The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1902-06-27
To a SalcOnkeeper
Who Used the Index 10 BeSmircll
the Sainted Name Of Lincoln
In an Effort to Make the Saloon
Respectable.

| A saloon man handed you the follow
Ing quotation, you say, which you pub
lished In yesterdays edition:
Abraham Lincoln once said that "Y OF
can fool all the people some OF the time
and some OF the people all the time, but
you cant fool all the people al the
time"
Lincoln should be interpreted by
Lincoln. As TO how he would apply his
own words let him declare. The fol
lowing Is the closing OF speech which
he made at the Second Presbyterian
Church, Springfield, ILL.,, February %,
1912:
''There seems ever to have been a
proneness In the brilliant and warm
blooded to fall into this vice-the de-
mon of intemperance ever seems "a
have delighted In sucking the blood oi
genius and generosity. What one OF us
but can call to mind some relative more
promising In youth than all his fellows,
who has fallen sacrifice TO his ra-
pacity. He ever seems to have gone
forth like the Egyptian angel OF death,
commissioned to slay, II not the first,
the fairest born Of every family. Shall
he now be arrested In his desolating
career? In that arrest all can give aid
that will, who shall be excused that can
and will not? Far around as human
breath has blown, he keeps our fathers.
our brothers, our sons and our friends
PROSTATE in the chains OF moral death.
To all the living everywhere we cry
Come from the four winds, o breath,
and breathe upon these slain that they
may live.' II the relative grandeur OF
revolutions shall be estimated by the
great amount Of human misery they
allie viate, and the small amount they
inflict, then indeed, will this be the
grsndest the world shall ever have
seen.
"Of our political revolution of 1776
we are all justly proud. 1t has given
us q degree of POLITICAL freedom far ex-
ceeding that OF other nations OF the
earth. In it the world has found So
luton of the long -mooted problem as to
the capability of man to govern him.
self. In it was the germ which has
vegetsted, and still is to grow and ex-
pand into the universal liberty of man
kind.
"But with all these glorious results,
past. present and to come, it had its
evils, too. 1t breathed forth famine,
swan in blood and rode in fire; and
long, long after, the orphans cry and
the widows wall continued to break the
sad silence that ensued. These were
the price, the inevitable price, paid for
the blessings it bought.
Turn now to the temperance revolu-
tion. In it we shall find a stronger
bondage broken, viler slavery manu-
mitted, a greater tyrant deposed-in it
more OF want supplied, more disease
healed, more sorrow assuaged. BY it
no orphans starving, no widows weep
ing; by it none wounded in feeling,
none injured in interest. Even the
dram-maker and dram-seller will have
glided into other occupations so grad
ually as never to have felt the change,
and will stand ready to join all others
In the universal song of gladness. And
what a noble ally this to the cause OF
political freedom! With such an aid
its march cannot fail to be on and on
till every son of earth shall drink in
rich fruition the sorrow-quenching
drsughts of perfect libertyl Happy
day, when all appetites controlled, al
passion subdued, all matters subJn'
gated, mind, all-conquering mind, shall
live and move, the monarch of the
world! Glorious contamination! Hail
fall of fury! Reign Of reason, all hail!
Sand when the victory shall be com
plete-when there shall be neither 6
slave nor q drunkard on the earth
how proud the title of that land which
may truly claim to be the birthplace
and the cradle OF both those revolu
tions that shall have ended In that vic
tory! How nobly distinguished tha
people who shall have planted and nur
tured to maturity both the political ant
moral freedom of their species!"
So speaks Lincoln. We know thel
how he would interpret his own saying
The saloon must 60. IL by no othe
way, give it long enough time and
will rot itself out 1t is going in tn
United States. Two-fifths of the peopl
OF this nation are now under some form
of prohibition. More and more are be
coming total abstainers. The drinking
element, judging by statistics, ar
drinking more and more, and henc
they will finish themselves the quicker
In Ohio, at least 53 places have voted, u
to date. Thirty-two OF these have gon
dry against 2l wet.
Xenia, the largest city that ha
voted, went dry by l99. Cambridge
the next in size, went dry by 2S7. Tn
, people are not fooled all the time
I Bellefontaine citizens will be wiser tw
r years hence; that Is, some OF the Oh
will be. The material for the saloo
work is boys, its finished product is tn
, drunkard. The life insurance con
, panies hsye decided against the drink
, er, the public schools have no use fo
, him, the railroad companies do nc
want him In their employ, the great il
dustries do not want handicapped