Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-02-26


hood, or else put the ballot into the
hands of your women for their own pro-
tectionl
II we could not show in q century Of
education and religious effort that we
were doing these three things, then we
could not claim that we were coming
toward ultimate victory.
Come with me to Brooklyn, the City
Of Churches, where statistics have been
carefully taken, and they tell us that
only one-tenth Of the young men in that
city attend church at all
asked the secretary Of the Young
Mems Christian association, when he
oorroborated what have said, how 1t
came, and he said, ut is the open sa-
loon, the open beer garden and the ex-
cursions that mean beer"
Go to the city Of Cincinnati, and they
will tell you that out Of 20, 900 young
men, unmarried, only $500 Of them
have their names ON the church record,
and only one-third Of them attend
church at all
You ask the reason, and they point
you to those railways that run up on
the highland, where, ON the Sabbath
day, not Germans, but Americans, sit
down and turn our Sabbath into con.
tinental Sabbath.
Go to the city Of Chicago, where they
have made exceptional efforts, and you
find by their reports that when their
work began they discovered that there
were 80, 900 juvenile drunkards in that
city under 16 years Of age, and the first
year they arrested $4,000 Juvenile
drunk ards
never hated the license system as I
hate 1t now.
We have had ten years Of ii in Miohi.
gan previous to our great contest Lit.
tie while ago, and in that time that
blood money has filtered down into the
minds and conscience and greed Of even
our good men until we found in our
contest good, Christian men, clean men
otherwise, that were willing to stand
up and argue for this infamy and de-
fend it.
Oh, I can honor q savage with o rude
conscience and an untaught life that
turns cannibal and picks the bones Of
human beings that he may live, but
have not anything but condemnation
for men who live in splendid houses and
drive fine equipages and go to church on
Sunday, who will stand up and plead
that the saloon may stay as taxgath-
erer to take out Of the pockets Of the
laboring men the money that shall lessen
their own taxes.
What shall we do with the saloon7
We had cried tears enough to float q
frigate over the man that had stumbled
out Of the saloon.
Then we turned to the question, What
do you propose to do with the saloon
out Of which the man stumbled?
And that is the question before the
American people today.
Not the drunkard, but the drupkard
maker; not the drunkard's home, but
the saloon, is the question that every
one of us is meeting, because we find
out that the saloon is the bowlder on
the track and the reason why we do
not succeed.
If the saloon is the thing in the way.
then that must be the thing to be struck.
The next question IL. Where shall we
60 to strike it?
Now, brethren, shall we 60 to tho
prayer meeting?
Well. the saloon is not in the prayer
meeting.
If it was, there are good many men
in this country that wouldn't find 1t,
for they do not 90 themselves.
Is it in the realm of scientific instrae.
ton?
Scarcely
Is 1t in the realm Of the reformed
mems meetings7
| Mol
When we came to look carefully into
this question. we found out that the sa-
loon was in politics. leaning up against
the solid bulwarks of state and national
law.
Talk about tho saloon being a moral
question:
Brethren, there is not shred Of mo-
rality within million miles Of the sa-
loon. 1t is political inside and political
outside.
1t is political up side and down side, it
is political ON the Republican and on
the Democratic side, and 1t is political
clear through.
And any man whose religion is 30
sublime. SO ethereal, 80 thin, so heaven.
ly, that he cannot carry it where it is
needed and speak for home and country
there from the heights Of conscience,
the heights Of prayer and the heights Of
his Christian living-he had better be
gently chloroformed and sent to heaven,
| for he IL Of no use here
~sx