Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1907-02-05
urHE PUDDING STICK -

| ''THE PUDDING STICK"
Miss A. Virginia Grosh, Lititz, Pa,
read brisk and helpful paper at one o.
the county conventions on "The Pudding
Stick" We quote little here and
there:
Here we often fail. Some stir at long
intervals; some stir vigorously but
spasmodically; some stir with the left
hand; some stir with their eyes shut
some stir, oh, so gently. This is better
than not to stir at all. But when we all
stir, all the time, with good steady
strokes from the right hand, something
is sure to happen.
We, too, must stir with faith. We
would not stir any thing for two minutes,
if we did not expect something to come
of it. This is the motive for stirring.
A pudding stick can't move itself-there
must be power back of it. Faith is the
power in our stirring.
Raise your voice in cheer even in your
seemingly little corner. If you cannot
stir the whole pudding to-day stir to-
morrow and tomorrow. Show your
colors. Why don't we wear our white
ribbons? Every one can do that. Isn't 1t
confession of faith to wear this badge,
now 80 we'll known?
But stirring presupposes something
to stir. Beware of empty kettles. Some
one begins to stir; result, noise and
nothing more. The pot Is empty. Are
there any unions like that9 Unions are
like empty kettles when they never
answer letters, never return report
blanks, send no representatives to execu-
tive meetings or conventions, do not sub
scribe for temperance papers, and their
members are afraid to mention the W..
G. T. U. above whisper.
1t seems to me that 1t is not as i'm
portant to stir vigorously as it is to stir
gently and persistently. OF course there
are times when we must stir for all we
are worth! But we can't keep that up all
the time. Vigorous stirring might be
called official stirring, which Is necessary,
as we said before. But stirring socially
and unofficially accomplishes more than
we are apt to believe.
We must stir harmoniously. 1t is only
by the intuitive power to imagine ones
self in another's place, and to see from
another's standpoint that We can do
justice to the conflicting opinions and
antagonistic Municipalities Of which the
world and the W. c. T. U. are full.
So let us keep stirring with faith, with
hope, with love-not forgetting that the
khaoa 10 Iowa -I1nfon Gi0nQl
A FIGHTER WHO Is AFRAID.
General Frederick D. Grant says in the
New York Defender: "Tell the young
men through your paper that General
Grant does not drink q drop OF liquor
has not for eighteen years-because he
is afraid to drink it. / tried to drink
with extreme moderation, because I
knew that alcohol Is the worst poison .
man could take into his system; but
found out it was an impossibility to
drink moderately. Because moderate
drinking is q practical impossibility, l
became an absolute teetotaler-a crank,
If you please. I will not allow it even in
my house. Drink is the greatest curse,
because practically all crime and all dis
aster are the result of it. Nearly every
great calamity in the country, barring
accidents of nature, 10 due to drink.
Ninety-five per cent will make it no
less-ninety-f per cent OF assertions
and acts of lawlessness in the army is
due to drink. If could, by offering my
body sacrifice, free this country from
the fell cancer, the demon drink, I'd
thank the Almighty for the privilege Of
doing it. If I had the greatest appoint
Il i've powers in the country, no man
would get even the smallest appointment
from me unless he showed proof of bis
absolute teetotalism. As it is, my own
appointees, the members of my staff, not
one of them touches drop. They know
better"
The following, which we clip from the
Waterville Mail, makes pretty interest
| ing reading just now, when there is 80
much talk of resubmission in the air.
The illogical connection" which the Mail
thinks It discovers Is obvious. It's .
case of homes or saloons; We cannot we'll
have both, and it's up to US to choose
which we would rather have: ut Is q
remarkable fact that according to the
United States census, Maine is the only
state east of the Mississippi River that
has more home owners than home
renters. And she has thirty-six per cent
more people who own their homes than
rent their places of abode. Maine also
has no licensed saloons. Do these facts
have any connecticut When We look
back to the ante-prohibition period in
the history of the state, and recall the
old hats and rags that were stuffed into
broken windows, and the Thousands Of
farms and other homes that were under