The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-10-08

people that ought to be protected against
this accursad traffic it is this very class;
but are they so protected by the dispen
sary? Certainly not They buy their
whiskey by the bottle and take it home
to curse and abuse their families, or to
tempt their boy with; and the family
must witness what the "brOthel'' itself is
too good to listen to. There is no pro-
lection to the Wage-earner in COMPEL
ing him to buy pint or more instead
of a drink.
7. 1.-The dispensary has been a potent
factor in the publication of politics, and
makes nightly for civic righteousness"
That reads well. That is beautiful on
paper, and is well said. The trouble,
however, with that statement is that it
it is not so. Nothing ever corrupted the
politics of South Carolina like the dispen-
sary. Every South CarOlinian knows
that there is not ghost of a chance for
him to be elected to any important office
in his State, unless he swallows the dis
pensary, it's corrupt founders and every
concomitant. Never has there been such
Islander and vituperatiOn, such scandal
and corruption in the politics of our sis
ter State The whole political atmos-
phere seems charged with putrefying
decay and corrupt administration. What
the ultimate outcome will be, God only
can tell | have been a close observer OF
the dispensary. and because of my fire.
quent visits, and my residence of about
two years in that State, | am perfectly
familiar with the facts concerning its
workings. And | am prepared to say
that there never was time in the histO-
nv of the State when there was more
whiskey consumed by the State or when
it had a greater hold on politicians,
than at the present time. South Carroll
Ma has lived to rue the day she quietly
submitted to the betrayal of her people,
by the hand of her leading politician,
when he deliberately defeated the ex-
pressed will of the people of the State, by
substituting the dispensary for prohibi-
ton; which had carried in the election
just past by large majority. God save
us from politicians and moral towards.
So that with all her boosted superiori-
ty the dispensary is nothing better than
the saloon.
And when viewed from the view
point of the ultimate triumph OF civic
righteousness and temperance, it is far
worse than the saloon. Whatever sys-
TEN the whiskey traffic may operate
under that makes less apparent the evil
of that traffic lessons the force and
amount of public sentiment against it,
| and consequently perpetuates that insti-
tuition indefinitely. Better have the open
| saloon with all it's concomitant evils
which are open and apparent to the
eyes of the public, if you would hasten
the triumphs OF prohibition. People are
| moved to oppose evil just in atprOpOr-
~ l,l
quences. The overthrow of the whiskey
! traffic does not depend upon it's regula-
| ton, but upon it's absolute prOhibitien
LOCALIZED sin of any kind can never be
| regulated. The granting to it the right
to live, is the granting to it the right to
| thrive, and the means necessary to this
end may not be denied to it. To legalize
any evil is to vOuchsafe to it the protec-
| ton of the power granting it, and the
right to exist. SO that the government
| must protect it's offspring, even at the
cost OF making its young manhood the
! prey OF such a creature. God save the
mark. \ government legalizing traffic
| which, If 1T prOspers, must prosper by
| feeding upon and devOuring the young
| manhood OF that same State. Does it
pay? Will the few thousand dollars of
| 'blood money that Louisburg received
| as the price agreed upon as the value of
| her manhood, and the price of her honor
| pay her for the wrecking of her homes
| and the eternal loss of the many hun
dreds of souls that will face these same
citizens at the Bar of God?" Louisburg,
as every other city and hamlet of the
| State, has in her the moral forces neces-
| sary to abolish and enfocce a law pro-
| hibiting the traffic altogether; and if
| those forces would arise and boldly as
sert their power, instead of cringing be-
fore the cowardly politician and accept
| ing the ''bOnes' thrown to them, like
| those given by the last Legislature, they
| could at any time abolish every form of
| legalized whiskey selling. If the conven-
ton soon to be held in Raleigh in the in
terest of temperance will spend the same
| amount of energy and wisdom in devils
| ing plans for the establishment of prohi-
| bltiOn that some may want to spend in
| planning for the regulation and control
| of the whiskey traffic, there won't be a
| single legalized saloon to tell the tale one
| year hence. Sin can not be legalzed
| without sin. This being true, and the
| whiskey traffic being a sin, no system of
| regulation that legalizes can be inaugu-
rated that does not make those who le-
| galize, by vote or Legislative enactment.
| particeps criminis. Prohibition and en-
fOrcement should be our battle cry. A
Christian cannot assume any other atti-
! tude towards evil of any kind and be
| guiltless before God. God nowhere
teaches us the art of regulating sin,
but his methods are always prohibitive,
and uncompromising. Thou shalt not
is always His positive proclamation
| where evil is involved Let the professed
Christian people of any community or
State but once assume a like position of
prohibition and uncompromising enmity
to the whiskey traffic, and its days are
| numbered, its doom fixed.
To conclude, the writer of the article
| under review says: The champions of
! the dispensary do not claim to have
| reached the land of Canaan; but then it
| must not be forgotten that Egypt is be
hind" What delnsionl We're the chill
dren of Israel out of Egypt while they
still served Pharoah? Are we out Of
Egypt (Which represents slavery to SIM
while we are the obedient servants of
| the whiskey traffic? If Louisburg ever
reaches Canaan it must first get out of
Egyptian bondage to the dispensary and
go three days Journey into the wilder