The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-07-31
@. HOPE IOHES.
Noted Orator Delivers n Temperance Lee
rure ut Black Rock.

| Noted Orator Delivers Temperance Lee
ture at Black Rock.
| Nv Dear FelloW-citizens: 1t is my Gus
| tom before proceeding to the business OF
| the evening 10 take up . collection among
| the audience for the benefit Of some char
| ity. on this occasion the subject is the
| individual who stands before you. have
managed to get along for the last three
| days on 81 cents. but can go no further.
| While there is no doubt that | am worthy
/ of all you can do for me, yet no one need
/ feel under obligations to give. l will now
| pass around the hat. and as / move
| among you / am glad to observe that the
/ audience assembled here tonight is one
J of the most cultivated l have seen for
months. l will not be base enough 10
| think that free admission had anything
| TO do with IT, You came 10 hear one OF the
/ great questions of the day discussed by
/ one Of the great orators Of the century,
and had the price Of tickets been 10 cents
each. I believe that one and all would
/ have cheerfully coughed up. l do not use
! tina, expression in a slang sense, but as a
| Latin phrase. I find that the collection
/ amounts to 20 cents, and, thanking you
| from the bottom of my heart and trusting
| that you may go out Of here better men
and women, i Will now begin:
Ny friends / have in my pocket the fig
ures showing just how many distilleries
and breweries there are in the United
States and just how much whisky and
| beer are made every twenty-four hours
| during the year. But why give them?
! Why tell you that 100000 of our popula-
| ton go to bed drunk every night in the
year and that the money spent for drink
every day would provide all the widows
with sealskin sacks and French heeled
shoes? We all know those things. Let us
| begin with Christopher Columbus who
had rather more TO do with America than
any man who has come after him. | give
you his picture on the canvas. You look
puzzled and surprised. You can't make
1t out. You behold Christopher lying
drunk on the highway, with jug on one
side and hog on the other. II is a fanCi-
full picture. L want you TO look at 1t
closely and keep it in your minds, and
| every day for years to come ! want you
| to ask yourself what would have hap
| pened if Columbus had been that sort OF
man. When Ferdinand and Isabella had
J fitted him out for his voyage, suppose he
| had gone and got a three days jag on
| and had rolled around in the mud and
! had had three or four scraps with other
| old buns. Can you for an instant believe
that he would have been left in command
of the expedition, or that this country
| would have been discovered for the next
| fifty years? But there was no bOOzing
| He may have taken a farewell drink of
root beer or lemonade. as was eminently
proper, but it ended right there, and he
| became world-famous as a result.
whole hemisphere and millions of people
| owe him debt of gratitude and will re-
| member his name forever because of his
| abstinence. The lesson taught by the Die
| ture is plain to all. Get drunk and you
| Will be sent to the island for thirty DAYS:
| remain sober, and you will become IA
| nous.
My friends, let me give You the picture
| Oh George Washington as he was about
10 cross the Delaware and gain a great
victory over the British. You observe that
George is lying drunk with his feet on q
| chair, while the patriot army. waits for
| him TO take the lead. You murmur and
| are aghast. You never heard that the
Father of His Country got d jag on. No
! more did he. / give you this picture as
| an object lesson, and 1 ask you where this
/ country would have been to-day had
George gone off on a hOopla at d critical
| moment? In those old colonial days there
| it was easier to get drunk than to roll out
o. bed, but Washington was man TO
| withstand temptation. On twelve differ
ent occasions, as / figure II, had he gone
| or on a tear, instead of attending to BUSH
ness, this country would not now be the
| United States l never hail him as the
| great and noble without also blessing him
| for not filling up with corn juice The
| analogy is plain TO the dullest mind Get
| drunk and fall over yourself and roll
| around in the catnip, and you'll die I'M
| known ana unwept. Let whisky and beer
alone, except when ordered for cramps,
and q nation will sorrow at your deaIh
and raise monuments 10 you for a thous-
and years after.
| The name of John Hancock must al
ways be associated with the Declaration
Of independence. His name was the first
| TO 20 down. His was the FIST neck 10
| be put into the halter. I give you his
! picture. He is limpsy drunk, and hang
| ing to lamp post in the city OF Boston.
! The convention waits for him TO sign his
name 10 a document which will change
/ the map Of the world and bring forth a
new nation, but he's too drunk to get
| there and the independence OF the colon
! les is lost forever. This picture IS also
I d Clrdt4Di VI Adll[JB buL 4rA the I4D- d
| lesson sink deep into your hsarts. Now
/ and then, when ne had been out chOpping
wood in the rain, John Hancock may
/ have taken nip 70 keep the cnilis of
! but never on any other Occas sion. He
Jidn't need whisky 10 back ID his pat
/ Ti0tism. He had q cOld-Water hatred Of
/ tyranny, and when the time came 10
upset King Georges apple cart he picked
! up a goose gull and wrote his name in
I letters which stand out like red paint on
z white door Hail a pint Of colonial
I corn juice down behind his vest would
/ have untitled the great patriot and left
/ America d dependency.
! Ny friends, l am rot here 10 rail z. dis
| tilleTs, hOHl ct brewers, or shOC. IL
| salOCn-keepers. ! am not Begging YOU
with tears in my eyes 10 Shun the flow
] ing bowl and not pound your wives or
wAllCp your children. / am not going 10
spoil your sleep tonight BY holding I'd
1 the horrors and mIseries Of intemper-
J anCe- ! simply say 10 YOU that for a
steaGy. ali-arOund drink cold water t0ps
| everything else. and when JudlciOUsly
/ Hingl- with buttrrmilk and root beer
I n produces patriots, poets philosophers
/ and statesmen. Try II once ard you Will