The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-06-17

liquor; bu. if you drink too much,
you must pay for the added privilege
of being made fool by it. So the
law catches man on going in and
on coming out, and then the State
and county and the town chuckle
over the fact that the revenue Ia
coming in all right.
What does prohibition say? Does
it offer to prevent the use of whis-
key, to change mems appetites and
make the world sober in a day? BY
no means. 1t simply proposes to
make the sale of whiskey a misde-
meanor and write it down among
the crimes which men commit. If
thereafter men sell it, they must do
so just as those who steal-secretly
and clandestinely, knowing that they
are violating law of the State; and
If they are caught up with, they
must put a revenue into the treasury
not however, as now, for keeping
law; but for violating one.
But the dispensary advocate says
to me and to every defender of the
people and of civic righteousness,
go away! You are injuring our
! business. You are in politics. You
want to cripple our schools and de-
crease our means of paving our city
Streets The pious lawmaker says,
"Whiskey is very bad thing; but
men will drink it, and are willing to
allow them to do so if they
will put money into the public treas
ury." So barter in the worst vice
of the age goes on, approved by men.
who declare they seek what is best
and most helpful to the masses Of
people.
Surely our civilization is defec-.
tive, or our lawmakers must be actu-
ated by some other motive than the
public good. There was a day when
witches were hung or burned in
these United States. A woman was
burned in Massachusetts, because It.
was said she had caused a child to
vomit pins. She was tried and con-
demned before venerable and be-
wigged Judge, and the verdict doubt
less was rendered by jury of her
peers. When we read of such an in-
cident connected with the history Of
our forefathers in America, we are;
| AoI SC1 (aAA WAO(uOl VIC 6AOu4O 1ouAni
or be sorrowful. Rather are we
ashamed to think that such thing
could be true among an enlightened
people. A hundred years hence, the
people will laugh at the civilization.
of to-day, and wonder how it was.
possible for men of wisdom and in-.
tegrity to legalize the sale Of the
worst poison known to commerce. IS
| I hope the temperance people will
hurry along with their warm water
and soap to bathe the eyes Of the:
solons who give us the laws, in order,
that they may be opened to see the
bathing is going on, that vision Of q
dollar in revenue can be washed
away, we shall need no further legds-;
lation. The whiskey traffic will die
Of it's own accord, denounced by the;
sober man and cursed by the drink
i ing man.
i The highest obligation now rest:
ing upon US is to let the hogs and;
the revenue therefrom perish, while
we make honest efforts to take care
j of and redeem the men who are
possessed of the drink devil.
But let US not suppose the refor-
nation can be effected and complet-
ed within a six month. That whis-
key is still used by many persons IN
Clarendon. county, and that whiskey
can be bought in many places In
Georgia, is sometimes laughed at
and the prohibitory law is made 8
butt of ridicule. Men forget that the
whiskey habit is Of long standing
and is deep seated. For many de-
cades it has had the right of way. II,
then, we can root it out in fifty years,
or can raise up set Of sober chill
dren through a hundred years, We
shall accomplish a good work. We
cannot plant a seed to-day, and reap
a harvest tomorrow. We must learn
to despise the evils of the day, while
}, we continue our work of building
for the future. If the sale Of whis-
key is made a misdemeanor, the day
will come when the use of it will be
universally discountenanced and
, finally abolished.-C. c. Brown In
Baptist Courier.