The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-29
A SOP TO CHURCH SENTIMENT.
SAM SMALL so DESCRIBES THE
ARMY CHAPLAINS.

j a y
RatiOns and Leaves of Absence
Than of Religions SerYices-Chap-
Iains Handicapped by the Absence
of ParaphernaIiu 10 Fight the
DeyiI With-Thc Evangelist to
Come Back From cuba to Lead the
Fight for Prohibition in Georgia
in 1900.
Chaplain Small, of the Third Engineers,
registered a the De Soto yesterday morn
ing. He will he better identified to the
general public by calling him the Rev.
Sam Small The redoubtable Georgia
evangelist and prohibitionist now wears
the livery Of the army and is lighting sin,
TO some extent, as he finds it under can
vas.
Chaplain Small is still Rev. Sam Small.
He simply can't help it, Being enlisted
in the service of the government has not
Iessened the pungency of his conversation,
or cut short the independence of his
speech. To begin with, he thinks the
chaplain business in the army, as 1t is
run, is a sort of fake show of religion
anyway.
As Ire expressed it yesterday, the chap
Iains are a sort of sop to the church sen
timeut without much substance to them.
They just take a minister and put uni
form on him, with silver cross on the
shoulder, pay him $500 a month and turn
him loose on / 200 men without any of the
implements of spiritual warfare TO fight
III lu
of what a chaplain can do, and does do,
have changed greatly since l went into
the army. l thought he could do Won
ders and ! find he soon realizes how
greatly handicapped he is for the accom-
plishment OF any practical results. When
I get out ! am going to suggest that they
do away with the chaplains. l suppose
there may be a howl, but 1t Is better TO
raise the issue and have the whole sys-
TEN revised.
you see" continued the chaplain
warming up 10 the subject just as though
he were firing hot shot into a congrega-
lion of backsliders and unrepentant sin
ners, "A chaplain comes into a regiment
with his heart fun of the desire to preach
TO the men, to keep them away from evil
influences, and maintain their moral and
spiritual caliber. But what does he find.
He finds that he has none of the para
phernalia with which to fight the devil.
There is no tent in which to preach I'M
less it is provided by the Y NJ. c. a. or
some other source. He finds that there are
no Bibles, hymn books, good reading, limo
cent games for recreation furnished, un-
less it is by private contribution And
while he is waiting for them, or doing
what he can 10 furnish them out of his
own limited means, the men find other
sources of amusement in town, and get
away from the influences that might have
been first exerted with good effect
IL look at things with a practical eye,
and must confess that when men get in
the army a great mass of them don't
worry much about religion. Now if We
We're going to have a battle next Tuesday
l suppose the chaplains would have a big
attendance at the Sunday services. But
there is no battle pending and rauons and
leaves of absence are of more interest than
food for the soul. Why when we get
down in Cuba I'll wager most of the men
would rather go to a cockfght or a bull
ring than attend services I never disguise
conditions from myself and the only thing
to do is to look at things as they exist,
not as we would like them TO be. To tell
the truth l am beginning TO think there
is a heap of balderdash about what the
chaplains do accomplish outside of meet
ing the sentiment that calls for their pres
ence with every body of troops"
Despite this little pessimistic touch to his
view Chaplain Small proposes going to
Cuba vita his regiment as soon as the
balance of Il leaves for the island While
he believes that chaplains don't do any
thing near whal they ought to do he in
tends to stick it out 10 the time that the
regiment is broken UP, as an engineer
corps is likely 10 be, and then he will re-
sign and come back to Georgia to start
a prohibition fight.
I'VE are going 10 carry Georgia for pro-
hibition In 1900" said the evangelist
"Aud we propose to begin the work soon
enough 40 do Ii effectively and thoroughly.
MY Idea is to stump the state for prohi
bition and for a constitutional convention
TO revise the suffrage rights. propose to
speak in every county in the state and
strike where we need to hit the heavy
licks. in securing control of the Senate.
The House has always been with us and
with the prohibition sentiment of the state
properly organized as 10 the right course
to pursue the Senate can be captured and
prohibition secured. ] am satisfied that
the Governor viii sign bill which the
sentiment of the state demands. 1 am
opposed TO any more of these local fights
such as we have had recently at Macon
All they have succeeded in demonstrating
is that the intelligence and virtue of a
community is as nothing against the ig-
uorant, vicious, purchasab.e vote. The
rum power in the South has as its founda-
ton the corruptible negro vote. What
we want in Georgia. and what you are
going to see is some legislation that Will
deprive this vicious element of the power
it exercises 90 nullfy the wishes of the
best clements of the people. We need and
must have, a CONSTITUTIONAL provision regtr.
latng the exercise of the franchise. Mis-
sissippi has shown what can be done on
that line. There are now but two coun-
ties in that state which are not prohibi-
ton and the state is assuredly going to
have prohibition. Louisiana win follow
suit. and as soon as there are proper re-
sUictions thrown about the ballot in North
Carolina you viii see the whisky power