A saloon keeper, G. R. Neighbors, of Elizabethtown, Ky., struck me over the head with a chair, July 23, 1904. In going up to the hall to fill an engagement. I passed this man and walking into his saloon, said, why are you in this business, drugging and robbing the people? "Hush! You get out." I replied, "Yes you want a respectable woman to get out, but you will make any woman's boy a disgrace, you ought to be ashamed." I then passed out going to the hall. After the lecture I passed by his place again. He was sitting in a chair in front of the saloon, and I said, "Are you the man that runs this business?" and in a moment with an oath he picked up the chair and with all his strength, sent it down with a crash on my head. I came near falling, caught myself, and he lifted the chair the second time, striking me over the back, the blood began to cover my face, and run down from a cut on my forehead. I cried out, "He has killed me," An officer caught the chair to prevent a third blow.
There were two officers in the crowd. I cried out, "Is there no one to arrest this man?" No one appeared to do it. He went back in his saloon. I to the hotel. Some one sent for a doctor who came and dressed the wound on my forehead, my left arm was badly bruised, also my back. Had it not been for my bonnet, I should have suffered more. This outragous act roused the people. The women and men came to see me indignant, saying this outrage would not be tolerated. The Methodist minister especially was deeply moved. There were two officers who saw this outrage, but there was no arrest.
Next morning, Mrs. Bettie James, came in two miles from the country, and had a warrant sworn out against Neighbors, but the case was laid over to await the action of the "Grand jury," in November, saloon keepers going on his bond.
I intended to go to Mammoth Cave but remained over on account of trial, and spoke again that night. Elizabethtown is one of those bad rum- towns in Kentucky, but there is a fine prohibition sentiment, and great indignation was felt and expressed that a saloon-keeper even so low and cowardly as to strike a woman, should be tolerated. I was in bed most of the day and nearly fainted during the lecture, but I thanked God that I was counted worthy to suffer, that others might not. I felt some mother might receive fewer blows—that while my head was bruised and bleeding to prevent hearts from being crushed and broken, souls were going to drunkards graves, and drunkards Hells, and this outrage would reveal the enormous brutality of this curse, bringing a speedy remedy.
In the Spring of 1904, I was in the office of Miss Lucy Page Gaston, the National President of the Anti-Cigarette League. I saw on the walls of her room Mr. Roosevelt's picture. I said, "My dear Miss Lucy, why do you have that picture in here? Don't you know, he is a cigarette smoker?" She said, she did not know it. I said, "let me tear that up. Did this man who is at the head of affairs in this nation ever say a word against this vice? Although he is sworn to protect from just such. This brave, good woman, whose heart, soul, and body is dedicated to saving the young men of our land did not seem to recognize the fact that Democrats and Republicans (so-called) were the head and front of all the corruption we have. At last, I said, "If you will write to Mr. Roosevelt and get his statement that he does not, nor ever did smoke cigarettes I will give You $50 for your work, she said she would. She wrote to the President, got no response from him, but Mr. Loeb, his secretary wrote that the President, did not nor ever had used tobacco in any form. She sent this to me, of course I was not to be caught with such chaff. I wrote her so, telling her of the time when Mr. McKinley wished to deny the fact, that he rented his property in Canton, Ohio, for saloon purposes, his minister denied this, but the 'Chicago Voice' proved that he did. I suppose Mr. Roosevelt got his minister to write what he dared not. I wrote her that old birds were not easily fooled with chaff, also stating, that if she would get a statement that Mr. Roosevelt was not a beer drinker, I would give her another $50.00. Of course she could not do this, but the Republican Press published all over the country that Miss Gaston got the evidence and I paid the $50.00, but not one word of this was true.
In the Fall of 1904, I received a letter from Sister Lucy Wilhoite of Wichita, telling me of a vision, which I will relate here in her own words: "During a severe illness, last July, the Lord appeared unto me and revealed many wonderful things concerning our work in which I have been engaged for seven years. Temperance and Prohibition.
