Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-12-18
A PREACHER ENDORSES
a JOURNAL EDITORIAL


Your editorial relative to a drunken boy
Keeling on the streets of Atlanta on
Thanksgiving day is worthy of the high
est enconiums from the best people OF
Georgia Especially will the mothers
heart beat a glad tune Of happy thank
fulness." We all love this land of the
free, and the home Of the brave" Every
footprint made in the war of indepen-
dence. every drop of patriotic blood that
ever stained the American soil and the
low sacred mounds Of half million brave
soldiers graves declare that we love our
fatherland. We love its sunny plains, fer
tile valleys, foliaged-covered hills, and
snow-clad mountain peaks. From where
the lakes lie like silvery seas on the north,
to where the Gulf of Mexico washes the
brown sands of Florida, from where the
storm-tossed waves of the Atlantic beat
against the rocks of New England to
where the waters of the Pacific lap their
lullabies in the Golden Gate of California!
Columbia, thy children love thee! For
thy honor, glory and independence twen-
ty-hve million brave sons Of toll would
die! But If we love our country then why
do we affiict it's citizens with untold mis-
cries? Why do we legalize and protect
the liquor traffic the greatest evil known
in the history Of man? We fondly hope
that the dawning of a better day is at
hand. A time when politicians who true
kle to the behest Of liquor men, will be
relocated to the walks of private life, and
men chosen for all county and state and
national offices who hate sin and love their
homes, their country and their God.
The people make the political party, the
political party elect the officers, the ofilc-
ers make the law, the law authorizes and
protects the saloons, and saloons make
drunkards, crime and murder. The voters
are the cause of the parties, which are the
cause of the law, which is the cause or
the saloons which, in the language of
Gladstone, els more ruinous than war,
famine and pestilence." But, says one,
at brings us a great revenue" Judas
ike, who, for greed OF money, sold his
Lord and Savior. There are about three
hundred thousand saloons and other
places where liquor is sold in the United
States. Allowing about twenty-five feet
between each saloon they would make a
string of houses nearly two thousand
miles long A sadder scene is ten thou
sand anxious mothers standing in their
doorway, listening for familiar footsteps,
while through wells of falling tears they
gaze into the silent darkness and say,
sstVhere is my wandering boy tonight
down in the licensed saloon" Is this all?
No. it suborns witnesses, nurses perjury,
defiles the jury box. stuffs the ballot box
and stains the judicial ermine 1t de-
grades the citizen, debases the legislator
dishonors the statesman, and disarms the
patriot 1t brings shame, not honor; ter
ror. not safety; despair, not hope; misery
not happiness, and with the malevolence
of a fiend, ii calmly surveys its frightful
desolation, and unsatisfied with It's havoc
1t kills peace, ruins morals, blights con-
fidence, Stays reputation, and wipes out
national honor Then curses the world
and laughs at its ruins" Another says,
"If you will let whisky alone, it will let
you alone.
A drunken husband beats and kills his
pleading wife. whisky did not let her
alone. Two men ride down the street in
a fine vehicle drunken maniac dashes
into the vehicle causing destruction and
death, whisky did not let them alone. A
drunken father takes the life of his limo
cent child, whisky did not let 1t alone.
Still another will say, "You can't legislate
men into heaven" 'sYou can, you do leg
islate men into hell" Why entrap the
weak and tempt the strong with occa-
sion to sin. If the law has nothing to do
with morality, why not establish sys-
tenn of varied promiscuity' throughout
the country
A pathetic scene is that of a man armed
with license. granted by a great common
wealth, dealing out that which decoys the
bright boy from the parental roof, es-
tranging him from the sweet influences
of maternal wathcare, and with distorted
sensibilities, crazed mind, blighted man.
hood. hurled into the cesspool Of unspeak-
able infamy, to die drunken debauch
and suffer the agonies of torment. The
Sonora Banner of California has this as
to the contents OF a barrel Of whisky:
A barrel of headaches. Of heartaches. of
woes;
A barrel of curses. a barrel Of blows;
A barrel of tears of a world-weary wife;
A barrel of sorrow, a barrel of strife;
A barrel of al-unavailing regret; .
A barrel of cares-and barrel of debt;
A barrel of hunger, of poison, of pain;
A barrel Of hopes ever blasted and vain;
A barrel Of falsehood, barrel of cries
That fall from the maniac's lips as he
0les;
A barrel Of poverty, ruin and blight;
A barrel OF terror that grows with the
night;
A barrel Of crimes and a barrel of groans;
A barrel of orphans most pitiful means:
A barrel of serpents that hiss as they
pass
From the head of the liquor that glows in
the glass.
A graphic description of a saloon. out
side, upon one wall, 1 would paint death
upon the pale horse his strong arms
welding thunderbolts. and the fiery hoofs
of his flying steed treading down every
thing that is fair and lovely-the Garden
of Eden spread before him and a blacken
waste behind him. Upon the other wall
would draw the picture of a wretched
hovel, a once happy home, the roof broken
in, the window stuffed with rags, and in
the doorway a weeping wife, with ragged
children clinging to her skirts, piteously
beseeching her for bread; while in the dis
lance should be seen the once happy hus-
band and father. now a Keeling drunkard
on his way to the hut he calls his home.
An embellished arch should overtop the
saloon roof with the shameful announce
ment whisky for sale Under this arch
/ would hang the picture of one hundred
thousand drunken boys rushing with
staggering steps, Bonded form, blared
eyes, peaked cheek. to an eternal ruin,
Before this awful picture 1 would sum-
mons all the saloon dealers Of the land,
roll back If possible the curtain of futur-
Ity and let them see the awful horrors of
the doom of the damned"
REV. ERNEST c. MOBLEY,
Dec. q 1902. Harmony Grove, Ga.