The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-01
TALES FOR PROHIBITIONISTS

From the Louisville Courier-Journal. TN Tennessee, as well as in Maine and in other prohibition states. we have \ an Illuminating example of how pro- hihition does not prohibit. The supreme court holds constitutional an act of the state legislature under which 1t is un- lawful to make whisky in Tennessee. | Thus a legitimate business comes to an end without enforced abstinence from in- diligence in the beverage being accom- plished by the law, or the prophets of reform.
 In Tennessee a gentleman goes to his club, opens his locker, takes out his bot tie. helps himself and his friends and makes merry regardless of the spirit of the prohibition law. but not in violation of it's letter. He Is not forbidden by statute to have locker. He may give an order to the steward of his club to buy him s1Oo worth of liquor and sign | tickets against the order until the stock is exhausted, and the steward can always buy the liquor. "Speakeasies'' serve the element that does not belong to clubs, | and moonshine stills will do larger bus mess, with a more thorough neighbor- hood sympathy and protection as re- suit of the abolition of the business of distilling whisky lawfully.
 A law in Kentucky similar to that up- held by the supreme court of Tennessee would destroy great industry without materially affecting the drink problem. It would be tyranny and injustice. It would be farce and false pretensef But 1t would not be prohibition of intem- perance. It is demonstrable that love finds a way, no matter whether it is love of woman or love of wine. Love laughs at locksmiths and lawsmiths, and gains its end.
 The Helespont lying between Leander and Hero was not an effective prohibtor of the visits of the youth of Abydos to the priestess of Aphrodite at Sestos. Mus acus tells us that he swan the Hele- spont not only in summer, when it might have proved an invigorating ex- ercise and an appealing act of gallan- | try, but also in midwinter. It's icy cur | rents failed to cool his ardor, while Hero's torch famed from the tower upon | raging seas. Nothing but death ended his visits. Whether or not this love af- fair gave rise to the expression "in spite of hell and high water'' Musaeus does not say, nor the poets after him. But it remains a fact that discouragemeflts | in the form of obstacles placed in the
 way do not deter anyone who Is in pur-
 suit of his inamorata or his bottle. Helen, ;,c handsome daughter of Zeus and Leda,
 Lad so many suitors that by the advice of the sage Ulysses they were bound
 by oath to respect the choice of the fair
 est woman in Greece. But when she chose Menelaus, Paris carried her off
 to Troy. The Trojan war resulted. Men
 claus declined to consider the walls of
 Troy as being sufficient to prohibit him
 from claiming the girl. So mulch for prohibition. 4
 An example of how man is guided in
 his personal conduct by his own char
 acter and not by outside interference is provided by the case of Ulysses, whose
 valor served to cause the armor of the
 great Achilles to descend upon his shoui- ders as hero's reward, driving Ajax
 mad with envy. He had many trying
 adventures during his ten years return to liar seen rocky Ithaca" When he neared the Sicilian coast where the Si- rens had never experienced the least trouble turing sailormen to their death,
 he lashed himself to the mast and sailed
 by with unveered helm, the pattern of a
 man above temptation. This, according
 to legend, caused tho Sirens to throw
 themselves into the sea in despair.
 The tale of how Paris occasioned a
 bloody war and brought disaster upon
 himself because he was not man enough
 to resist the charms of Helen and play
 fair, and the story of Ulysses and the
 Sirens might profitably be considered in
 connection with each other by young
 men to whom drink is temptation. The
 tale of Leander's1 g. reckiessness of results and that of Menelsus securing Helen from