My life was despaired of by my friends and I knew I was very near the borderland, and as I lay on my bed of suffering in the still hour of midnight, God showed me the awful desolation which our thirty eight saloons and five wholesale houses were making in the homes of Wichita and surrounding country, The sight so overwhelmed me, I cried unto the Lord and said, "Oh my God! Have I done all I could during this life of mine to dam up this fearful tide? Then I said, show me Lord, what this means. Immediately a great cloud of human souls came rolling down a steep decline and as my eyes followed them, saw them rolling on and on until they finally fell into a pit from whence fire and smoke were ascending. Then my eyes were turned again up the ascent from whence the souls were coming. When, Lo! I saw the National Capitol, with her Senate and Congressmen. I saw the Legislative Halls, and our Educational Institutions. I saw our churches with her educated ministry, and her secret societies, our public libraries and reading rooms, our National State and Local W. C. T U's, all of them right in the track of this awful tide of human souls, yet they still rolled on and on until they reached the pit. Then I cried again unto the Lord and said, "Oh, Why do you show me these horrible things, when I am on the brink of the grave? And still the picture or vision remained before me, growing more and more vivid every moment until I struggled to my knees, and said, 'O God, if I can do anything to dam up this fearful tide, just heal this body, and let the healing be the seal that I can do something to help, and I shall do it if it costs my life. Then a deep calm and soul rest settled over me and I sank into a deep sleep, when I awoke I realized the pain was gone and also the fever. I lay there, looking up to God and I said, "Now, Lord, show me what you want me to do. Immediately, like a great scroll reaching across the sky, these words appeared, written in letters of gold. "Spill it out!" Then he showed me the very place I was to attack Mahan's Wholesale Liquor House.
"For many weeks I pondered upon this vision and prayed about it most earnestly, that I might not be mistaken and know of a truth that it was God's will. I never found any soul rest until I wrote to Mrs. Nation, and told her the time was ripe for God and that we must attack Mahan's Wholesale Liquor House, that was helping to degrade so many women and debase so many men. This resulted in an attempt to carry out God's purpose on Sept. 30, 1904.
I was true to the "Heavenly Vision," which is only the beginning of the fulfillment, for there are yet many things to be spilled out, not only the liquor, but also the hypocrites in the church, and the false prophets with sin of every kind, and our lives also.
The Wichita Eagle Reporter, uttered a profound truth, whether he intended to or not, when he said, we walked into the Court Room like a poem, a sort of a 'Lead Kindly Light' poem, for we were lead of God, who is the Light of the world. And we intend to follow on until this vision is fully realized."
Yours for God's love for Him and suffering humanity,MRS. LUCY WILHOITE.
I had dates ahead that I disliked to cancel, because of disappointing the people and entailing a great financial sacrifice. Sister Lydia Muntz, also wrote me to come to Wichita immediately. I knew it meant smashing and imprisonment, possibly, loss of life, for I wrote Sister Wilhoite, "I am coming to do all I can to destroy the works of the devil, and if need be to die." At first, I told her to keep things quiet. Then I thought it best to give all an opportunity to have a part in this great work of saving life here and hereafter, so I wrote a letter to the Topeka Journal making a call for helpers setting Sept. 28 as the day. When I arrived in Topeka I learned that the W. C. T. U would be in convention session on that day in Wichita, and also that there was a carnival going on in the place, and thought it providential to have a crowd. I arrived in Wichita the 28th, the raid was postponed until the 29th. I took hatchets with me and we also supplied ourselves with rocks, meeting at the M. E. church, where the W. C. T. U. Convention was being held. I announced to them what we intended doing and asked them to join us. Sister Lucy Wilhoite, Myra McHenry, Miss Lydia Muntz, and Miss Blanch Boies, started for Mahan's wholesale liquor store. Three men were on the watch for us, we asked to go in to hold gospel services as was our intention before destroying this den of vice, for we wanted God to save their souls, and to give us ability and opportunity to destroy this soul damning business. They refused to let us come near the door. I said, "Women, we will have to use our hatchets," with this I threw a rock through the front, then we were all seized, and a call for the police was made. There was of course, a big crowd. Mrs. Myra McHenry was in the hands of a ruffian who shook her almost to pieces. One raised a piece of gas pipe to strike her, but was prevented from doing so. We were hustled into the hoodlum wagon, and driven through the streets amid the yells, execrations and grimaces of the liquor element. I watched their faces and could see that Satan was roused in them beyond their control, making the most diabolical faces sticking out their tongues! at what? Just five women, who were doing with their might what their hands found to do, Just five living hearts that dared to give their lives to save them. Just gray-haired women, mothers, and grandmothers, who, for love they could not contain, rushed in to save their loved ones, from ruin.
