The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-03
GOOD OUT OF EVIL.

The Rev. Mr.. Crawford Frost of
Baltimore, who caused some little
momentary excitement in a New York
meeting a few months ago by insist
ing upon presenting to Andrew Car
negie, for the benefit of humanity,
Notwithstanding apparatus which
he said he had invented, has lately
been causing some discussion in his
home city by defending in his sermons
certain things which are popularity re-
garded as nuisances or worse. He
even has a kind word for the mosquito,
which he believes was put into the
world for some high purpose.
For one thing, he said, there were
few annoyances that would so try the
self-control of the Christian as the bite
of a mosquito. There, then, is one
good use of the insect. So long as a
person slaps at and d-s a mosquito
for exercising its natural functions of
buzzing and biting, it is quite sure
that that person is not truly good,
But when the buzzing and biting no
longer produce irritation of the spirit,
as well as of the cuticle, then it may
be accepted as sure that the condition
of sanctiflcation has set in. However,
it is not only as a test of Christian
fortitude that the reverend gentleman
regards the mosquito as a beneficial
mite. 1t has not yet been fully deter
mined whether malaria causes the
mosquito or the mosquito causes ma
laria. Some shrewd persons are adj
herents to each theory. Mr.. Crawford
Frost does not pretend to assert that
either is correct, but inclines to still
another theory, namely, that the mos
quito bite is malaria preventive. 1--WE
know he says, that the mosquito in
jects foTynic acid, which is a germ
killer, and it may be that a beneficent
| Providence sends the mosquito in the
malaria season to supply a subcutane-
| Gus antidote, and that If there were
fewer mosquitoes more people would
die" We read only a short time ago
where a distinguished member of the
Senate of New Jersey made a speech
to that body in defense of the mosqui-
to- in which he stoutly maintained that
the bite of the mosquito was a speci-
fic for rheumatism, on account of this
same formic acid injection; and so well
did he argue his point that the Senate
refused to pass an appropriation for
fighting mosquitoes with kerosene.
Another of Mr.. Crawford Frost's
10
drinking is an aid to and marker of
civilization. III this connection he
said, in part: sit Is q fact, and a
strange one, that the nations which
are in the lead in civilization and in
telligence are wine and beer drinkers.
The total abstainers are apt to
think that social impurity is in direct
ratio to the amount of liquor drunk In
a country, and that If you could abol-
| ish the use of alcohol, all the inhab-
itants would become as chaste as Dt-
ana. They forget that one nation on
the earth has had strict and total pro-
hibition for over a thousand years.
That nation is Turkey. No more need
be said on the subject of prohibition in
| the state of Maine after that" While
the Turks religion prohibits the drink
ing of strong drinks, and the govern
ment adds the weight of its authority
to the religious prohibition, there is
abundant testimony to the fact that
total abstainers in Turkey are very
rare. The Turks find a way to ease
their consciences, get on the blind side
OF the law, and drink all of the wine
they want. In other words, the thou
sand years prohibition in Turkey does
not prohibit any more than does the
fifty years prohibition in Maine.