
running dram-shops or murder mills,
and the highest Ecclesiastics in the
State stand behind and endorse the
Legislature in its plans for purloining
the pockets of these scOundrels. Such
measure i'll this enlightened age is
less excusable than was the conduct of
Achan when he hid away the BabylO-
nish garment, the tWO hundred shekeis of
silrer, and the oetlge Of gold, for which
he was stoned to death by his cOun-
trymen and his blood money burned
with fire. 1t is less eXcusable than
was the conduct of Saul when his ava
rice and reckless disobedience drew
from Samuel the inquiry and declara-
tiOn: "What meaneth then this bleat-
ing of the sheep in mine ears, and this
lowing of the oxen which l hear?"
"Wherefore then didst thou not obey
the voice of the Lord, but did fly upon
the spoils, and didst evil in the sight
of the Lord" ~ will not return with
thee: for thou hast rejected the word
of the Lord, and the Lord hath reject
ed thee from being King over Israel"
Here the spoils of the wicked were not
to be taken and held as revenue by
those who professed to be Gods fol-
lowers, but were to be utterly destroy
ed. But Mississippi craftsmanship,
backed by Mississippi Ecclesiasti-
cism, has found out better and more
convenient way. Get the money into
the treasury for the deliberately ne
gotiated privilege of carrying on an
infamous wrong, under restrictions
formulated by religionists. and then
when the business has debayched
the purchaser of the privilege so as to
lead him into the violation of the re-
strictive measures, as the first parties
to the contract know will likely be
the case, withdraw his privilege and
sell it to another to be equally de-
bauched thereby, and rob him of his
money as so much spoils to the Chris
tian victors of the State! My God,
what game for noted clergymen to
be helping to play at in this the clos
ing decade of the nineteenth century
of the Christian era!