The Clayton news. (Clayton, N.M.) 19??-1954, 1916-01-08
headed citizens who are making this
little city habitable.
wild and WOOlly and the Bullets
Sang Home, Sweet Home"

is difficult to realize that this is the
same town. II was then the widest
and wooliest of the wild and woolly,
it was then that the sweet hum of
the roulette wheel and the gentle
click of the poker chip lent music
to the cadence of the foot steps of
our wives and children as they pass
ed along our main street and the
ominous bark of the playful AS
sent the cold chills down our back
bone and hastened our footsteps to-
ward home and safety, and the local
color at that time would have put
the pens of Owen Wister, Bret
Harte, o. Henrys or Rex Beach in
a frenzy of activity. The change in
the moral atmosphere is as light to
darkness but then we could not re-
main as we were for we are living
in a great age My friends, be-
ieve that this is now the greatest
age since the dawn or the Christian
era and if we but pause TO reflect
w must MAJ Wi dN Allt oNNlltlluOuo
achievements along the lines of
constructive thought and action, a
,reat moral wave is rOr one thing
sweeping over the United States to.
lay that will not be denied; it has
sounded the knell of licensed wrong;
it is manifested in better educational
facilities, more practical curricu-
lums, economic national and civil
government, preventive and cura-
tive medicine, surgery, bacteriology,
'lectric achievement, higher ideals
in the home and hygenic methods of
living, the lessening of poverty and
crime, the passing of the ward heel
n, the dying out of political preju-
dice, broadening of religious views
with less strife anG contention be-
tween denominations and lest but
not least, Temperance, and if it will
not be too great jolt to you | am
going to tell you something; You are
going to have prohibition right here
in Clayton. Yes, statewide with a !
six wire fence around it pig tight,
bull strong and bootlegger proof,
and if these ladies here present had
been given the ballot we would have
il right now.
Now this is trifle strong for a
man who likes a little booze occa-
sionally as we'll as do, but am glad |
that | can still see light through a
ladder without a microscope. And
now, my friends, just as we are clos
ing the Yuletide festivities to COM
the coming into the world
of Him who was destined to have
such an influence upon the lives Of
men, it may be fitting TO speak of
our order in its connection to those
valuable precepts handed down to
us by the lOwly Nuzarene
1T was He who taught us the glor-
ious meaning of peace on Earth,
good will toward men," and ad-
us to Love thy neighbor
as thyself' | suppose there is none
of us here but who have thought
the latter practically a human i'm
possibility but think that He meant
to impress upon us the utter futility
of selfish and sordid life TO the ex-
clusion OF all the better things of
life, prostituting our God-given tall
nets for unsatisfying and ignoble
ends, abusing the houses in which
we live and ide in middle life, un-
happy, unsatisfled, achievements un-
sung, memory unmourned and soon
forgotten.
could give the names of many
men of prominence in the last decade
Of this kind, but it is unnecessary.
Suffice TO say that | am a believer
in the theory that the world is
growing better, and l believe today
that there are more men of similar
.alent for the accumulation of wealth
who let Gods glorious sunshine
warm their souls and occasionally
pause in the iltful struggle to lend
a helping hand 70 a brother less
Twelve Apostles Should Remain
Seated.
And such, indeed, are the teach
ngs Of Free Masonry, but all good