There never was such a sight. Angels wept and devils yelled with diabolical glee. We were taken to Police Headquarters, that is, four of us, the Police had not taken Blanch, who dodged them, and with her axe smashed out two windows, after which she went to Sister Wilhoite's home, and would not have been arrested had she not called to see us next day, and giving her name was immediately arrested and shut in with us. Water was standing in the low places in the cell we occupied, caused by a leakage in the pipes, I don't think this neglect was intentional, but it was none the less dangerous as it was below ground. The beds were shelves in the wall, very hard of course, but we might have had some degree of comfort if it had not been for the dirt and rats which seemed to delight in having some one to run around and over. It was so ordered that there was a bible in the crowd, and as we were not in stocks we had far more to rejoice over than Paul and Silas, holding a continuous praise and prayer service, reading and repeating the word of God. We were kept there from Friday till Monday morning without a charge against us. Sunday morning we squeezed the juice out of some grapes, some kind friends had sent us, and reading for our lesson where Jesus washed the disciples feet and partook of the sacrament, sister McHenry sprang to her feet after partaking of the emblems, said she saw the most beautiful cross on the wall, surrounded by a divine halo, exclaiming, "Now I know what it is to have a vision, I thought it might be imagination." We had quite a time one way and another. Our friends were not permitted to come into the jail or even to the door, so many of them came to the railing on the outside, where some of the officials threw water on them from the upper windows to keep them away. We were taken to the county jail on Monday and had a trial for malicious mischief on Wednesday. We plead our own cases, and never in the history of the world did a nation or people see mothers tried for trying to save their loved ones from the slaughter of a government whose business is to protect women and their children. Tears were in the eyes of many when sister Lucy Wilhoite and sister McHenry told of their boys being led into vice by the officials of Wichita. Poor degraded Wichita with her corrupt officials and that vile "Wichita Eagle," and its Murdocks. But God has a people there and they will be victors in this fight. We were convicted of course, I got thirty days in jail and $150, the rest $150, except sister Muntz who only got $50. We employed Judge Ray to take our cases to the District Court. At the present writing I am out on bail and so far as the jail is concerned, I do not dread it. God will liberate some when I am in bonds. Poor women, Poor Mothers. God who "tempers the wind to the shorn lamb" will come to her relief from a degradation worse than death.
I am out on parole under a jail sentence of four months and a fine of $250.00. This man Wilson who is in the place of a judge knows that it is a lawless outrage, but true to his party or trust he stands by the combine for as long as the Republican Liquor Power controls office motherhood is sacrificed to the greed of this boa constrictor that coils its huge body crushing out the life and soul of man, woman and child.
If Roosevelt had a sincere interest in increasing the population by urging women to bear children he would say something about what makes it a terror to do so.
At the close of writing this book, I am in Oklahoma organizing Prohibition Federations. I am now nearly 60 years of age, I find it necessary to reserve my strength as much as possible in order to put to the best use my remaining years of service. I expect to remain in Oklahoma until the constitution is made, the field is ripe for action, we want the constitution to be an ideal one.
