The San Francisco call., 1905-01-29

TN old log distillery, famous
{ throughout the county, had just
[ been destroyed by fire, and sew
1 eral men, sitting in the court
house, were talking about the passing
away of this landmark, dating back
.o British rule, when Limuel Jucklin
poke up: "And l understand that
It's not to be rebuilt. This shows how
sentiment has grown in a certain di-
ection. Why, 1 can remember the
line when if a still house had burned
down they would have begun to re-
cuild it before the ground cooled off.
have been interested. 1t would have
been almost like the shutting off the
supply of milk from a youngster. In
those days if a man hollered hello,
you'd ask him to have drink before
you inquired the nature of his business.
That much was naturally to be in
ferred But good many felix's will tell
you that there want as much drunk
enness then as there is now. Well
there want as many people. If there
had been as many people there would
have been more drunkenness. The fact
is that a good many men were about
full all the time, and as no one had
ever seen them sober nobody could
tell when they were drunk
Then you don't believe that dram
is good for man." said the County
Judge.
We'll, if he thinks it is, mebby it is
as long as he is justified In thinkin so.
But in these days it requires about all
Of a mans keenness, his freshness, you
understand, to make livin' or to push
anything to success, and a good sized
horn of liquor nearly always takes off
the wire edge. 1 can recollect when,
the average lawyer thought he had to
be about half drunk before he could
make a speech. Whisky gave him
bigger flow of words. and as whisky
was the jury and sometimes the judge
as well as the lawyer, liquor appeared
to have pretty nigh everything its own
way. A trial want hardly anything
talker was usually regarded as the
smartest man, for of all critics in the
world whisky is the worst.
whisky not only furnished the ar
gument, but very often supplied the
cause of litigation. Most Of the trials
were Of a criminal nature, the cause
for an ordinary law suit having result
ed in a fight. And / could always be-
lieve the. story they told on old Tom
Marshall, one of the greatest lawyers
of his time, reckon. One day he was
rather hurriedly engaged to defend a
feller, but as he was pretty far along
in his cups-quart cups at that-he got
off on his wrong foot and began to
prosecute He tiptoed in his wrath.
He painted the feller as bein' the worst
scoundrel on the earth. Just then
somebody pulled at his coattail and
says, Tom, you're on the wrong side
What did Tom do, apologize? No, he
just sloshed his liquor over on the
other side and there he was. He said,
Such, gentlemen of the jury, is the
false argument that will be brought
forward against this inoffensive gen.
tleman,' and so forth, and then he pro-
ceeded to clear him. The young lawyer
had to drink because the old feller set
him the example. Why. in those days
a man didn't think he was at himself
until he had about three drinks. There
was hardly any such thing as farm
machinery. Thev cut wheat with a
cradle and plowed with cast iron
thrashed grain with fail and"
Here old Uncle Ben Weatherby
spoke up. Yes. and folks were
dinged sight better off then than now.
There wasn't half as much stealin'
a-goin' on"
mo- Limuel admitted, because there
want half as much to steal nor half
as many fools to, steal it. But when a
man thinks as you do, Uncle Ben, there
amt no use to arguy with him. Mo-