The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-06-27
". c. II. &.
CONTINUED from FIRST Pager

And yet-how shall / say2-I was
lighted up; | was feeling good"
was pleasantly jingled
hen the women get the ballot
they viii vote for prohibition. 1
said. 1T is the wives and sisters and
mothers, and they only. who will
drive the nails into the coffin of
John Barley corn
| outlined my life to CHAIRMAN and
expounded the makeup of my con-
stitution. | was no hereditary alco-
holie. / had been born with no or
ganie, chemical predisposition to-
ward alcohol. In this matter | was
normal in my generation. Alcohol
was an acquired taste It had been
painfully acquired. Alcohol had
been dreadfully repugnant thing
more nauseous than any physic
Even now do not like the the taste
Of it. / drank it only for its kick =
And from the age of FIVE TO that of
twenty-five / had not learned to care
for its kick. Twenty years of unwil-
ling apprenticeship had been required
to make my system rebelliously toll
Grant of alcohol; to make me, in the
heart and the depths Of me, DESTROYS
of alcohol.
| sketched my first contacts with
alcohol, told of my first intoxications
and revulsions and pointed out al
ways the one thing that in the end
had won me over-namely the acces-
sibilitty of alcohol Not only had it
been accessible, but every interest of
my developing life had drawn me to
it. A newsboy on the streets. a sail
or, miner, a wanderer in far lands
always where men came together to
exchange ideas, to laugh and boast
and dare, TO relax, to forget the dull
toll of tiresome nights and days al
ways they came together over alco-
hol. The saloon was the place of con-
gregation. Men gathered to it as
primitive men gather about the fire
of the squatting-place, or the fire at
the mouth of the cave.
The point is, / concluded my SER
mon, that it is the accessibility of
alcohol that has given me the taste
for alcohol. | did not care for it,
used to laugh at It. Yet here I am,
at the last, possessed with the drink
er's desire. 1T took twenty years to
implant that desire; and for ten years
more that desire had grown. And
the effect of satisfying that desire is
anything but good Temperament
ally | am wholesome-hearted and
merry. Yet when | walk with John
Barleycorn ! suffer all the damna-
ton of intellectual pessimism. But, -
II hasten to add always hasten to
add-"John Barleycorn must have
his due He does tell the truth.
That is the curse of it. The so-calIed
truths of life are not true. They e
the vital lies by which life lives, and
John Bar1eycorn gives them the lie. .
Which does not make toward
| life" CHAIRMAN said.
Very true / answered. And
THAT is the perfectest hell of it. John
lBarIeycorn makes toward death.
That is why / voted for the amend
Iment today. I read back in my life
and saw how the accessibility of al
Icohol had given me the taste for it.
You see comparatively few alcoholics
! are born in a generation. And by
alcoholics / mean man whose chem
istry Graves alcohol and drives him
resist1essiY to it. The great majority
of habitual drinkers are born not
only without desire for alcohol, but
with actual repugnance toward it.
hundredth drink succeeded in giving
them the liking But they learned
just as men learn to smoke; though
lit is far easier to learn to smoke than
! TO learn to drink They learned be-
cause alcohol was so accessible. The
women know the game They pay
for 1.-THE wives and sisters and
mothers. And when they come to
vote they will vote for prohibition.
And the best of it is that there will
Fbe no hardship worked on the coming
generation. Not having access to al
Icohol, not being predisposed toward
alcohol, it will never miss alcohol. 1t
win mean life more abundant for the
manhood Of the young boys born and
brought up-aye. and life more album
! dapt for the young girls born and
growing up TO share the lives of the
young men. Jack London, in Sat
Iurday Evening Post