The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1908-01-02
MARCH or NEMESIS.
Preachers Drank a Hundred Years
Ago.
TINES HAVE CHAKGED.
(American Farmer }

(American Farmer
In 1911, nearly one hundred years
ago, there was at the present site OF
Brooklyn, Indiana, a curious combin.
alton in the way Of man. He was
preacher, farmer. distiller and bar
keeper all rolled in one. He had
come into the then territory in 1897,
and was the first Methodist minister
among the early settlers on the
Whitewater. The town Of Brooklyn,
IN FRANKLIN county, near the Ohio
border, was laid out in 1907, just a
century ago, and this preaching
whiskey seller was main actor in
starting the place. On Sunday he
preached regularly to his congrega-
toin Of surrounding settlers. mostly
small farmers, and after services
set up the liquor" to the ''sin-sick
souls" Everybody drank in those
days, what they called "drams," the
white and water-clear product Of the
old-fashioned copper still. In fact,
the first industry in every pioneer
commsnity was distillery, being
regarded as equally important with
the mill that ground the grain. The
preachers were all tipplsrs and many
Of thom drank to excess and the very
| first Of all the temperance reform
movements in this country was or
ganized for the express benefit of
the clergy.
Times have changed. We want
our readers. especially the farming
class, to take note of the contrast
presented between 1907 and 1907
and the eventful century interven-
ing. Take note of Parson Man.
waring, mixing his sermons and
whiskey in the same log cabin, where
entertainment was furnished for
man and beast" then look around
in the rural community where you
live and count up the farmers who
drink liquor in excess or even in
moderation. A drinking preacher,
Of course. would no longer be tolsr-
ated. He is as extinct az the dodo.
No liquor is served on the sideboards
rs it was in 1907 in every home.
Drinking has become unpopular and
questionable. No farmer thinks Of
serving whiskey in the harvest field,
as was universal hundred and even
fifty years ago. The churches are
now all standing in solid column be-
hind the temperance movement. The
W. C. T. u, the Y. M. c. A., the
Endsavorers and other Christian as
sociations are all working heroically
against the universal curse. The
advance has been great and no class
has benefited more from the reform
than the tillers Of the soil. There is
not strictly farming community in
the United States where the saloon
has a particle Of show in standup
vote. The farmer has become sober.
He finds better use for his corn than
to run it through a still; better use
for his fruit than to convert it into
the brain-maddening "apple-jack."
Nemesis is marching on! This
goddess, sacred in the old Greek cal
endar to revenge, is coming into her
own. The fight has been long, the
battles have been bloody, the CEN
turies are strewn with millions of
men dead from drink, with countless
homes wrecked and ruined, with
blasted regulations, with scared
consciences, with that hope deferred
which maketh the heart sick. John
Barleycorn, generalissimo Of the
hosts of evil, the beasts of prey, the
legions Of devils, the fiends incar-
nate, is being driven to the wall.
The scorpion is being surrounded
with fire. The bounds of the hunted
tiger grow less and less. The hosts
of hunters press on, remorselessly,
mercilessly, armed with argument,