The Federation will not have as a member, any one voting in a license party—Anhauser Busch will effect prohibition as soon—We will not waste time and money in fighting Brewers and Distillers but the cause of them. We want to prohibit the tyranny and unlawfulness in preventing woman from a voice in the Government, Compulsory education, no games on Lord's Day, no profanity on the highways.
There are good, loyal prohibitionists in the Anti-Saloon League, but those who control it are generally there for the salary. Being usually Republicans who by their ballot prove themselves to be the strongest advocates for license, they are hindering the true principle of prohibition. Their votes combine to perpetuate the saloon.
The great thing to be accomplished is to elect a Prohibition President, as long as we have one in favor of license it is useless to expect prohibition by the government. The Anti-Saloon League tacitly effects the perpetuation of a license government and in that they have been traitors, we warn the people against them. If anyone is a real prohibitionist they will vote it. The Prohibition Party is really the only party that is loyal to Republican principles, protecting and saving the home from this onslaught. There is not a saloon vote in our party, which can be said of no other. 'Tis the only deliverance from this bloody slaughter. This "covenant with death, and agreement with Hell and refuge of lies." I took on a Republican voter as a man with bloody hands as Benedict Arnold carried in his boot the paper of treachery, so is a licensed vote in the hand of a voter.
We will so far as possible perfect this organization in all the States. I am owner and Editor of the 'Hachet' of Guthrie. A paper on straight lines. The paper is only 25c a year. I ask all my friends to subscribe for this paper, by sending to 'Hatchet', or office of Prohibition Federation, Guthrie, Oklahoma. I will publish full instructions in the Hatchet so that any prohibitionist so desiring, can perfect an organization in any vicinity. This is in perfect harmony with all efforts for annihilation of the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors for any purpose. The constitution gives all the largest liberty to do that which is right and none at all or the smallest to do that which is wrong. I feel much relieved to. get into more definite work, rather than going hither and thither completing nothing substantial.
Almighty God and His people help this breaking heart. "Give us Oklahoma or we die," or are willing to die to save this land of the beautiful. Oklahoma will be a leader. We want a strait path to the election of a Prohibition President. If we can make our efforts a success, in the territories, then this will be the greatest impetus all over. We will not hinder any prohibition movement, we only go to the bottom, laying the ax (or hatchet) at the root of the tree, for we can not succeed by prohibiting intoxicants as a beverage alone, which is what the prohibition party up to this time propose to do. ANNIHILATION is the only principle or true definition of prohibition. 'Tis dangerous to let any of it survive. The advantages of being a resident of Oklahoma will be so great, that, like the promised land to the children of Israel, there will be an exodus from the Egyptain bondage. The degraded and vicious will then leave the place where their facility of engaging in all villainy and corruption is gone, Mothers and Fathers often say, "O for a place where I can raise my children where there is no saloons!" Oklahoma will answer the cry. What an outrage is perpetrated by this Rum-soaked government in not allowing us to have statehood! There is a cause and the people will find it out Republicans know, that, when we do get statehood their allies the Trusts will not be allowed to rob us and that we will not be at their mercy and their appointees. I beg the financial aid of all, with plenty of money we can publish literature showing up the horrors of a rum president. Roosevelt's strong hold is his duplicity and schemes. He has signed the bill licensing the curse on the poor Alaskan. This wholesale murder with the awful lie that it is to build schools and roads. Oh, this gigantic murder Nero was not worse.
