The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1914-08-28
Incorporate Temperance.
Food for the Temperate and Intem-
perate to Ponder Over.

The late Norman Macleod used to tell a story to the
effect that occasion when he was driving with
parshoner the conversation turned on the subject
to whether it was rregious to take walk on Sun
day. An old clergyman present said: II can't say
that is positively Irreligous to take walk on Sab
bath day. often do it myself, but am always very
careful to go out by the back door,! Now this back.
door religion, and backdoor morality do righteous
ly abhor In the Prohibition movement there is not
only the attempted tyranny o. legal prohibition but
there is the actual tyranny of social prohibition One
of the consequences undoubtedly is the fearful increase
of those sly and secret modes of nduging the ntem-
perate appetite of which we are now hearing so much
bottle Of lager beer the dinner table can't well be
hidden from those mpertinent busy bodies who are
always wanting to regulate the lives of other people,
but bottle OF morphine can be Carried in the pocket
and nobody but yourself and the druggist who sup
plies it be any the wiser Advocates of prohibition it
to me, are amentaby lacking in the important
element of tact. Tact is a worry important thing to
have Success in well nigh everything depends cn the
possession Of it. | have not much of it myself, and
the consequence is | am always getting into mess of
some sort If had more tact perhaps should not be
speaking to you tonight on this subject and confessing
to you any beer bbbing SINS should but drink the
beer all the same and pretend | didn't. And then
what delightful acquisitionI should be to the tenn
perance platform! But Prohbitonsts, in the advoca-
cy of their movement, lact tact read story in
Magazine, the other day. which illustrates the value of
this quality: Frederick Douglass was travelling with
friend of another color in part of the country where
public sentiment was bitterly hostile to the association
of cdiors They stopped at a tavern and dned toget
her, at such spectacle the villagers, growing and
grunbfing about tho stove in the bar -room was mme
diatey disposed to mischief The bar-room phiosoph-
ers being white men, sadly troubled for the hon
or Of their color. What business has white man to
be travelling and eating with nigger, anyhow? If
he don't know what's decent we'll teach him. Tarring
and feathering for the white man seemed looming in
the very remote perspective. Frederick Douglass
slipped quietly out, and returning after little WHILE
he remarked to his companion, in good humored way
that he had just very singular sight in the sta
be Of course the murmurng crowd turned to listen.
You'll hardly believe said Douglass, but gave
my white mare and your bay horse four quarts of oats
each and they are eating side by side quietly and
contentedlv as if they OF the color. IT'S
most extraordinary. He neither laughed nor winked,
but made his remark with simple sincerity absolutely
irresistible There was moment of silence, and then
came the answer of the human heart to the wit that
had been spoken. What cursed fools are, said
one of the crowd and laugh followed which scatter
ed like burst of sunlight the gathering clouds of evil
Intention Tact had been hundred fold more effect
ual in melting prejudice tAan series of solemn lee
lures.
If the prohibition reformers had possessed tact when
they found themselves confronted with habit the
most ancient, the most deeply rooted, the most wide
spread of any habit humanity has yet formed, instead
Of attempting the impossible task of eradicating that
habit would have sought to regulate it. and so they
have deprived it of those evil excresences from which
society was suffering.
Again, if they had had tact instead of alternating
moderate men by denouncing temperate drinkers as
worse than the Incorporate ones, men who were aS
RESPONSIBLE for all the woes that come OF drunkenness
as men who were all on the downward road to hell,
they would have utilized the immense amount of tenn
perate force which these sober men had it in their
power to WELD and so they would have brought
force of public opinion to bear upon all the abuses of
the drinking system before which those abuses must,
long ere this have been swept clean away. They would
have endeavored to create and foster taste and APP
petite for the less fiery kind of ntoxcants for beer and
the lighter kinds of wines; and they would have en-
deavored to ensure that all liquor sold should be un-
aduterated-a absolutely free from all foreign and dele
terous compounds for it is fact that considerable
part of the drunkenness that exiss is caused by the
vile compounds with which alcoholic drinks are adul-
terated and it further fact that the drunkenness
thus caused is Of the vlvest, most passionate most
vindctive Sort Alchohol is not SO much stimulant
narcotic Pure alcoholic beverages tend to stupi-
fly and not to madden
And yet again, if they had had tact, finding theua