The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1905-08-04
TEMPERANCE TALK "FIzZLE"
STATE TEMPERANCE SECRETARY
IS A GOOD RAMBLER.
He Had Large Audience and a Good
Enough Theme, But His OratOry
Was Poor Stun.

/ The poorest temperance grafton
| ever listened TO by a GoOdland audi
/ ence was delivered at the opera house
/ Sunday evening by Rev ". L Dexter
! secretary OF the state temperance un-
/ ion There was an opportunity for
a man that had anything in him The
/ churches gave up their services for
a union meeting; the audience was
| large; the people were willing tC
hear "OratOry," said Daniel Web
ster. must exist in the man, in the
subject, and in the occasion" The
| last two conditions were evident to
all, but the man was like a reed shak-
en- by the wind. 1t is too often true
that when a preacher is nil in the
ministry, they palm him of on an in
duigent public as a temperance lee
tUrer or an evangelist
Rev. Dexter launched himself out
into the deep, by taking as his text
Romans 13:12-''The night is far
spent, the day is at hand: let US there
fore cast OF the works Of darkness,
and let US put on the armor Of light -
Surrounded by the dignity and the
earnestness Of the occasion, he trified
away a little while in cracking stale
jokes and telling his audience that a
minister divides his text into three
par treats II III LnEeG ways ne
takes his text, he leaves it, and he
never gets back to it" Whether or
not that constitutes his logic Of dis
course, that was what happened to
him He wandered in a great wilder
ness Of words, clawed the atmosphere,
wrenChed his vocal cords and went
through other gymnastics-as though
elOquence consisted in arms and legs
and fOg-hOrn voice.
The speaker referred to his subject
as being broader than temperance;
that the big fight he was pitted in was
not a fight for temperance, but a
fight against the disrespect for law;
that if your boy gets drunk, blame
yourself; that you can't Iegisiate
goodness into a man. He talked him
self out Of temperance into law and
then practically expressed disgust for
law because it couldn't save anybody.
Rev. Dexter spoke at length on
what we would call the tyrannical
and high handed method Of the cOun-
" attorney at Pittsburg, Kan, in
cleaning up that town Of joints and
saloons, and said it just suited him
That was the bulk OF his harangue.
That august county attorney institu-
ted an inquisitiOn against the business
men Of that town to bulldoze them
into being infOrmants against the
jOintists- He overcame their fracti-
BUSINESS with threats OF prison bars.
and made himself lord Of creation. At
the next election he was very properly
showed under Of course, but now the
attorney general has made him an
assistant and his big stick practices
will begin again.
This paper does not favor temper
ance upon any such basis as that, but
it does favor temperance in a more
natural course; not temperance to
arise out Of discord, division and fac
tiOnal enmity, but temperance where
IN the hands Of the officers are up
held by a body Of the best citizens of
the community not temperance to
satiate a desire for individual glory,
but temperance for its own sake, in
all sincerity and for which sacrifice
would willingly be made
Mr.. Dexter demonstrated his ex-
treme littleness and lack of a sense of
prOpriety as a broad minded" public
speaker when he dragged out the ghost
Of an exaggerated report that the
board Of education Of GOOdland had
threatened and inundated the prin-
cipal OF the high school for his ac-
tivity in the temperance cause, and
thus made the members of the school
board to appear as abettOrs Of law
lessness, crime and a corrupted NOR
ality. 1t was a bad break against good
men, and was stimulated OF course
by a jaUndiced condition Of the local
temperance body, which for a lack
Of tact and power to organize temper
ance interests, is becoming famous.
The people Of GOOdland and Sher-
man county Will always be glad to
hear a good speech on temperance
a finished prOductiOn-but they are
capable Of being bored like any other
intelligent community. 1t will not do
for the orator to content himself
lazily with saying something about
his chosen subject He needs first Of
all TO resolve his thought into abso-
lutte unity Of aim and effect, reject
ing mercfiessly all that distracts from
this or unduly delays it Give the
people a speech that has form, unity,
clearness, force, stuffed with some
thing beside wind, and delivered with
a degree CT prOpriety and scholarship,
and they viii not express so universal
disappointment as they did over the
effort Of the state temperance secre-
tary.