Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-11-07
Ed5lbr's Letter Box
4 paster's Reply.

Rev. Harry Adams Jersey, or Carl
bou. Maine. has sent the following let
ter in reply to one of the liquor ad-
vertisine circulars which the United
States government forces into the
home. Of Maine, in violation Of the
spirit OF Names laws. This adver-
Using by the makers and sellers OF all
kinds of booze foods the mails going
alike to plug-uglies and pastors. No
home can be protected from It. the
more you hate the traffic and wish to
protect your family from its devilish
influence, the more you will be insulted
and prosecuted by these interests
through their local friends who know
you. We hope Mr.. Jerseys letter will
70 into the hands Of some stockholder
Of that company who still has a spark
of manhood and human feeling left.
and that it will burn into his brain
md heart as the fiery liquids he pre-
,ares for others burns out their in
telligence, their pride, their honor, their
owe of family and home, their use
fulness. and finally their souls. Read
he Rev. Hersey's letter: Ed
Caribou, Maine, Nov. 3. 1916.
Messrs. H. w. Huguley Co.,
Boston, Mass,
One Of your periodic circulars. adver-
Using the celebrated liquors sold by
he House of Huguley since 1884, has
cached me today.
At the same time received the Ken
lebec Journal Of Nov. 3, containing a
ront-page. double column. convincing
testimonial as to the worth of your
whiskey-presumably yours since you
claim 100000 customers in New Eng
and. At any rate we will assume that
the whiskey was of the same quality
and that the testimonial is Of value.
A quart or so of this whiskey, it ap-
pears, transformed two young men,
brothers who loved each other, into two
mad men who hated each other into
two dead men who are now forever
beyond the reach Of your persuasive
adve sing and your famous whiskey.
And l am thinking Of profit and loss.
The profit. few pennies in your till,
or the till of some equally meritorious
Boston merchant striving to save Old
Maine from the horrors of "Prohibi-
ton BOOZE" The loss: to the state and
nation Of two young men, one % the
other 20 years Of age; to two young
women their husbands; to two infants,
their fathers.
There is another profit. perhaps, in
the lesson this tragedy may be to all
who read it. There is a loss, too, to
the community and the state, in repu-
alton for sobriety and order.
l am wondering how you are feeling
about it whether you sold the whiskey
in this particular case or not) you who
have been in this sort of business more
than four score years, and who are
using all means in your power to in
luce one hundred thousand other men
in New England, whose own COM
munities In many cases protect them,
to buy your whiskey, to start on the
road which never ascends, to invite
Murder and Suicide to become their
companions, Disgrace and Distress to
abide in their homes.
No. l am not really wondering, l
know how you feel. l know that you
who perhaps came into a business
which had in its early years a fair re-
pute among men, but which you now
know. as we'll as do, to be condemned
the world over-I know that you de-
plore the tragedies which you make
hot
and despise this business which is fast
being driven from the face of the
earth. l know that you do not really
enjoy the distinction which is yours
OF being one Of the largest distributors
OF what Mr.. Dooley calls fluid extract
OF hell" And I know that when de-
1verance comes, as it has to so large
a part of our national area and to so
many millions of a free people, YOU
will be glad. You will rejoice to in
vest your money in constructive in
dustry and to be yourselves born into
some calling which will not debar YOU
from the social standing, the fraternal
privileges and other desirable estates
which you now forfeit for the sake of
continuing to make money by a method
~ yoo "a q accustomed, ana
which still may claim a "legal' right
in some states.
I am calling you no names and I am
expressing no personal hatred. For
your business have the most intense
hatred. and I am working INCREASINGLY
to kill 1t. Believing in the Fatherhocd
Of God and the brotherhood Of Man I
have love enough for you to wish you
speedy death as liquor dealers and
new life as more profitable servants
Of mankind.
You need no condemnation other
than chat which eighty-two years in a
life-wrecking business is bringing with
increasing force to your modern
minds. You have not to answer to
me or any other of your opponents for
what your business has done, and to
those but to God who made you and
those whose ruin has been accom-
plished. You know whether or not
your brothers blood crieth unto God
from the ground.
Yours truly.