The Adair County news., 1914-02-25
VOLUME XVII
Temperance.
To the Public:

The article by our genial neighbor
Jones in the News of Feb, 18th, IN
der the above caption, is hardly true
to its title. While appearing to ad-
nit that temperance is virtue, the
writer evidently means to give an I'M
derhand stab to the holy cause of temp
erance and prohibition. And yet he
is so indefinite and inSinuating in his
treatment of the subject that his ex-
act position is not easy for stranger
TO see. His piece is somewhat like
the celebrated fifteenth and sixteenth
chapters Of Gibbon decline and Fall
Of the Roman Empire in one respect
In those chapters Gibbon makes CO.
vert, inSinuating Sneaking attack on
Christianity, while at the opening he
seems to admit its divine origin In
all the elaborate discussions, and state
ly sentences of those chapters he new
er once reveals directly his position on
Christianity So it is with Bro. Jones.
But we who know him have not the
slightest difficulty in understanding
his position and the anlmuS of his
piece. AS he fights somewhat in the
dark and among the bushes it is not
so easy task to reply as it would be
if he had fought SQuarely in the open.
But will select a few points where
he seems to show his hand in lighting
Prohibition. In his second sentence
he makes his first fling at our cause.
"WeSpeak of the same standpoint from
which Y Y views the subject and the
PhariSaic manner in which it is often
discussed. l presume that from DR..
Jones view point any one WHO advo-
Gates total abstinence from strong
drink, and the prohibition of manu-
factCre and sale of same for beverage
purposes is guilty of discussing the
subject in a Pharisaic manner To
discuss it in sane way is to say that
whiskey is good thing to use, provid-
ed you do not make habit of getting
beaStly drunk, that it is a medicine
good for all the physical ills of human
ity, and that everybody should be al
lowed to make and sell it who desires
so to do. The sainted men and wom-
en- like John b. Cough, Clinton B.
Fisk, Henry Grady, T. S. Arthur,
Hale Johnson, J. B Finch, Frances E.
Willard, Clara c. Hoffman, J. A.
Brooks and others who spoke and
wrote and sacrificed in behalf Of total
abstinence and Prohibition were all
hypocritical pharisees according to
the Doctors view of the case. Dan
lei was a chief of the PhariSeeS and
the Rechabites tribe of Pharisees.
(see Jer. Both chapter.) The prophet
HabakkUk must have been treating
the subject in a Pharisaic manner
when he said "Woe unto him that Civ
eth his neighbor drink: that putteSt
thy bottle to him and makeSt him
drunken" (Hab. 2:l5) The Bible
doctrine of temperance, the common
sense doctrine, the scientific doctrine,
is total abstinence from all that is
harmful and moderation in the use of
that which is good.
The Doctor gives his a long disquisi-
tiOn Oh the old way of making the
stuff, on the taxation OF the same.
and on the, then and the now, Of Ii
quor drinking and its results. He
claims that liquor drinking causes
four-fcld more evil according to the
amount consumed now, than it did
then. Well, my understanding is that
whisky and brandy, even in their pur-
ity, would always make people drunk
and cause trouble, and even the Doc
tor himself admits that in the good
old days Of his youth they caused
fights Now if the quality of liquor
is so much worse at present than it
used to be, why not stop the making
OF it altogether? That is certainly
a good argument for Prohibition. But
he says the liquor of the good old days
contained more songs than fights.
Well, are we TO conclude that he has
kept in store all these long years a
supply Of the inspiring beverage of
old, and that TO il We are to ascribe
the poetic effusions from his pen that
have appeared from time to time in
Che News? 1t is said that Poe's poem
the Raven" was inspired by the
Juice Of corn and that the raven which
perched above his chamber door was
delirium tremenS, simply this and
nothing more"
Bro Jones claims that when dozen
diStillerieS were being operated in
Russell county. and mint julip was
served out in washing tubs OH election
day without money and without price,
that all the evil results were a little
extra enthusiasm Oh the part of few,
a political fisticuff or two, and a num-
Der of old toperS somewhat soaked on
public days. This seems to me TO be
quite large fish story but as he he's
proved part of it by John Smith, L