The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1904-08-12
Drink and Business

lit. state senator and Il leader in Tam
many, has never had the advantage of
college education or social culture; lie
was raised IN the streets of New York
city and got his learning mostly knock
cd and kicked into him. His was the
severe but effective schooling of ex-
perience among rough men. His po-
lit.cal power is due to the fact that he
understands and holds in line an en-
ormous following among what is COM
monty known as the saloon element.
If any man Lying might reasonably
be supposed to make liquor drinking u
real aid to his success, here is the
man. Politicians in general are sup
posed tn be drinking men and here is
one IN particular who might be ex-
pected to drink his way into the
hearts OF his constituents and to have
as lieutcnentS only men who can do
the same.
But here is what Plunkitt says
about it:
/ II meyer take a drop of intoxicating
liquor OF anv kind. | amt no fanatic.
Some of the saloon keepers are my
best friends and l don't mind goin'
into saloon any day with my friends.
But as a matter of business leave
whlskeY and beer and the rest of that
stuff alone. It's Il matter of business
too. 1 take for my lieutenants in my
district men who don't drink. | tried
the other kind for several years, but it
didn't pay. They cost too much.
mo matter how we'll you learn to
play the political game, you won't
make lastin' success Of it if you are
drinking man."
A lot OF mistaken people imagine
that a political leader who doesn't
dring could never be popular with
saloonkeeper.
Well, that's grave error.
| The most successful saloonkeepers
In ST. Paul don't drink themselves,
and more than that, won't employ bar
keepers who drink.
Looks queer-doesn it? But it's
fact. It's business
The man who drinks is Just as un-
safe and unfit man behind the bar
as he is anywhere else And nobody
Knows this bcttor than the sa1uuIl-
keeper, who sees more OF the effects of
drink than anybody else. He is the
last man in the world to follow or
have faith in a hard drinker, behind
Ills bar or in front of it.
More wisdom from Plunkitt:
'Just take as examples Big Tim and
Little Tim SuIliyan. They're known
ali over the country as the Bowery
leaders, and as there's nothin' but sa.
looms on the Bowery, people might
think they were hard drinkers. The
fact is neither of them has ever touch
ed a drop or ever smoked cigar. Still
they don't make no pretense of bcin'
better than anyone else and don't 80
round deliverin' temperance lectures.
Big Tim made money out of liquor
scllin' it to other people. That's the
only way to get good out of liquor.''
All wrong-utterly wrong-is the
popular notion that the man who sue
ceeds in the saloon field politics must
get drunk with the men he influences.
lie must first control himself. To be
superior he must be sober. To COM
mand real respect and lasting conf
dence he must always be himself.
|
| None but callow youth or a drink-de-
mented fool. has, on the morning
after, much respect for his drunk
mate or for himself. In the lowest of
US There is conscience that comes with
the morning after, or, If not con-
science, at best physical reaction and
mental repulsion.
Again listen to Plunkitt:
'sLook at the Tammany heads of
city departments. There's not real
drinkin' man in the lot, although
theresa saloonkeeper or two. Oh,
yes, there are some prominent men in
the organization who drink hard
! sometimes, but they aint the men who
have power. They're ornaments,
fancy speakers and all that, who make
a fine show behind the footlights, but
amt in it when it comes to directin'
the city government and the Tam
many organization. The men who
set in the executive committee room
at Tammany hall and direct things
are the men who celebrate on apol-
linaris or Yichy."
Is there anything the matter with
Temperance as a purely business propo-
sition?
j Suicide Prevented
i The startling announcement that a
preventive of suicide had been dlscov-
cred will interest many. A run down