I went to Medicine Lodge Feb. 15th, to see my friends, and lecture. No one knew I was coming, got there between twelve and one at night, train late. I got in the buss saw no one, was the only passenger, the chimneys were off the lamps from the jolting and there was danger. I tried to fix them. The driver had not made his appearance up to this time. A man rushed in at the door, cursing, took my head in his two hands, threw me out of the door, using profane and indecent language. He was reeking with the smell of liquor. I was surprised and terrified, not knowing any reason for this. The conductor, Mr. Knight, took me in his carriage up to Mrs. Martin's. My friends said the outrage was such that I ought to make complaint, which was done. Sam Griffith, that was my old enemy, was still prosecuting attorney. He refused to prosecute Bill Hall, the buss driver, one of the most disreputable infidel vulgar character in the town, if not the worst, a tool of Jim Gano the one who was republican sheriff when I was smashing in the county, and the manager of the buss line. Bill Hall's lawyer was Poly Tincher, the son-in-law of Southworth, the drug-store jointist here, who at this time had an injunction served against him for selling liquor. There were six jurymen called, mostly of the caliber, that suited this lawless, rum- defending class of Medicine Lodge. They said Bill Hall was right, because I snatched a cigar out of his mouth. I did not even see one. This reminds me of a case where one would bring suit for injury in hell where the devil was the judge, and expect to get a verdict for the defiance. The indignation of the people at this insult has resulted in the election of other officers. Jesus went to Nazareth and they tried to throw him over the brow of the hill, still he had followers from Galilee.
This Republican rum God defying set of Medicine Lodge, were glad to resent my exposure of them in my book and they would inflict any outrage on me or my cause. I was glad to see that this was opening the eyes and mouths of the best element. I can suffer if the people wake up. I am appointed for this. "The world hateth me because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. Marvel not that the world hates you ye know that it hated me before it hated you."
I again ask that as you read my book you will often pray for me and this great cause of humanity. We are organizing Prohibition Federations and I here give the Constitution and By-Laws of this movement. Annihilation is the only method of dealing with intoxicating drinks and never will this question be settled except by prohibiting it for any purpose. Any one can send to our office in Shawnee and get the necessary literature to organize. This is not to cause any friction in the prohibition party for we are in hearty cooperation with all thorough workers.
Trusting in Almighty God and our Savior Jesus Christ as the source of all true government, and seeing the necessity of an organization that will materialize votes and secure the election of officers who will pledge themselves to the utter annihilation of the liquor traffic, we call on all men, women and children to join this organization, which shall be known as the "Prohibition Federation." We exclude from our organization any person who will not vote for the total annihilation of intoxicating liquors for any purpose. We co-operate with the Prohibition Party, but go a step further, making it a crime to manufacture or sell intoxicating liquors for any purpose.
ARTICLE 1.—OBJECT. The objects of the organization shall be: To oppose in every way the use of intoxicating liquors, making it a crime to manufacture, barter, sell, give away, export or import the same into the United States for any purpose. To take charge of the local elections, seeing that only those who will oppose the liquor traffic in such manner as stated above, shall be nominated. To demand constitutional prohibition and woman suffrage, and to secure the election of a prohibition President. To recommend compulsory education. To see to the strict enforcement of all laws relating to Sabbath observance, making it a misdemeanor to play any public games on the Lord's Day. That the use of blasphemous language in any public place be considered a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment. To make it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment, to manufacture, sell, or use cigarettes. To examine the petitions of all saloon keepers as to their compliance with the statutes, seeking to revoke those that have not complied, and in every way seeking to prevent them from obtaining license.
ART. 2.—MEMBERSHIP. Any person may become a member by pledging their loyalty to this constitution.
ART. 3.—OFFICERS. The officers shall consist of a President, four Vice-Presidents, Secretary and Treasurer. They shall be elected at the first regular business meeting in January and serve until their successors are duly elected and qualified.
SEC. 2. The officers shall constitute the Executive Committee, which shall have oversight of all the work of the Federation. The Executive Committee shall have power to fill all vacancies occuring between the annual elections.
ART. 4.—DUTIES OF OFFICERS. The President shall perform the duties usually assigned to his office. He shall be a member ex-officio of all committees.
SEC. 2. The first Vice-President shall be chairman of the Membership Committee. This committee shall devise ways and means of securing members and pledges for the support of the Federation.
Sec. 3. The second Vice-President shall be chairman of the ProgramCommittee. This committee shall arrange for all social and literary meetings.
