Omaha daily bee., 1917-01-07

colonel Kentucky ever had, the re-
puted slayer of Tecumseh, the great
est of American Indians,
Famous Pledge Signers.
Two of the most remarkable sign
ers OF the declaration of independence
from the sway of King Alcohol were
Daniel Webster and Thomas F. Mar
shall.
The New England statesman. conf
pared as he had been to Demos
themes, unlike the Grecian, who was
strictly abstemious, was commonly
known as one of our most splendidlv
convivial and capacious containers of
diverse ardent beverages. Many a
time since his day patriotism has
among those inclining to the bubbling
bowl received fresh inspiration with
the repetition of the story that Dan
Webster, when interrupted in his
quaffings by irrelevant allusion to the
national debt, put an end to the dis
cussion by offering to pay off the
obligation out of his own pocket.
But little less of sensation was
the news-not circulated through the
newspapers of the day, for they were
saying nothing on the subject-that
Tom Marshall had signed the pledge
and was going to make speech about
it. Tom Marshall was nephew of
Chief Justice John Marshall and was
widely known as brilliant hustings
performer, who was at his best on
high bachanalian occasions, for he
was accounted an accomplished, con-
sisteht, sincere and sympathetic
drinker His speech on this particu-
lar occasion had been advertised and
greatly helped to draw the crowd. He
more than met expectations. After a
few preliminary observations as to the
purpose of the society, he launched
into what his audience most desired,
his handling of his own habits. He
I'prefaced it by saying that he made
his confessions as small as possible.
He continued: ..a- -.
81 was one of your spreeing gentry.
Ny sprees began to crowd each other.
My best friends feared they would run
together, Perhaps after long inter
walls of total, abstinence (sensation),
perhaps something peculiar in my
form, constitution of complexion may
have prevented the physical indication
so usual in that terrible disease, which
until temperance societies arose, was
deemed incurable and resistless. Per-
haps | nournished a vanity to believe
that nature had endowed me with a
versatility which enabled me to throw
down and take up at pleasure any pur-
suit; and ] chose to sport with the
gift. Physicians tell us that at last
temperance becomes not voluntary
habit but diseases, its victim cannot
alone resist. | had not become fully
the subject of that fiendish thirst, that
horrible yearning after the distilla-
ton from the alembic of hell, scorch-
ing the throat and consuming the
vitals of the confirmed drunkard with
fires kindled for eternity"
Declaring himself through the
pledge he had taken forever free from
fate more terrible than death, he
thus closed his speech:
"Sir, | would not exchange the ply
steal sensation, the mere sense of an
animal being which belongs to man
who totally refrains from all that can
intoxicate the brain or derange the
nervous structure, the elasticity with
which he bounds from his couch in
the morning, the sweet repose it yields
him at night, the feeling with which
he drinks in through his clear eyes
the beauty and the grandeur of sur
rounding nature-I say, sir-I would
not exchange my conscious being as
a strictly temperate mantle sense of
renovated youth--the glad play with
which my pulse beat healthful music,
the bounding vivacity with which the
life blood courses through every fiber
of my frame-the communion high
which my healthful ear and eye hold
with all the gorgeous universe of God
the splendors of the morning, the
softness of the evening sky, the
bloom, the beauty and the verdure of
the earth, the music of the air and
the waters-with all the grand Access
SORES and associations of external ma
ture, reopen to the fine avenue of
sense-ho, sir; though poverty
logged me, though scorn pointed its
slow finger at me as passed, though
want, restitution and every element
of earthly misery, save only crime,
met my waking eye from day to day,
not for the brightest and noblest
wreath that every encircled a states
mans brow--not if some angel, COM
missioned from heaven, or rather
some demon sent from hell, should
come to test the resisting strength
of virtuous resolution with all the
wealth and all the honors the world
could bestow-not for all that time
and all that earth could give-would
| cast from me tthis precious pledge
of liberated mind, this talisman
against temptation, and plunge again
into the dangers and terrors that once
beset my path. So help me, heaven
sir, as would spurn beneath my very
feet all the gifts the universe could
offer me, would live and die. as ! am
poor, but sober" T. ,.
Early in his remarks, Mr. Marshall
said something about the duty OF
temperate men in congress aiding
their weak colleagues by themselves
taking the pledge, plainly indicating
Representative Henry A. Wise OF
Virginia, as one he had in mind for
distinguished exempfar
Taking the floor when Mr.. Marshall
had done, Mr. Wise began by saying
the gentleman from Kentucky was
glorious example of the triumph Of
the temperance cause; he was proof
that the possession Of genius and OF
the utmost excellence of physical pow
ers, with the charm of all beauties
that dearest bind man to society
were not strong enough to comba,