The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-07-11
SHARPSIGNS
I'm a Prohibitionist
BY J.. A. MAGOON..

than usual mental gifts. Ills laugh OF
derision is still in my ear at my words
of caution as to the danger that beset
him because of his temperate use of Ii
quor. The film keeps turning and see
the serpent fastening its grip upon him.
He sometimes appears in public some
what unsteady and his tongue at times
loses its ready wit. Now the viper has
won. My friend sleeps in the gutter. In
his mouth, which was wont to utter wis
dom, the flies have laid their maggot
eggs. He fingers for a time, curse to
himself and the members of his family.
and then sinks into a worthless drunk
ards grave. Why don't the anti-prohibi-
tonists shout BLESSED be rum; thrice
blessed be the rum-seller who LAYS his
tribute upon such specimen of manhood,
on him who entered upon his life's work
with such hopes"
| cry Enough but memory throws
another shade upon the screen. This
time a sturdy Englshman. | am hardly
more than boy. | argue with him of
the danger that turks in the wine cup.
He is insulting. No man, says he, has
right to legislate as to what shall eat or
drink. The man who refrains from
drinking because he is afraid to trust
himself is a coward. | give wine to my
sons so that they may not be tempted to
get it by stealth" Oh, woe what have
we now on the screen? This proud Eng
lishman is bloated drunkard, and now |
see his coffin bearing him away Death
to him was a blessed relief.
Following closely | see the shade of
his son. In a drunken frolic / see him
fall to his death and out goes another
shining light
But still the moving pictures come and
go. | am talking with a proud father,
a man as gentle as a woman, but he has
become angry with me because ] suggest
that drinking is dangerous thing, and
that we ought not to use the cursed stuff
because the temptation to Overndulge is
too unequal contest and we ought to
desist because our example may do others
harm. He Indignantly tells me that no
people can be free wnere the majority
can impose upon the minority any stump
tuary law. Oh that very high-sounding
word "sumptuary' has monument of
sin to answer for. My young son." my
friend says, has his wine Just as often
to use it he will take it with moderation.
The son now appears on the screen in
the full glow of manhood. He is the pet
of society, fine-loOking, proud affable,
the pride of his fathers heart But what
is that report and puff of smoke? All,
someone has turned the death dealing
bullet into his own brain. Horrors upon
horrors it is he. He who was once the
boy drinking wine from his fathers glass
the father who would have no ''sumptu-
airy law. Still the buzz of the wheel goes
on but my hand refuses to record the
hideous pictures that | see. Those who
have been in this community for the last
thirty-two years with me know them
just as well as |, and yet some will laugh
with derision at any attempt to Danish
the curse of drink from this fair land
Out of a desire to crafty what appears
to be a harmless desire to take drink,
in spite of the dead and living witnesses
to the remOrselessness of drink they say
> no sumptuary law for lis!
| am a prohibitonist because | want
to stop wife beating. Look at the records
of the divorce court and you will find
that nearly all the cruelty to wives is in
Aicted by drunken men,
am prohbitionist because | want to
see every man take his earnings home to
provide comforts for his wife and little
ones and not spend it in that which does
him and them incalculable harm.
am prohibitionist because | don't
want to see the father go staggering up
against a policeman as he reels out of
the saloon and then be taken to Jail and
fined five or six dollars another burden
that has to fall upon his unoffending fa-
mily
am a prohibitionist for a thousand
other reasons which there is no time to
state,
| would like to see some of the anti
prohibitionists stand on King or Queen
street, near Fort, with me some day and
see an habitual woman drunkard that
may frequently be seen in that location
as she passes by If such persons are
not stubbornly blind or unalterably BIZ
assed by pecuniary considerations to
watch her as she passes by will make
prohibitionists of them.
Let the vote on the 10Th day of July
cut out this traffic in drink, an era of
prosperity such as this country has never
seen will surely follow This is what has
happened in every other place where pro-