The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-10-02
The Whisky Devils Joke.

The Whisky DEVILS Joke.
There was state election in
Vermont Sept. 2. There was no
election OF governor, however,
no candidate receiving a majority
of the votes cast. There were two
Republican candidates. both of
whom were in favor of high license
and the repeal of the laws provid-
ing for the prohibition of the IL
quor traffic. The saddest result of
the campaign, however, was not
the failure to elect a governor, but
the collapse of Rev. Sam Small.
Mr.. Small, who, in the days Of his
most active work as an evangelist,
was bitter foe of liquor and an
ardent advocate of the prohibition
of the liquor traffic, was employed
to speak in favor of the license
candidate and against prohibition.
Before he began his first speech he
drank some liquor, as a medicine,
his friends say, and before he had
been speaking fifteen minutes he
collapsed and was removed from
the platform-a victim of the curse
which he was aiding by his speech
in it's dreadful work of moral,
spiritual and physical death.
Under the caption, ''The whisky
devils very good joke,'' the Chi
cago Daily American, in its lead
ing editorial, Sept. 9, says:
The hearts of many will 90 out
in sympathy for Mr.. Small. Only
those who have been victims of
the terrible appetite for drink can
know how awful was his temta-
ton. The papers declare that his
usefulness is at an end. This need
not be. His fall is no worse than
John B. Cough, who afterward
was one of the most vehement and
effective foes of intemperance.
Sam Small should be aided to re-
gain his former position-and he
should abandon politics forever
and give his life to efforts to de-
stroy the traffic which caused his
downfall. Christian Advocate.
You will remember the policeman
who killed his wife and afterward said,
full of remorse:
ut was the DEVILS joke. Whisky
did it. She was the best woman that
ever lived.''
The DEVILS whisky jokes did not
stop at this policeman's crime or be-
gin with it..
That series of jokes is as old as mans
discovery of the fact that it is possible,
by fermentation, to extract murder
and insanity from grain.
Rev. Sam Small for many years has
made specially of lecturing in favor
OF temperance.
Recently he appeared in Vermont,
endeavored to speak, collapsed on the
platform and afterward confessed: 81
was drunk.'
This was considered an excellent
joke by many. It was thought very
funny and amusing that a clergyman
who had all his life been preaching
against drink should appear drunk be-
fore gathering ct temperate, earnest
men and women.
It was good joke-of the whisky
devils kind.
But in the humiliation of this un-
fortunate man and in the distress of
his audience there was lesson for a
great many other men, as we'll as
good whisky DEVILS Joke
In the plight of the drunken clergy
man there was no reason for humilia-
ton on the part of those who advocate
temperance. On the contrary, there
is double proof of the need of such
preaching as theirs.
If whisky is strong enough to win
such victory-if whisky can bring so
good a joke to a successful climax-it
shows the power that resides in whisky
and its hold over human beings.
There have been few better whisky
jokes than the collapse of Rev. Sam
Small-there have been no more
powerful temperance sermons than
that same collapse of a man helpless
to resist when he knew so we'll the in
evitable result.