The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-09-02

There is a story that advocates of
prohibition are fond of reciting. and
il is SO TO speak, one OF their trump
cards. 1t is very pathetic indeed.
when delivered from the lips OF a
prohibition speaker. and it is equally
sad when looked at from the point Of
view that ! am presenting: Here is
the story:
- It was in a small town and the
subject Of prohibition was being agi-
tated. The business men believed
that the best interests of the town as
a possible city were best conserved
by granting to every one liberty of
choice,
The assembly were about to
vote for the open saloons, when from
the dark corner where she sat in
rags and with sunken eyes and dis
heveled hair, so the prohibition
speaker puts it, there arose a gray
haired, prematurely old woman. and
she said: Before you vote to sell
rum in your God-fearing city, let me
tell you my story
She then went on to relate how
her only son, her handsome and no.
BILE and brave boy had been ruined
by the accused drink (see the evo-
luton of the bad cat) and how he
had spent every dollar of his money
in the wicked saloons, leaving her in
old age a pauper and broken-heart-
ed. The point is brought out that
the prosperity of the city is noting
to the necessity of saving the sons,
and the town voted prohibition
This tells the whole story. The
mother had always sought to save
her boy by process of removing tenn
tation from his path, and his self
control and his mental strength were
an unknown quantity. The story of
the Garden of Eden is an allegory of
the Garden Life. 1t is noticeable that
God did not remove the serpent
from the garden, and the tree of
forbidden fruit was not hidden by a
high wall. Man develops only thru
cultivation of his own will by becom-
ing master of himself and his sur
rounings. This mastery comes thru
freedom of choice and discrimina-
ton, not by elimination or temta-
ton.
Progress of Control
Men who as boys are safeguard
ed from every trial, warned against
! this, that and the other tree in the
garden of life every obstacle re-
moved from their path and fear fed
to them with every breath must be
| strong and wise indeed if they devel-
op into men. They are usually weak
| willed puppets. 1t is not by elimina-
ton but by control that we progress.
Jesus. the great teacher, taught a
! lesson when he said:> Resist not
| evil Because it is by resistance
that a force strengthens. = Look your
enemy squarely in the fare. Moth
ing that is external, man-made, can
harm you. Your only enemy is your
own mental state. Cease blaming
everything and everyone but our
selves for existing conditions. Tenn
tatiOns are the Indian clubs of the
mind, that teach us discrimination
and develop the power of mastery.
This lesson of mastery cannot be
learned by running away from what
ever tempts. | am not prepared tC
say that we cannot do without sa-
looms. Indeed We can do without
many of the things that go to make
up our so-calIed civilization.
What | do say, and want to EN-
phasize is that We gain nothing by
forcing others to comply. with our
ideas, simply because we lack moral
courage to admit that there is nc
danger and no harm and no power
of any kind resident in inanimate
things, but that the trouble lies
within our own uncultured Wills.
Everything is for use, and has its
BIASC anu pun pOoS' uOl Z 10 III sam
saying the fact that a drink oil
brandy has saved a life many a time
and oft. The eXhilaration and the
stimulant of drink has been sung in
song and story. This comes to us
side by side with the stories of want
and misery and depravity that have
ACCOMPANIED the habit of excessive
drinking. But the point is that nei
Their the one picture or the other
constitutes the lesson.
Because drink of whisky saved
a mans life we need not pour gal
Ions of it down our threats, and be.
cause thru excessive drinking a man
has ruined himself and his family
neither should We blame the whisky