Sec. 4. The third Vice-President shall be chairman of the Press and Literature Committee. This committee shall see that all meetings are duly announced by the local press and otherwise and report such meetings to the local papers and also to the national organ. It shall secure and distribute literature for the aggressive work of the Federation.
Sec. 5. The fourth Vice-President shall be chairman of the Law Enforcement Committee. This committee shall report to the Federation the non-enforcement of all statutes, suggesting means to secure the enforcement of such statutes. It shall also investigate all lines of law enforcement, instructing the Federation in statutory law.
Sec. 6. The Vice-Presidents, by and with the advice of the President, shall select the persons to assist them in their several departments.
Sec. 7. The Secretary shall keep an accurate record of all business meetings and a complete register of all members. The Secretary shall be the authorized collector for the local Federation and shall be entitled to a commission of ten per cent of all collections.
Sec. 8. The Treasurer shall be chairman of the Finance Committee. This committee shall devise ways and means of securing pledges, and raising money in any other way deemed advisable to further the interests of the Federation. He shall report to the Secretary all pledges that have been paid by members and others, so that the Secretary's book shall show correctly all money received and paid out.
Sec 9. It shall be the duty of the Membership and Finance Committees to take pledges from the members of the Federation, and any others, to further its work. These pledges shall be for the month and payable quarterly. One-third of such money secured shall be retained by the local organization and the remaining two-thirds shall be sent to the Treasurer at the home office in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
ART. 5.—REPORTS OF OFFICERS. At the annual meeting, each of the officers shall present a full written report of the year's work.
ART. 6.—SPECIAL COMMITTEES. At the regular monthly business meeting preceding the annual meeting, the President shall appoint from the membership the following special committees: An Auditing Committee of three. This committee shall examine all accounts and render a report at the annual business meeting, a record of such report to appear upon the Secretary's book. A Nominating Committee of five. This committee shall report at the annual meeting the name of one candidate for each office.
ART. 7.—MEETINGS. Two meetings a month shall be held. One to transact the business of the Federation, the other for literary and social purposes, conducted under the direction of the Program Committee. This second meeting shall consist of oratorical contests, debates, recitations, songs, or any other educational features.
The regular business meeting in January shall be the annual meeting.
ART. 8.—PAYMENT OF BILLS. No money shall be paid except upon an order signed by the President and Secretary.
ART. 9.—OFFICIAL ORGAN. The official organ of the Federation shall be "The Hatchet," published in Guthrie, Okla., (16-page monthly, 25 cents a year.) The Press and-Literature Committee shall solicit subscriptions to the official organ.
ART. 10.—ORDER OF BUSINESS. The following order of business shallbe observed at all regular business meetings:Devotional exercises.Reading of previous minutes.Report of Treasurer.Report of Vice-Presidents.Unfinished business.New business.Adjournment with prayer.
ART. 11.—AMENDMENTS. This constitution may be amended by a two- thirds vote of the members present at any regular business meeting (ten being a quorum), provided such amendment shall have been proposed in writing at the previous regular business meeting.
Mrs. Carry Nation closed her crusade in this city, Dayton, Ohio, yesterday by holding three remarkable meetings.
In the morning she filled the pulpit of the Home Avenue U. B. church and as usual the church was not large enough to hold the crowd and many had to stand outside.
Mrs. Nation was afterwards entertained at dinner by Rev. H. A.Thompson at his residence, opposite the U. B. seminary.
