The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-02

piood, ana esta Dilsheth city BY lniquity
Once upon a time there was a Kan
sas town. 1t was flourishtng town.
Its people were peaceful and Iaw-abid-
ing. 1t was noted for it's excellent
schools. The country people looked up
on it as good place to move to to edu-
cate their children. It's boys were grow
ing UP to be honest, manly men and its
girls to be true. womanly women.
Its business men were sober, wide
awake and progressive.
But in an evil hour the serpent en-
tered the town. A boodIer was elected
county attorney, and some of the bust
ness men thought it would be a good
idea to let the joints run in order to
get revenue to pay the city's bills. They
argued that this would lower the taxes.
That was the whole argument;
Liquor would be bootlegged anyway,
and the city might as well license the
joints and get the revenue from it; and
so the experiment was made in estab-
fishing the city by iniquity.
In the course of time the town began
to reap the harvest which the joints
sowed- Shooting scrapes became not in
frequent. resulting in occasional muir
ders. The trail of the serpent spread
Dissolute houses came soon after the
joints, and it was found impossible to
suppress them, for the joint attracted
the class of people who operated them
and it also furnished them. with pa
irons
The harvest became greater. Boys
who had given promise of growing up
into good citizens went to the bad. Both
their health and morals were undermin-
ed by the joint and it's associate evils.
Girls, too, were ruined by their indirect
influence. Debauchery became so COM
mon that many people came to regard
it as a joke rather than as something
to be Stunned.
And the serpent travelled on. Gam
bling houses f1ourished with the joints.
Young men were feeced of their savings
in them. Employers discovered that
their tills were tapped now and then,
and they found that the tappings went
to the gambling dens.
The serpent entered the homes and
broke them up. The drink and gam
bling habits fastened themselves on the
husbands. There were stories of too
much liquor served at some of the wo-
mems afternoon card parties, from
which the participants had to be helped
home. There were whispered rumors of
excursions to Kansas City and other
places in which men and women drank
| indiscriminately OF course the usual
scandals and disgrace followed.
The community of which the town is
the center has a colony over at Lam
sing. This colony was considerably
augmented during the reign of the SER
pent in the town, and in most instances
the new colonists were put behind the
bars because of whisky and the de-
| bauchery that goes with it,
| It was a fearful crop that the town
harvested from the joint. Murders, vi
olent deaths, boys and girls ruined both
in health and in principles, homes bro
ken up, crimes committed money lost;
and it all came from building the town
by blood and establishing it by in
EQUITY.
For years the town was in lethargic
state, but when at last a majority of
the people were aroused to their condi-
ton it was almost impossible for them
to shake off the power of the serpent
So many men had lost all regard for
the law that it was almost impossible
to find jury that would convict a
| jointist even on absolute evidence.
This is not the history of a single
Kansas town alone. Several have tried
it, with variations. Some go farther
than others, but they all find the fruit
of the joint the same. It is not the
simple fact of open joints that is so bad.
but it is what goes with the joints
Whisky is bound to produce evil results
when used habitually, and its sale in
violation of law produces disrespect for
all law. Debauchery and law-breaking
are bound to follow in it's wake, and as
a rule the effects fall heaviest in the
end upon the man who encourages that
sort of thing-upon him that buildeth
a town by blood, and establisheth a city
by iniquity." 1t doesn't pay a community
to do that sort of thing.