The Ocala evening star., 1905-11-25
TALKING FOR TEMPERANCE

The dry rally at the bandstand in 1
the court house yard last night was a /
success. The crowd was quite large I
and about half Of those in attendance /
were ladies.
l. " Green presided and introduc- /
ed the speakers.
Rev G g Carroll was the first |
speaker. and made one Of his strong /
and impressive speeches. He said /
that in case the county went dry, if
blind tigers became rampant il would !
not be caused by those who advOcat-
ed prohibition, and if il went dry if
the advocates Of the open saloon
would do their duty as citizens and
aid in suppressing the blind tiger"
nothing need be feared by his at
tempts at violation of the law. He
also said h was ready TO meet any
saloon man. OF one who advocated the
open saloon. on the question of wheth-
er the Bible sanctioned the use Of fer
mented liquors.
Chairman Green then invited anyone
who wished to defend the saloon to
come upon the platform and he would
divide tine with him. No one re-
sponded.
Then Rev. W. ]. Carpenter. pastor
Of one Of the NJ. r. churches in Tam
pa, and a noted prohibition speaker.
was introduced. and made an inter
esting. eloquent and convincing ad-
dress that public policy" was against
the open saloon in every view that
could be taken on the subject. He
took up the article appearing in the
Ocala papers. with the caption why
Vote Dry" He said the author of the
article was an attorney for the liquor
men, but did not name him. He said
the paragraph about Gainesville TAX
ing up the prohibition side because
she desired to be a college town was
an assumption. as the University
question was not then before the peo-
pie He denied that the cities named
in that article were prosperous be-
cause they were wet He said Live
Oak. Lake City. Lake Butler, Gaines
willie. Lakeland. Dade City. Arcadia,
etc. dry towns. were as prosperous
in proportion to their commercial sur
rOundings as any wet town. no mat
ter where il existed. Men Of business
go where business centers. and most
of these places are such that nature
formei-ports OF entry He showed
the fallacy Of the argument about the
prosperity of liquor towns. when in
the next breath it says that Ocala can
not afford to lose the license tax. for
she is deeply in debt He said Alach-
ua county had put into the county
treasury over $1,000 i'm excess of what
il cost to prosecute blind tigers and
violators Of the law along these lines.
and that he had just received dis
patch from Rev. L. w. Moore, who is
i'm Gainesville. that the court i'm ses-
sion there had convicted every liquor
Violator before il. except one. who got
off on tecl.uic8lijy. He affirmed the
statement that the business men of
Gainesville were 50 well pleased with
prohibition that they could not think
of reinsJatiug the open saloon. He
took up the question Of prohibition in
Vermont. where state prohibition was
repealed and local option substituted.
and while n first "A large majority of
the towns went wet. since then the
pendulum has swung i'm the other di-
rection and now a large majority of
the towns I'm that state are dry. He
challenged anyone to contradict this
statement. His closing remarks were
devoted to the saloon. its effect on So
ciety. the home. ami his opinion Of the
business men Of Ocala. the ma jority OF
whom il is asserted favor the open
saloon. How they could do this he
could not See; certainly they had not
thought Of the question only as il
glamored their commercial vision. The
influence Of the saloon element was
SO powerful that the dollar obscured
every oth"r consideration OF morals
that material things eclipsed the
teachings IF The nobIeSt ideals II life
The SPEAKERS made some fearful
home thrusts and the "galIed jade
WINGED. II referred 10 the so-calleC
church member who donned the man.
tel OF the Master on Sunday and any
old harness would do for week wear
II is the impression of those present
that Carpenter made votes for tn,
dry side.