The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1921-12-16
WHY GIVE?
York American Issue

effect its return are asking why con
tinue to support the Anti Salooi
Lacquer"
These papers are not honest an
know they arc not. None are NOR
aware OF the conspiracy TO fout tn
law without limit on every hand, elce
a wet majority to the next Congress
and render the Eighteenth Amend
ment to the Constitution void by re
pealing the effective portions of tn
law passed to enforce it.
However, we shall waive the matte
OF their dishonesty and give thes
newspapers an answer that will burr
as with fire any portion of soul abou
their premises possessed of sensitive
ness.
Why did men lid women ever Civ
TO the Anti-Saloon League
Here is the answer, in the form of
toast to the morbund traffic. 1t cam
IN recent mail from a woman whc
has seen much and suffered .beyon,
words. Read it. She heads it:
A Near Bier" for John Barleycorn
written out of Bitter Experience)
Yes, I've always wanted to read
the obituary of John Barleycorn,
and for years have given my mite
to the AntiSaloon League to help
brand, outlaw and kill him. He
has been stabbed under the
eighteenth rib for the 192lst time,
but as Mark Twain wrote in his
famous telegram Reports of
death greatly exaggerated Still,
John Barleyeorn is so groggy one
feels warranted in manufacturing
a sort of Near Bier" for his COM
ing demise. Not being real bier
the usual wreaths and eulogies
will be omitted. This Near
Bier is fashioned after the tables
used in the dipsomamac's ward
for I'D. rs The pail is woven
of the rags and tattercd clothing
of all drunkards' families. Its
canopy is straight jacket. Before
it stands an urn, Schooner"
shaped, and in this I will mix the
ingredients for a long, long drink.
1t will be "home-brew" of home
facts. Its foundation will, natur-
ally, be of corn, a sack of cracked
chicken corn in which man [
knew used to hide his booze from
his wife. To give it the right color
I will add a bottle of ink with
which their divorce papers were
written. To give it body, here is
a loaf of bread handed out to a
once brilliant man OF my acquaint-
ance, who, when he was not in
the gutter, stood on the bread
line. To make it suave here is a
pat OF fresh butter and a few new
laid eggs, flched from the gift to
a newly made mother, in bed with
out food. They were exchanged
for drink. Here is the new baby's
shirt, also taken. 1t must be re-
deemed from pawn to strain this
black magic. For aavoring, here
is an orange two feverish. little
lips begged, when the last penny
in the house had been spent for
liquor. The potion will need char
coal to clear it. | know a burned
battle-ground house, fired in
drunken revenge. Rake its ashes
to find the best of charcoal, the
blackened bones of the solitary
woman who persisted in the flames.
For sweetening, here is a cup of
sugar just swept up on cold sugar
dock, by hand that once signed
checks for an oil king but made
a dock sweeper by drink. Our
brew is ready for the stirring. 1t
will be done by the paralyzed arm
of a childhood friend, deserted by
a drunken husband. We need
more water, add her tears and the
wash water from the tubs by
which she educated three small
children.
The brew is made. Pass the
cups, John Barleycorn. They are
your handiwork, the cracked and
leaking brain cells of one ] loved.
They once dubbed with affection,
ability, honor, riches. Ali the
science at the Bloomingdale Hos
pital for the Insane could not re-
store them after you broke them.
Here's to you, John Barleycornl
Why do you gasp so, at the
tragedies back of those words?
The facts they tell and others like
them-inhnite quantities of them
were the why Of the Anti-Saloon
League; and so long as public Of
ficials slur over their legal duty to
end such facts; so long as pre-
tendedly reputable newspapers
ridicule and oppose the laws en-
acted to end them; so long as any
state or federal office holder con-
tinues to lead and foment rebel
lion against those laws and join