The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-12-26
A LETTER FROM IDA
A STIRRING VOICE FROM WARD
ONE OF CADDO PARISH
THE PROS ARE lining UP
Terrific Arrangement of an Evil Which
Despoils the Home-A Blot and a
Removed from Caddo January Il.
Ida, La, Dec. 25, 1907.


Editor Caucasian-After reading YOU
strong and logical speech i'll Shrevepor,
of few nights since, I have decided to
add my mite to the great tidal wave that
promises SO favorably to sweep from the
face of the earth the damnable curse of
the saloons of the fair and promising
land of Caddo. | am glad the time is
near at hand when | can vote against
this hydra-headed monster-when | can
lined up with those noble men and
women whose pure thoughts and feel
ings and aspirations, can on bcnded knee
ask the aid of the righteous God of
heaven Ill cause so portentlous, so es-
sentialy necessary. If | had 10 other
| reason but its association, | would vote
| for prohibition. Not that | do not be-
lieve there are many good people, or at
least few, on the enemy's side but to
, to my idea how blind, how deluded anl
SO far from the right way. May God
help them ere the 18th day of January
to open their eyes and cast their vote for
the good of home and country. Think.
my friends, if you vote against prohibi
ton, that a person is known by the
company he keeps, and you will be
classed with the vile and profane, the
degraded, unconscious and defamed and
can you afford it? No, no, thousand
times no! Let me beseech you in the
name of law and order and the love of
home, of father and mother, of sister
and brother, children, wife or friends.
good morals and everything that tends
to lift men and women, boys and girls
to higher and better and nobler life,
vote to abolish from the fair city of
Shreveport this cancerous and unsightly
evil.
Do the saloon men ever stop long
enough in their wild greed for filthy
lucre to consider the moral side of life ?
Not whit Do they foster Sunday
schools and churches? That is out of
their line of business. Then, in what
sense or to what extent are they any
benefit to the world? In life of fifty
years | have failed to hear of or see any
Hear what even the infdel Robert g.
lngersoll says: Il am aware that there
is prejudice against the man engaged
from the time it issues from the coiled
and poisonous worm in the dstillery
until it empties into the hell of death,
dishonor and crime, that it demoralzes
everybody that touches it from its
source to where it ends. do not believe
that anybody can contemplate the subject
without becoming prejudiced against the
liquor crime All that we have to do, is
to think of the wrecks on either bank of
the stream of death, of the suicides, of
the poverty, of the ignorance, of the i'll
sanity, of the destitution, of the little
children tugging at the faded and weary
breasts of weeping and despairing wives.
asking for bread: of the talented men
of genius it has wrecked, the men strug
CLING with imaginary serpents produced
by this devilish thing; and you think of
the jails, of the aims ms-houses, of the asy-
lums, of the poisons, of the scafol1s
upon either bank, do not wonder that
every thos+epl man is prejudiced
against the SSf called alcohol Intem-
perance cuts down eouth in its vigor,
manhood in its strength, and age in its
weakness. 1t breaks the fathers heart,
bereaves the doting mother, extin
gushes natural affections, erases con-
jugal loves, blots out hlial attachments,
blights parental love, and brings down
mourning age in sorrow to the grave.
1t produces weakness not strength; sick
ness, not health; death, not life It'll
makes wives widows, children orphans,
fathers fends, and all of them paupers
and beggars. 1t feeds rheumatism,
nurses gout, welcomes epidemics, invites
cholera, imports pestlence AMI embraces
consumption. 1t covers the land with
idleness, misery and crime 1t fills our
jails, supplies OUR aims houses and de
mands our asylums. 1t engenders con-
troversies, fosters and cherishes riots.
1t is the lifeblood of the gambler, the
element of the burglar, the prop of the
highwayman an the support of the mid
night incendiary. 1t crowds the peniten-
tiaries and furnishes victims for your
scaffolds. 1t countenances the liar. re-
spects the thief and esteems the bias
phemers. 1t defames benevoence, hates
love, scorns virtue and slanders inno-
cence. 1t invites the father to butcher
the helpless offspring, helps the husband