Backbone. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. ;) 1897-1906, 1897-04-01
NEAL DOW.
CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE.

tics has been on it's knees to expedlency, he has
stood for Righteousness, without sop of any
kind and we'll nigh without sign of cheer, for
60 years or more unswerving and unswer7able'
If Neal Dow had been Methodist bishop
and with dozen others like him, had issued
the Episcopal address of 1885, every member of
that church would have believed the bishop
meant it, End every Republican man owner
would have known that the bishops had left the
party and Gen. Fisk would have polled 900, 900
votes at the election of that year. and we would
have entered the new century with clean hands,
to the honor of the church and the glory OF
God.
There are fine stories of his courage in the
early difficult days of the great reform, but I
offer him adulation on that score; when one
surrenders to truth, courage has lost it's occu-
patton, merged in the fear of Cod" and loss is
gain for the glory of the Father. The boycott
threatened him, and he smiled The mob gath
cred, and shamed itself to death beholdng the
unprotected upright man Malicious mischief
broke his windows-and ''aired his views and
gave him more light upon his way. Litigation
threw it's lasso over him, but justice cut the
rope and let him 60. Arson tried her hand, and
hate pursued him like foul ghost, but, though
he walked through the valley of the shadow of
herd with him, whose rod and staff they COM
forted him.
l shall not linger on the purely personal
lines of this address,. Let us rather draw as
close together as we can about this glowing
temple hearth-~here in the heart of Boston, the
dear old chimney corner of the nation-and
with our good gray hero in the midst-'in our
minds eye, Horato'- unvexed by any batteries,
I'll try to hammer some chimes out of the his
tory of the great cause, in the hope that our
hearts may catch the swing and culver to the
music of the century's evening bells, so that,
even with lean and meagre sheaves nay
rejoice as overbursting granaries at harvest
home.
The temperance reform which be gan about
1910, was the thought of drunkards, and looked
no further than the person of the drinker. It
swept the country and its work remains, in
working societies of ncalCuable efficiency and
millions of lives reclaimed. But it made it's
wonderful Roadway with a terrific waste of
power and utter improvidence as to its own sus-
tention. The drinking customs in general were
not dsturbed the home, the church, the min
lister, the pleasure, the business, STEPPED in
drink. Of those who signed the pledge compar-
atively few able to keep steadfast; while
the ran ks of moderate drinkers gave out their
undiminished census of new drunkards year by
year.
But the country had been set to thinking.
Sympathy broadened, and grew clearer eyed. 1t
began to be seen that in all the ways drink
touches life, the drinker knows the least of sor-
Children's societies formed, and
orders' for men and women together; scholars
became interested, and books and magazines
began to train their silent, smokeless guns upon
the enemy. Homes began to be safe for their
inmates. Pastors began to fear, and then
to hate, the smell of alcohol at the communion.
Then came the greatest spectacle of the cen
fury, when modest women, their knees, on
the ground, in front of the saloon with their
white faces toward the open sky, cried out with
tears for judgment and for mercy The saloon
kept right on, but the country had been set tc
praying. That was in 1874. In 1916, and before
that, the Washingtonian movement had spread
MAR and hid hppn ali with a.
zeal, great hope and great disappointment, anc
the saloon went right on.
In those days came Neal Dow, preaching
and saying Repent ye, for the kingdom is al
hand. " AYE, there's the rub. If it were only the
Of nine Steel raiIS If t