The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-01-21
RAE WHIsKY 0
LWiliam Allen White in the Emporia
Gazette.1

LWilliam Allen White in the Emporia
Gazette.1
For a generation a man in this state
has been going to hell-literally going
TO hell, and making a little side hell
as he goes for his family. He has
chosen the whisky route. and in a
southern Kansas town, he was known
as a smart lawyer ''if you could catch
him sober" He has sacrificed standing
in the community, he has sacrificed
a good business, he has sacrificed pro-
fessional advancement, and the COM
fort and education of his family OF
children-all to enjoy his American
privileges of filling his insides with
bad whisky and making himself a
nuisance to his friends by his maudlin
capers. AT state conventions he is a
familiar sight, asleep when he should
be at work. or hanging dog sick over
a brass railing on the streets. When
he is sober he knows what a fool he
is.
And better than any one else his old
est boy knows what a fool the old man
has been, and how he has missed his
chance in life by being a good fell
low" The boy knows that the other
children have lar to do without many
things that other children q In order
that the old man might soak his hide
with liquor. The boy knows that he
has been ashamed to so down town
many and many a day when his father
had made a particularly disgusting
spectacle OF himself before the little
town.
Yet the boy is at it, His face shows
it. The clean look is gone. The eyes
are a little feverish. His countenance
no longer shines as 1t did two years
ago. He is following in his fathers
steps. He knows where the road end
He-like his father-probably can taxi
it or let it alone. He, like his father,
likes to nave a good time. He, like his
father. thinks his mother is a fool and
doesn't understand men. Yet that boy
knows what a wreck is before him, and
how he is breaking other hearts, even
as his own boyish heart was broken.
But he will not stop.
Why can't men learn a little sense
Why doesn't experience teach us
something? We laugh at sheep, and
haven't as much sense as sheep. Men
know absolutely what good conduct is.
The rules of good conduct may be re-
peated by every school boy.
There is no lack Of moral teaching,
and no lack of examples of the misery
that follows any violation of the moral
law The avn of good conduct are as
inviolable as the laws of gravitation,
or chemical affinity. Yet men, who
know this-and it is proved thousands
Of times to every man before he is
twenty-hve-go right on to hell, as If
they had never heard that certain be-
havior brings disgrace and hardship.
The boys father probably had the
same lessons that the boy had, and the
boy probably knows that it is lots cas-
Ter to be decent than to be indecent.
He knows that brings more
suffering and physical pain than
decency, yet he keeps right on going
to hell in his father crooked path.
knowing every turn before he comes to
it; anticipating every disgrace, appre-
hending every degradation.
In Gods name why don't men learn
some sense? Millions of Bibles; mill
lions Of good books that teach good
conduct, millions of that
point out the horrors of bad conduct
are printed every year-yet the devil is
way behind with his fuel orders. and
men keep right on with their mean
ness that brings only sorrow and suf-
fering.
The next time you see a moth
aroun a lamp-take your hat off to
the moth-he has as much sense as
your fellow creatures.