Blue-grass blade., 1895-08-04

means business in his professed enmity
to the liquor traffic.
II the liquor editor and the saloon
keeper can only get the preacher and
the infideI editor and the Christian edi-
tor to talking against Prohibition, and
warning the people not ito drink to ex-
cess and thus "touch the button" the
liquor people and saloon people will do
the rest"
II may be that Editor Shaw honestly
believes that the right way to stop the
great and growing evil" Of the liquor
traffic is to do 1t by the use of moral
suasion. But il such is his honest
conviction after all the thousands of
worse than abortive efforts that have
been made on that line, then his general
intelligence and knowledge Of men and
morals and "ethical culture" generally,
are not such as to give any force to what
he may say against religion.
am opposed to the Bible and to re-
ligion not merely because they are alb
stractly ignorant and superstitious, but
oppose these because I believe them to
do harm in the world, just as other igno-
rance and superstition do. am an inf
del because am a moralist; but If inf
deity can defend such a great and
growing evil" as the liquor traffic, how
is the intelligence of infdelity any i'm
provement upon the ignorance Of relig-
ioni
If the liquor traffic is not damned
outrage" just as characterized it and
as still characterize it, in spite of Edi-
tor Shaw's appeal to Christian supersti-
ton against my use of the word
damned" that get out of their Bible,
while neither Editor Shaw nor I believe
in damnation, then there is no outrage
upon human rights and common moral
ity. The Outrage" of the liquor traffic
is not simply that men, here in Lexing-
ton. and everywhere all over Christian
lands, make worse than brutes of them
selves by living and dying drunkards,
or even that drunken men murder other
men, but our newspapers are continually
reporting drunkards who murder their
wives and children, and if we are to
apologize tor it and protect this traffic
then there is no use trying to prohibit
any other crime. The saloon keepers
do thousand times as much damage to
society as the thieves do, not to mention
the fact that nearly all theft is the result
of drunkenness; and if Editor Shaw
thinks his personal abstinence for liq-
uor drinking, or his not drinking to ex-
cess" is the proper way for him to stop
liquor selling then he should be consis-
tent and say that his personal abstinence
from stealing, or his stealing not ITO ex'
cess" is the proper way for him to op.
pose theft, and he should only try to
stop theft by moral suasior.
| Instead of that however Editor Shaw
will sanction sentiment and law that
put man in the penitentiary for steal.
ing ten dollars, and makes an Alderman
or Congressman, or Vice-President Of
the United States, as in the case of
Morton, out of man, who as a saloon
keeper, not only robs the man out of all
the money he has. but robs him of his
honor and health and life, and robs his
innocent wife and children beside.
No, Editor Shaw; while I agree with
you that the Bible is an error 1 will not
be the means of offering to the people
of this land your advocacy of the liquor
traffic under the guise of temperance
and "freethought," and your advertise
ment could no more stand in my paper
than could the advertisement of sa-
loon, distiller or race course.
You say you are liberal enough to let
me entertain my Prohibition views. That
may be so, but am not liberal enough to
let you entertain your "antiProhibition"
views without my protest, any more
than could grant to the Anarchists the
right to entertain their views unmolest-
ed.
The Anarchist is perfectly inoffensive
and without danger to our American in
stitions as compared with your chum
bosom friend the Irish Catholic saloon
keeper.
That the Irish Catholic saloon keeper
is the very lowest intellectually and
morally of all the many classes of Amer
ican citizens is undisputed by any COM
petent authority, and yet that he is your
friend you can not deny, because despite
the alleged difference between you and
him on religion, he loves and honors
aud applauds you, and wishes you sue
cess because of what you say against me
and against Prohibition.
You say, Editor Shaw, that you never
heard of me until the middle oflast year.
1t is certainly not to your credit that
such is case. Three and ahalf years ago
combination of preachers and liquor
dealers and distillers fined and impris-
oned me in Paris, KY, for what said as
an infidel and Prohibitionist. The facts
of it were published in the Associated
press, and went all over the United
States, the New York World giving a
full account of how "four deacons of the