Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-02-24

house or call in the marshal; but what
must it be in the homes far from other
habitation, whether driven out into the
cold storm, beaten or murdered, there
is no one near to lend a helping hand.
Pen fails to describe tie misery of that
woman with her helpless little family
/ think no truer picture of the sorrow
and degradation which liquor can
bring to woman was ever written than
by Carlton, in which he describes
saloon scene thus:
gazed at the bright looking bottles be-
hind the tall counter displayed;
thought of the lives they had wasted;
l thought of the graves they had made
thought of the boys they had ruined, by
leading them widely astray;
OF the wrongs they had wrought on the
helpless, by stealing their substance
away;
And all of the power within me, swept over
my soul like storm,
And lifting my hands up to heaven, l pray
ed for speedy reform.
All was still! till Withholding woman,
with a face just as white as shroud,
Crept stealthily out of a corner, and stood
in the midst of the crowd.
Her hollow cheeks spoke of starvation, her
sunken eyes told of distress
Her quivering lips of mute anguish no Ian
guage of mine can express.
She lifted her talonlike fingers high over
her head in dispair.
And walking straight up to the counter she
gazed at the rumseller there.
He looked at her pale, haggard features,
and turned with shudder away
He spoke not a word, but he listened to
hear what the woman would say.
Look look on your work here, Bill Bar
ker, she cried with a passionate wall;
You have ruined my home and my husband,
and sent both Of my young boys to Jail.
They say am mad do you wonder2
Your liquor has brought all my woe;
| tell you your time is coming
Gods judgment is certain if slow.
And yet with this misery before
them they claim sixty-6ve per cent of
the voters of our county have signed
petition to allow it all to be enacted
over again in our midst. Look at our
ne ghboring county, compare with ours
the number of inmates in their county
house and Jail. Read the accounts of
the awful suicides and murders com.
united there IN the last few mo nths.
Do you ask why this is sou Go down
to their county seat and see the saloons
there, and you will need no further
answer. Many man signed petitions
there for the sake of the revenue to
be obtained from them, who would
now give every dollar he is worth to
save his boy from drunkard's grave.
But word about the drug stores.
will admit that there is sometimes a
man in this business just as there is in
any other who will do anything to
make dollar SO long as he feels sure
he will not be found out. If these
men do wrong and evade the law, is it
any reason we should license some
one else to do ten times worse? Last
fall for time poultry thieves infested
our community. What terrible out
cry was raised against them. Men
said, SIT would be bad enough to steal
from us, but to steal the poultry the
women have worked so hard to raise,
states prison is too good for them"
Now we all know to our sorrow that
all poultry dealers are not strictly
honest. There is once in while a
dishonest poultry dealer just as there
is dishonest druggist. Where is the
man who would think of saying, "now
these dealers will get good lot of
these peoples poultry dishonesty, let
us just license those other fellows and
let them keep on stealing, it will not
be any worse, and the money we get
for that license will fix our roads all
up in good shape" My friends, the
loss of that poultry meant to many
woman the giving up of much need
ed garment or piece of furniture, or.
the money to buy the presents which
were to make her little ones so happy
at Christmas time. Yet do not be.
lieye there is a woman in the house
to-day but what will say if the city of
Cresco must license some evilto obtain
revenue, we implore them to license
the poultry thief. What do we care
for few chickens and turkeys; we
can raise more next year and it will
be all right, but if you license that
saloon to ruin our boys 1t can never be
made right in this world nor IN the
world to come. But, says some wo-
man, 1--WE are not voters. What
can we DOB" My sisters, | know we
are not voters. If we had been that
petition would never have been start
ed. They would have known it was
useless to begin. If we are not voters
we all have an influence. Let us use
that influence in every way possible
against the saloon. What can the
farmer do? Every farmer in Howard
county can make sure that his name is
not on that petition. Says one, "My