The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-08-27
FROM PULPIT TO DARKROOM.
An Inquiring Pencil Pusher's
Discourse.


spoke on Friday evening in the Armory
to the people in Montpelier in the in
terest of License Local Option Glenn
ent.
The assemblage to which the Rev.
Sam Small smoke was large, not because
he is Clements hired man, working for
high license at high wages, but be-
cause he is an eX-evangelist whose no
toriety was acquired by certain eccen-
tricities of manner and method.
The coming of the ex-evangelist Sam
Small, as the mouthpiece of the evan
gelist of rum in the pending State can
vass, suggests change in the reason
ing apparatus of the reverend gentle
man and, further, the question arises
as to how large mess of pottage the
ex-evangelist gets from Clement i'll ex-
change for his birth-right.
This change of spots by this clerical
leopard who for years has been all ear
nest and it is hoped an effective, adj
vocate Of prohibition, should be ex-
planned in order that the public may
have the confidence in his discourse
that is at this time desirable.
On November "a, 1888, the Rev.
Samuel gave an address in Music Hall,
st. Johnsbury, in the Y. NJ. @. y.
course, before an audience which filled
the hall to its doors. His subject was,
From Bar Room to Pulpit, "a history
of his own career. 1t was telling
experience and would have been pain
full to hear had it not, like the good
book, come out right. The editor
of the St. Johnsbury Republican made
stenographic notes of that lecture. Be-
low extracts from these notes are print
ed The Reverend Samuel ought
to explain how he reconciles his dec
larations of 1888 with what he is say
ing at the present time as q mercen-
airy Of Percival w. Clement. Here
Samuel, are some of the things you
were saying after you had exchanged
the Bar Room for the Pulpit ~
High license money is blood
money coined to lay on the eyelids of
look respectable.
1.-The four footed hog that roots in
the mire because it his his nature is
gentleman and a Christian COM
pared with the two footed hog who
sells his conscience and those of his
fellow beings for money.
Some simple headed men who think
they are preaching the gospel do
not preach temperance for fear of di-
viding the church. A church that
would be divided on this subject
isn't fit to be called church, and the
sooner it's ripped right open the bet
ter.
There is enough temperance senti-
ment in America, if properly organ
ized to run seven worlds like this OH
strictly prohibition basis. The tenn
perancc sentiment as it is, and tenn
perance sentiment as it should be, is
as different as pile of pig iron and a
perfected locomotive. One is pile of
iron organized and the other is pile
of unorganiZed iron.
Prohibition laws are all right. If
they do not prohibit it is because the
officers are either cowardly or corrupt.
They call me crank; l glory in
the name. When l was drunken sot
at Atlanta they called me mighty
clever fellow Was l crank then or
now?''
1t was matter of curious conf
under what title the Reverend Sam
Small would make his address to the
people of Montpelier on Friday. In
view of his shocking retrograde move
ment, the phrasing of the old title, rear
ranged to read, From Pulpit to Bar
Room" would seem to explain Sam S
present tendency.
1t is beyond ordinary comprehension
to understand how confessedly re-
formed drunkard can advocate the
providing of drinking places, under
any guise, for his fellow men, es-
pecially when the advocate is undoubt-
eddy cognizant Of the fact that John B.
Golf, a temperance orator of eminence
in his time, of unquestioned ability
and honesty, declared on the plat
form, time and again, that he was
obliged to run by the open door of a
saloon because the fumes of the liqours
aroused within him the deadly old
appetite.
In reviewing the past and present
positions of the Rev Sam Small
on the liqour auction, he appears to
be like the Irishman who crawled
under his wheelbarrow, monkey
wrench, hammer, and screw driver in
hand, lying on his back to repair the
bottom under the difficulties of such
a situation, instead of turning the
barrow the other side up,
Some Local Optionists defend the
Rev. Sam Small position by claiming
that he has seen new light, and the
evils of prohibition and the virtues of
license have been disclosed to him.
When the Creator made the world he
Dlacpd dam and Eva in Edau Tho