The Meeker herald., 1899-04-08

CIV Ork, FEB. z. LYMAN ABBOTT.
Y My Dear Mr.. Abbott: Your letter
[esking me for Fifteen hundred words
IN the saloon evil'' came to this address
while was in the West, hence my delay
p acknowledging 1t.
I wish could comply with your re-
guest; but. alas fifteen words. crowded
~ am, are almost as impossible as Hf-
Been hundred. Nor, indeed, il it were
otherwise, is there anything new to say
II is the old situation-as old as the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ-with the Scribes
and the Pharisees on the one hand, and
lSadducees on the other, and. over
against them, the Truth.
no more perfect production OF the
irst named has appeared in our day than
the Prohibitionists, ct i'd omne, genus,
arrogant, denunciatory, ignorant, I'm.
scrupulous and untruthful: holding one
meagre fragment of the truth to their
eyes, and denying great and funde-
mental facts in human nature. in their
foolish and futile endeayor to remedy
the provisions OF human instincts BY
extirpatng them true children of the
medieval systems Of monastic ascetic-
ism, which they would fain substitute
for the freedom of regenerated man
hood. The grotesque hypocrisy of the
prohibition system, from Maine to Kan
sas, is sufficient commentary upon
their theories. Meantime the endeavors
of wiser men and women to better the
condition-the homes, the domestic life,
the recreations of their less favored
brethren, go untouched of these, ft
SUCCESSORS of those to whom Jesus said
"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrite, for 70 bind heavy burdens
upon mems shoulders, and grievous to
be borne, and ye yourselves will not
touch them with the tips of your
angefs!"
Add over against them, as of old, are
the modem Sadducees, critical, indiffer-
FSut, apathetic. The dissenslons OF those
who are not agreed as to the problems
'ce inteneprance and its cures are enter
.n1nfnG md amusing to these-and no
more.
Yet let me not do them injustice.
What have said has its considerable
and inspiring qualifications and men of
wealth and intelligence who had origin
ally dismissed the saloon" question,
and all that it involves, as equally hope
less aud insoluable, have in recent years,
aud in some conspicuous instances
which need not recall. grappled with
larger problems of the housing and
bettering of wage earnersa in all the
various aspects in which these various
problems present themselves and have
done noble and generous things along
the line Of of a wiser and more broth
erly consideration for their fellow men.
But the whole movement is as yet in
its infancy, and waits for guidance, en-
lightenment and, above all, co-ordina-
tion. As vet we have been but fumb-
ling with social problems, whether in
this country or elsewhere, unable or un-
wiling, apparently to recognize that
the eradical changes in our social and in
dustrial conditions which have come to
pass during this century have brought
with them demands upon wealth, ex
perence, scientific sympathy and self
sacrifice with the favored classes are as
yet'but slow to recognize. The perma-
nence, however. of our present social
structure will depend upon their rec
ognition; and of the appreciation of this
factI aun glad to see that there is daily
increasing evidence. ma
OF course, in this larger aspect of q
vast question, the saloon is mere Incl
dent. Its causes, its phases, its relation
to the home life as we'll as the individ-
ual life of communities, the evils that
feed 1T, the miseries that support it;
whole host of questions such as these
walt for the consideration which as yet
they have hardly had.
Meantime IL NAV he we'll tn relieve
the minds Of fanatical and hysterical
people by saying that there is no one
cure for % cast = mischief as the sa
looms stand for; and, generally, that,
in dealing with humanity and its per.
verte& hseincts aIIc 'appetites, the
Divinese Teacher that the world has
had wepA seem to have taught US law
Of traulformation, as thai tf0r the re-
Reneteton. whether of society or of thu