The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-09-21
w. c. T. U. COLUMN.
Co-Partnership of Piety and Pirac.

If my heart were the speaker to-day,
you should not want for eloquence. l
was born into this church, in this confer
ence, as were also my father and my
mother. The bones of my grandparents
lie in this soil. Here my school days
began and ended here found and mar
ried the bravest woman in the world.
From Collinsville, my birthplace, to
Wilmington, has been long journey,
terrible in its waste, and losses, awful in
its disappointments and perils, unspeak-
able i'll its heart aches but have come
back, back from travelling in far coun-
tries, back from riotous living, back from
husks and shame and swine. Graves do
not run to meet one, but there are voices
in your eyes that bid me welcome.
Doubtless some of you remember my
parents and my sister who lived at Seven
Mills. They, too, have gone long
journey and they will not come back
again, but shall go to them
l did not offer myself to speak to you.
Your committee has invited me to come
and say something about the saloon. 1t
was not easy to come, but if it had been
much more difficult should have accept
ed the invitation, for with respect to the
cause-for which 1 am so glad and proud
to stand, or any noble labor-slmost the
nearest thing to victory is the Methodist
Church; and as touching myself per-
sonally, I know of nothing more like
fame than being counted fit to direct, for
a space, the thought and prayer of the
Cincinnati conference upon this greatest
reform of these greatest days.
l will get about my errand directly. If
l speak with unconventional plainness
you will be patient with me, for my heart
hurts, and you would not wonder if I
were to tell you all. I will not; it is a
long story, pitiful, sinful, but it ends well
"a great point in story.
I have the advantage, or disadvantage,
of not knowing how a single man in Con.
terence votes. But the matter is political;
and I for one, am very glad of it, and
hope and expect that it will perplex, de-
range and engross politics until the right
wins for, of the future peace, prosperity
and perpetuity of this county, 'other
political foundation con no man Law than
is laid in Jesus Christ" the infinite victim
and enemy of the liquor traffic.
The time seems inauspicious for calm
survey of the subject. The country is
feverish, the great parties are on tiptoe,
one of expectancy of victory, the other of
apprehension of defeat, and the saloon
has 0oteS to Let,, and the candidate or
party that gets them must insure or ignore
the life of the saloon.
The drink devil has taken the Repub-
llcan Christian up into very high noun
tain and shown him the electoral vote of
all the northern states of the Union and
said, "All these will I give you if you will
simply ignore ME in politics.
And he has appeared to the Democratic
christian in the wilderness, faint, hungry
and confused, and said, "All you have to
do is to say the word and the saloon
vote, the rocks and sharks and wreckaee
of the blacklist wilderness and woe of life,
shall be loaves and fishes and spoils and
power for you.''
And he has taken labor to the brink of
ruin and said, Cast myself down and
tempt capital to play the angel and fly to
succor you ~
Il \
This happens at time when conscience
is politically voiceless except in the mouth
OF the dwarfish and sharp-tongued prohib-
tory party, which makes it difficult for
me to speak frankly and yet avoid the
charge of being promoter of party
propagand. l am not that. as you shall
see, but I intend to speak the plain, un-
vanished truth without fear or favor of
any man or any party.
The naked truth is an awesome thing if
one is unaccustomed to it, or of prudish
turn, and there is something in our polit-
ical atmosphere that makes many excel
lent people so skittish that it is we'll nigh
impossible to get them to stand while it
passes and others get used to it so easily
that they seem scarcely to see it at all
On this account am constrained to be as
plain as poverty, but as bipartisan as
alcohol and as unsectarian as sin.
There is great confusion as to what is
partisan. Doubtless if one were to speak
in Tammany Hall from the text, "Thou
shalt not steal" he would be thought
Extensively partisan,-and perhaps it
would be so.
Let us, to begin with, be perfectly
frank and very charitable, but let it be
the understanding that this train will run
into anything that is con the track I"
Truth crosses the highways of this world
at grade" neither burrows nor balloons.
rings no bell, blows no whistle, has no
hagmen, semaphores, block-systems, nor
colored lights, and if your party balks
to-day on crossing, you would better
dismount no matter though it be "a
thoroughbred" with a matchless ''rec-
ord; " or, if you get your feelings hurt,
lay it, in simple justice, to your own con-
tributory negligence.
krSs