The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1894-05-25
Are we Guilty as Charged in the In
dictnnent2


notwithstanding positive and re-
peated denials from us the Pensacola
News continues to assert that the
Banner has supported the prize fight
and defended the lottery
In reviewing the conflicts of men
marshaled against each other for the
purpose Of shedding one another's
blood, instancing the single combat of
David against Goliah, and the armies
of Israel against the armies of Baal,
and. the armies of christian nations
agaist the armies of other christian
nations, which have wet the earth
with the blood of brothers and sent to
the portals of heaven the sorrows aud
lamentations of widows and orphans
all through the ages, the Banner made
these comments:
As long as our civilization and moral and in
tellectua1 perceptions lead up toZthese things.
instead of away from them as long as standing
armies are regarded as necessary annexes to
christian governments, as long as the military
overshadows the civic hero, We must not too
harshly censure those who are just now engaged
in showering praises and adulations on the vic
tor OF the hand-to-haud combat that so recently
occurred in the metropolis of our state"
What man or woman in Florida,
with grain of sense or spark of
reason, who does not know that these
remarks are in condemnation of war
in all its forms, whether the weapons
used be the bare hands of Samson, the
shepherds sling that David used, or
the more destructive engines of mod
ern warfare. The intention and plain
meaning of the criticism was repug-
nance to CLOSING over the horrors
of the battle field with the smiling
laurels of approval, and elevating the
military high above the civic hero in
public estimation. 1t was feeble and
lonesome effort in th- direction of
training the "moral and intellectual
perceptions at least in christian
lands, away from instead of g up
ton these false appendages to our
Christian religion.
The News bases its charge that we
uphold the lottery from the follow
lowing extract from the Banner:
We have helped stuff the ballot box at church
festivals for the most popular lady" (the one
we thought the most popular) have taken
chances in raffles, have invested in the lottery
grab bag, and thought them no sin, but in
order to put ourselves i'll harmony with the new
school OF morality we are willing to give up all
previous notions and conceptions of these things
and acknowledge that they are very wicked
but we must draw the line on the forced morali-
ty that sees the " sinfulness of SIM in the mere
printing of a lottery ticket. 1t is pharisaism
gone mad
Because we fail to see the sinful
ness of sin 4" in the mere printing of
lottery ticket, are we to be condemned
as unfolding the lottery? The whole
trend and tenor of the article of which
this is an extract was to show that the
lottery crusade" is ridiculous and
glaring sham on the part of the news
papers making it, its real and Interior
purpose being to distract the people
from the true issues in the approach
ing campaign with false and hollow
ones.
Upon both counts in the indictment
we are willing to submit the case to
the intelligent judment of the people
of Florida confident that their verdict
will be that we, more than those
throwing stones at us, condemn these
things.