Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-12-03
ACCOMAC G. H. VA. SAT- RDAY, DECEMBER 3 1898

political parties, Republican and Demo.
cratic, will put prohibitory plank in
the platform the same day that satan
joins the church and turns perdition in
to camp meeting Both parties want
the votes of the traffickers in liquid
death, and il you wait for the ballot
box to do the work, first you will have
local option, and then you will have
high license, and then first rate law
passed, to be revoked by the next legis-
lature
Oh, save the young man of today and
greet the coming century with tidal
wave of national redemption Do not
put upon the cradle of the twentieth
century mountain Of demijohns and
beer barrels and rum jugs, and put to
its infant lips wretohedness, disease,
murder and abandonment in solution.
Aye, reform that army of inebriates.
"Ah," you say, sit cannot be doneP'
That shows that you will be of no use
in the work. 80 ye of little faithn'
Away back in early times President
Davies of Princeton college one day
found man in utter despair because Of
the thrall of strong drink. The presi-
dent said to him: ''Sir, be of good
cheer. You can be saved Sign the
PLEDGE "Ah," said the despairing
victim, II have often signed the pledge.
but l have always broken my pledged"
"But, " said the president, II will be
your strength to keep the pledge. l will
be your friend, and with loving arm
around yourwill hold You up. When
your appetite burns, and you feel that
you must crafty it, come to my house,
sit down with me in the study or with
the family in the parlor, and will be a
shield to You. All that can do for you
with my books, my sympathy, my expe-
rience, my society, my love, my money,
I will do You shall forget yonr appe-
tite and master it.. A look of hope
glowed OH the poor man face. and he
replied, "Sr, will you do oil that?''
"Surely | will. - 'Then l will over
come. lie signed the pledge and kept
it. That plan Of President Davies which
saved one man, tried on large scale,
will save a million men.
The Conquest of Self.
Alexander,the Great made an imperial
banquet at Babylon, and, though he
had been drinking the health of guests
all one night and all next day, the SEQ
ond night he had 90 guests, and be
drank the health Of each separately.
Then calling for the cup of Hercules
the giant, q monster cup, he filed and
drained it twice to show his endurance
but, as he finished the last draft from
the cup of Hercules the giant, be drop
ped in fit, from which he never recov-
ered Alexander, who had conquered
Sardis and conquered Halicarpassus and
conquered Asia and conquered the world,
could not conquer himself, and there is
a threatening peril that this good land
of ours, having conquered all with
whom it has ever gone into battle, may
yet be oveItbrown by the cup of the
giant evil of tie land-that Hercules of
infamy, strong drink Do not let the
staggering and bloated and embruted
host of drunkards go into the next CEN
tury looking for insane asylums and
almshouses and delirium tremens and
dishonored graves.
Another thing we must get fixed is a
national law concerning divorce. Will
liam e. Gladstone asked me while
walking in his grounds at Hawarden,
"Do you not think that your country is
in peril from wrong notions of divorce?"
And before / had time to answer he
said, 1.-THE only good law of divorce that
you have in America is the law in
South Carolina. The fact is that in
stead of state laws Oh this subject we
need national law passed by the senate
Of the United States and the house Of
representatives and plainly interpreted
by the supreme court of the country.
There are thousands of married peo-
pie who are unhappy, and they ought
never to have been welded. They were
deceived or they were reckless or they
were fools or they were caught by dim
pie or hung by a curl or married in joke
or expected fortune and it did not
come or good habits turned to brutality,
and hence the domestic wreck. But
make divorce less easy and you make
the human race more cautious about en-
tering upon lifetime alliance. Let peo-
pie understand that marriage is not an
accommodation train that will let you
leave almost anywhere, but through
train, and then they will not step on
the train unless they expect to go clear
through to the last depot. One brave
man this coming winter, rising amid
the white marble of yonder Capitol hill,
could offer q resolution upon the subject
of divorce that would keep out of the
next century much OF the free lovism
and dissoluteress which have cursed
this century
The Jury of Nations.
Another thing that we need to get
fixed up before tho clock shall strike IL
Oh that night of centennial transition
is the expulsion of war by the power of
arbitration Within the next three
years we ought to have. and hope will
have, what might be called "a jury of
nations" which shall render verdict
on all controverted international cues
TONS All civilized nations are ready
for it-Great Britain with standing
army Of 10000 men, France with q
standing army OF $4,000 men, Ger
many with standing army of 600, 600
men, Russia with a standing army of
600, 900 men, Europe with standing
armies of about $500, coo men, the
United States proposing a standing
army of 100, 900 men! What glorious
idea, that of disarmament What an
emancipation of nations aud centuriesl
The car of Russia last summer proposed
it in world resounding manifesto Dis
armament! What an inspiring and
heaven descended thought In some
.,,ortore +Lo o1ar,c r,nuifesto was trent