Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1941-06-06
"SOME BY-PRODUCTS
OF LIFE"
BY EBEN HEARNE
No. z

~N9 @AAJ SaNAN SSSA' NNS N@'SNo~N
of the liquor traffic had become so
destructive that the good people of
the county became alarmed and the
women although they did not have
the ballot, banded together and un-
ions were organized in several other
towns in the county. Questions of
Temperance and Total Abstinence
were discussed in earnest. Prohibi-
ton sentiment was becoming mani
tested in all parts of the county and
the Prohibition Party sprang into
life. A County Chairman was put in
charge of the movement and at a
County Convention candidates were
nominated for the County Offices, the
members of the party realizing the
fact that the best plan to fight and
defeat the traffic in whiskey was to
settle the question at the ballot box.
Only a few reforms have ever been
settled in any other way.
During the four years of my teach
ing in this county and for thirty years
afterwards the destruction of the
liquor traffic was one of the para
mount issues in politics. Prohibition
sentiment became stronger and
stronger until 1919 when the 18th
Amendment was added to the Consti-
tuition of the United States. It was
repealed in 1888. If the administra-
ton leaders during the IA years the
law was on the statute books had
properly enforced the law and the
Congress of the U. S. had been as
willing to appropriate as much money
to fight moonshining and bootlegging
as they have been willing to approp-
rate since 1888, the 18th Amendment
would not have been repealed, and the
battle against the liquor traffic would
not have to be fought all over Sec
ond time in order to obtain sober
nation again. Among the many in
cidents connected with my association
with the temperance work carried
on in this county during the late
eighteen eighties, one trying exper-
fence comes wildly to mind and I
will relate it here. After attending
a w. C. T. U. meeting held in a neigh
boring town, l was the victim of a
prank that was played upon myself
and the company of about dozen
persons of which I was a member in
attendance at the meeting. AS the
day of the automobile and the truck
had not yet arrived, we were con-
veyed to the meeting in large farm
wagon, drawn by two horses. We sat
on boards laid across the wagon.
These boards for those primitive days
furnished very comfortable seats.
Our driver was one of my school pu-
pils-a big husky, stalwart young
man, whose father, farmer, was the
owner of the wagon and the team.
We reached the place of meeting
without incident in good time about
7:30 P. M. and we all greatly enjoyed
the meeting. During the progress of
the meeting, a man, as we supposed,
a minion of the liquor interests, who
was not in sympathy with the object
of the temperance meeting, loosened
the tap in the hub of front wheel
of our wagon on the left side of the
driver. All unconscious of our threat
ened dilemma, at the close of the
meeting between 9 and 10 o'clock, our
crowd boarded the wagon and started
for home. 1 happened to be sitting
on the front seat at the left of the
driver. When we had reached the
outskirts of the village, the tap of
the front wheel having been loosened
without our knowledge) fell off and
Immediately the wheel on my side of
the wagon rolled off to the side of
the road, and down came that side
of the wagon, and I, having no pro-
lection, was catapulted to the ground
and the momentum gained caused me
to roll right down the bank of a
ditch that happened to be located by
the side of the road. The water in
the ditch being shallow, the impact
gave my "Sunday-go-to-meetin' " suit
of clothes a good coat of sticky mud.
However, suffered no bodily injury.
Fortunately the horses were easily
managed and the outfit came to a
stand still and the other occupants of
the wagon regained their equilibrium
and their equanimity. The tap was
found and it and the wheel were re-
placed. After I had extricated N.Y.
self from my muddy predicament and
had regained my seat in the wagon,
no one in the party, venture to say,
would have cared to play the old
party game called, "Upsetting the