The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-05-19
PROHIBITION TALK
BUT NOT DRY,
John G. Woolley's Eloquent
Address at Metropoli-
tan Temple.
WIT, HUMoR AND SATIRE
Christian Citizenship Defined by
the Great Temperance
Orator.
STIRRING WORDS OF FAITH.
Church People Taken Sharply to
Task for Their Alleged In
consistencies.
STIRRING WORDS OF FAITH.

InOugn Jne Keynote OF the talK OF JOnn
G. WoolIey last night at Metropolitan
Hall was upon prohibition, there was not
dry period in his two hours discourse.
He proved himself a clever master, not
only of his subject but of the English
language. When he was not witty or
humorous he was scathingly satirical or
be seechingly eloquent, and he even made
silence impressively answer his needs
when he spoke of the crack of rifle being
heard for thousands of yards and silence
making itself manifest even to incalcul-
able distances, and then dramatically
pausing to make his point manifest.
He has distinct Yankee accent which
comes out sharply in his pronunciation of
"neow," and his unusual vocabulary of
polite English is brought by the use of
slang in appropriate places as a clever
foil.
DR.. Ollie in introducing the speaker of
the evening said the banner borne by
Finch, Fisk and Yough had now fallen
into equally noble hands. He compared
Mr.. Woolley's part in prohibition to that
of Wendell Phillips in emancipation.
Mr. Woolley dived right into the heart
OF his subject, which was Christian
Citizenship
liz Stdttu ludt TIE llQuOT traiuC nae 10
die before any great moral reform could
be accomplished.
There are good people," he said. ''even
now who would apologize for human
slavery, but there is no one prepared TO
stand up for the liquor traffic This
traffic." he continued, "will continue so
long as the powers in authority grant the
right to engage in it for so much here and
little more there, according to the sup
posed value OF what the bribe should be to
permit of public morals being debauched,
Power" he declared, twas what was
needed and this will come only when you
have the spirit of the Holy Ghost with
you. This will give you Christian citizen
ship. You will not get Christian citizen
ship when the Repu Dlicans again resume
the relns OF Government, you will not get
1t when the Democrats turn the Republl-
can rascals out. Oh. no. Nor will you get
| 1t when the Prohibition party secures con-
troll OF the Government. 1t will only come
as said, when you have the spirit of the
| Holy Ghost"
! A license law he defined as a drop of
prohibition in an ocean of permission and
said that this team of truth and falsehood
was as awkward a one as was ever hitched
| up.
| Township prohibition he denounced as
| selfish thing, as it allowed the liquor
traffic to flourish everywhere else without
any attempt to check or eradicate it.
Ninety five to ninety-eight per cent of
the Christians" he said. ''were trying to
ride the two horses of prohlbition-religion
and license politics at the same time.
| Whenever the Christian voter begins
| to Use his power as well as to feel il, :" he
announced" he will make things hum po-
litically. | don't expect that the prohibi-
tory party will win as it is now organized
The measure of the power of the church in
this cause is best testified to by the mum
Der OF ballots it casts.
when 1t comes to voting the politician
does not care whether you are Baptist OF
bum. whether you are gifted in elo
quence or fluent in profanity, whether you
teach Sunday-school or run a farobank ;
He admonished his hearers and church
people generally not to pay heed to what
the effect of voting for the prohibition O
the liquor traffic would have. or any of the
political parties, but to vote as they fell
they were called upon to do by God
Continuing he said:
1.-The time has come when a Christian
must be as true to the church as tn,
liquor man is to the saloon. | do no
mean to ask you to vote the Prohibition
ticket, but want you to vote for party
that will bring about what we desire, and
if there is no party for you to vote witt
, let us make one.
at is none of your business what you
neighbe do-you must vote in the wa,
you know to be right.
when great church meets and says
!. it is going out of dirty politics it should e
out of dirty politics, yet nine-tenths of the
church-goers go to the polls and vote the
Republican or Democratic tickets, Will,
they entirely ignore the question of the
, liquor traffic"
In an assumed tone of congratulation h.
said: II am glad to be able to say that a.
much as 20 per cent of the Christian min
listers had clean hands in this matter
which is Is per cent more than the church
going layman can show. 1t is simply .
case of pious insolvency trying to fight tn,
solvent and united liquor traffic
There are 100000 Christian men whe
, walk straight before God 364 days in tn,
year, but on the three hundred and sixty
, fifth they turn their backs on God, that h,
may be crowned with thorns by the dirt,
politicians, and the politician cannot tel
the difference between the Christian mar
and the saloon keeper on election day."
At the conclusion of his address Judge
Thompson spoke a few words exhortine
those who called themselves Christians tt
be consistent and vote as they pray, but i
they couldE't do this then he begged them
instead of praying to close the saloons ano
voting to keep them open, to pray to keeI
them open and vote to keep them closed
Restaurant Employees.