The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-05-07
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Old Light ON a New Issue.
The International Sunday School Les
son for May Is, Temperance Les
SON." Prov 23:29-S5.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
l~HlP-TO -DATENESS is not the
"a same thing as wisdom. There
are hundreds of xeeedln s,ly
EW %I modern youths 9ninS the
a@k2l highways of great cities
who know all the latest slang
and sayings and gossip and ways
of the swift world. But rev OF
them would ever be charged with the
possession of wisdom. 1t is wholesome
to go way, way back, and find out
how wise were the ancients. In es-
sentiaI knowledge of life the thinkers
of a few millenniumS ago had noth-
ing to learn from present day news
paper photographers. The youth VINO
thinks the old folks "slow' may prof
itab1v take his familiarity with the
world of today to this twenty third
chapter of that old fashioned and
antique book called the Book of Prov
CRIBS, and therein he will read an anal
ysis of drunkenness which his own
observation tells him excels the best
efforts of the latest pamphleteers.
Some folk think that the temperance
question is n new tissue" simply be-
cause it is keeping the politicians
awake nights. The Wise Man who
yam, were more up to date than some
temperance literature which bears the
imprint, 1910. The drink problem IS
older far than the printing press or
than the "Pel<ing Gazette" 1t treads
its way through human history, and
whose would follow its trail may read
plainly writtcn warnings. Can the
literary bureau of the Antf-Saloon
League improve on this ancient He
brew wise man:
'rWho hath woe? who hath sorrow?
who hath contentious?
Who hath complaining? who hath
wounds without cause?
Who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long az the wine,
They that go to seek out mixed wine.
Look not thou upon the wine when 1t
is red,
When it sparkleth in the cup.
When il goeth down smoothly:
AT the last it biteth like a serpent,
And stingeth like an adder!
Thine eyes shall behold strange things,
And thy heart shall utter perverse
Yea, thou shalt be like he that 1ieth
down in the midst of the sea.
or as he that lieth on the top of
mast.
They have stricken me. shalt thou say,
and was not hurt;
They have beaten me, and feel 1t not:
When shall awake? I will seek 1t yet
again."
Some Modern versions.
Naturally. there arc new versions of
the Wise Mans lesson being written
daily by the inexorable finger OF ex-
perience. The barber told me one the
other day, as he recounted the per-
sonaIities in a neighborhood with
which we are both familiar. Eyes, I've
certainly seen some changes there. Do
you remember Blank, the jeweler?
Well. to my certain knowledge he was
spending, fifteen years ago, not less
than fifty thousand dollars a year.
Now you can see him on the corner
though you'd never recognize him
begging for a dime. The drink did
it. I tell ycu, I don't need any
stronger temperance sermons than I've
seen with my own eyes.
Then pick up a paper reporting the
death of Robert Womack, the man
who discovered gold at Cripple Creek,
Colo, in 1901. 1t will be remembered
that Immediately upon securing the
first fruits Of his discovery, Womack
went on a prolonged spree, during
which he not only sold out his rights
for a small sum, but widely proclaimed
his good fortune. After SOLDERING up,
he went to work at daily wages, hav-
ing enjoyed one of the most costly
times on record, estimated at $780,
100000. A quarter of a billion dollar
spree-quite q record. isn't it? And
decidedly germane to the words of the
Wise Man.
A Walkers Record.
OF quite another sort is the record
of weston, the walker, who will have
completed his marvellous feat of pc
destrianism. the journey afoot from the
Pacific to tae. Atlantic. ere these
miles is quite a stroll especially when
one Is past 70 years of age, and when
It is made in record breaking time.
The youngsters who are keen on MAR
athons" should remeIn YER that Weston
so fully approves the wise Mans
words that he is total abstainer-and
hs always rests on Sunday, too. Is it
any wonder that in New. York they
plan to give q testimonial to him, in
recognition of his life message on
temperance to the youth of the land
Important rs it the battle of the
ballots against the bottle, still more
important is this work of intoxicating
the youth of today with the tested
truth of the need1essness and hurt
fitness of strong drink Probably the
Quarterly Temperance Lessons in the
Sunday school have been an important
factor in bringing into the scene of
today's public life a generation of men
liquor evil They are now engaged in
combating the entire traffic, for they
recognize. as Theodore Roosevelt said
in the Atlantic Monthly, that 1.-THE
l1QuOF DuSlHeSS uOeS ItOL SIdHQ On TIE
same footing with other occupations.
1t always tends to produce criminality
in the population at large, and law
breaking among the saloonkeepers
themselves"
The Doctors Speak UP.
In Solomon's day it was the philos-
opher who had the last word on the
drink question. Nowadays whole new
arms of service have been created in
this war. The political economist, the
business man, and the physician are
all speaking with authority. The lat
ter has taken his microscope and his
test tubes, and reports narrowing facts
about the results of alcoho'. such as
Solomon never dreamed-although the
two agree in their conclusions.
A few weeks since, at a eonven-
tiop Of medical men in Pbilada1pbia