The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-07-20

conviction, but by psychic influence
similar to that operating in nypno ism.
1t is not Ill described by the Sweden
borg in MS notion OF spheres Of in
fuence emanating from angels, and
acting, he says, over considerable dis
tances. And, speaking of angels, this
persistent (not to say pertlnacious)
agitation of prohibition has been kept
no: and aggressive mostly by women,
and We all know what mesmeric,
i ypnotic, captivating power they
WELD, not by argument, but by the at
tractiveness of their own personality
A state of spiritual excitement
sometimes becomes actually epidemic.
Il: is related that, in England years
ago, during a religious revival in a
rural section, persons attending the
service often fell down in epileptic
fits; and that more than once a man
who had never attended a single
meeting was seized with similar con-
vulsions while at work or ira, cling
on the hig way. A community has
sometimes been obsessed with the sui
cidal mania. In 1893 in Versailles,
France, in population of about 30
900, 1900 persons killed themselves.
And when anything becomes Gus
tom most men are hardly open to
reason concerning it. 1t appears very
strange now; but in old days, before
the war;" in Newberry county (then
district) when a candidate for a seat
in the State legislature, VITO was well
known to the people as capable and of
high character, was defeated, it was
admitted, because ne refused to follow
what was called the time-honored
custom of treating to LIQUOR.
To return to the ladies-they rave
been the chief active power (some
would say, the insiration) OF the
total prohibition agitation and nave
largely impressed the movement with
their characteristics. Now, with all
Il cir talents and virtues-which no
one appreciates and honors more than
women are decidedly deficient in
the sense of justice. Men generally
lack il; and women have it less tnan
men, as even John Stuart Mills, one
of the earliest and certainly the abIest.
of the advocates of woman's rights,
felt forced to admit. To them-be-
ing highly ent asiastic and emotional
and given to what We lawyers call
cutting across lots"-the end in view
is so engrossing g that they usually give
little heed to the means, except as they
promote the end and consequently do
not accord the rights of the individual
man the consideration to which those
rights are entitled They themselves
are "cabinned, cribbed, confined" by
all sorts of rules of dress, etiquette,
speech, etc., and very subject to the
society about them; and so, partly by
nature, and chiefly from habit of life,
hey can not see why society should
not have complete control of all mems
lives, especially in behalf Of w-at
they think a good thing. And cler-
gy, the next most jealous workers for
prohibition, are generally swayed by
the same sentiment; for their lives,
like those of women, are largely un-
der the rule of ordinances, precedents
and customs. The lives Of both Of
u ese classes of good people being
very much might say, chiehy-ex-
erted in selfrepression, they naturally
apply themselves industriously to the
effort of make men negatively good.
Il is one Of the saddest Of tie ano-
malities of humanit that the two
classes Of people who are most jealous
for mans welfare are the two which,
in every free country, strive hardest
to deprive him of the precious boon
of individual liberty.
read not long ago an account of
what seemed to me a very funny man
Hesitation of this spirit to make men
goody-goody. 1t appears that, some
where in New England, prize of a
gold watch-and chain, too, think
was awarded a young man Of 1S or
20 years of age, because he had never
taken a drink of liquor, never sworn
an oath, never smoked or chewed TO
bacco and never kissed woman.
Never kissed woman! Poor lamb!
l wonder if he has not been smothered
before this in the scramble of women
to press his virgin lips.
The opposition to the extreme meas