The National theatre had been engaged for Mrs. Nation's Sunday afternoon meeting, though Broadway M. E. church wanted her, but Mrs. Nation desired to hold that meeting in as large a place as possible, as she anticipated that there would be a large attendance. At the last moment the National theatre management decided they could not permit the house to be used Sunday, as they expected an inspection of the auditorium, so Mrs. Nation's committee secured the big Armory around the corner from the theatre at Sixth and the canal. Mrs. Nation had especially invited the saloonkeepers, sports and unmarried young men and ladies. The meeting was announced for 2:30, but at 1 o'clock the crowds began to assemble. The large choir from McKinley M. E. church, under direction of Rev. C. T. Lewis and his wife, arrived about 1:30 and rendered a fine lot of selections until Mrs. Nation opened the meeting at 2:30. There were only seats for about 3,000, but Captain Hooven estimated the crowd as about 3,800 people. The galleries were crowded and nearly the entire auditorium. All sorts of people were present—business and professional men, saloonkeepers, and preachers, while W. C. T. U. ladies were in evidence by their white ribbons. Representatives from probably every church in Dayton were present and it is safe to say that it was the greatest gathering of its kind ever held in this city. A collection box was at the door and a splendid offering was obtained as everybody contributed—many liberally, among whom was Dr. L. T. Cooper, who handed in a silver dollar, stating: "I don't agree with her in all things, but she means well."
Mrs. Nation made a characteristic talk of over an hour, giving much advice in a kindly way and, as usual, backing up all her arguments with Scripture.
Mrs. Nation held her last meeting at 7 o'clock at Summit Street U. B. church, and a thousand or more people stood around the outside of the church unable to get in.
Mrs. Nation answered many questions put to her at this meeting and from the view of the radical temperance advocates this was probably the strongest talk she made. In every respect the meeting was a success.
Mrs. Nation left for Chicago on the Panhandle at 9:30 last night.
Saturday was also a busy day with Mrs. Nation. In the morning she was a visitor at the U. B. Publishing house, and after dinner she held a meeting at Christ's mission, Soldiers' Home. At 5 o'clock, accompanied by some of her committee, she went to Salem, O., where she was entertained by Rev. Baker, of the U. B. church, and afterwards held the usual crowded meeting in his church, leaving there at 8 o'clock for Brookville, O., where she held another big meeting at the U. B. church.
Mrs. Nation has certainly worked hard here and proven herself in possession of wonderful energy and capacity for work. The following is a list of appointments here in ten days, every one of which she filled and not once could she fully accommodate the crowd: Friday night, October 21, street meeting corner Main and Fourth streets; afterwards to wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Bennett, where many congenial spirits were present. This took on the nature of an entertainment to Mrs. Nation. Saturday night, October 22, U. B. church, Miamisburg; Sunday, October 23, the Dunkard church, Dayton; Sunday, October 23, afternoon at Bellbrook, O., mass meeting of the three churches at town hall; Sunday night, October 23, St. Paul's M. E., Dayton; Monday night, October 24, Riverdale U. B.; Tuesday night, First United Presbyterian; Wednesday night, Trinity M. E.; Thursday afternoon, Free Methodist; Thursday night, mass meeting of colored churches at McKinley M. E.; Friday afternoon, 2 o'clock, U. 13. seminary; 4 o'clock, W. C. T. U. meeting, Broadway M: E.; Friday night, Second United Presbyterian, and balance appointments as given above.
The committees of the various churches, the Citizens' League and Prohibition party are much pleased with the work Mrs. Nation did here and predict great results from it.—Dayton Daily.
(Sketch by WILL CARLETON, in his Magazine EVERYWHERE.)
Some years ago, the American public—always longing for "something new," was treated to an absolutely unique sensation. A woman armed with a hatchet had gone into a Kansas liquor saloon and smashed up its appurtenances, in a very thorough and unconventional manner. After this, she went into and through another, and another: and it began to took as if all the bibulous paraphernalia of Kansas were about to be sent into the twilight.
When the smoke had somewhat cleared away, and time elapsed sufficient to garner these circumstances into authentic news, it transpired that the woman who had done this was Mrs. Carry A. Nation—utterly obscure and unknown until that week.
This raid among decanters was a very singular and startling act, for a woman: but, somehow, people found it refreshing. It represented precisely what many had imagined in their minds, what thousands of women had wished they themselves could or dared do, what myraids of confirmed drinkers, even, had wished might be done. News of Mrs. Nation's swift and decided action went all over the country, like a stiff, healthy gale. She was sharply criticised—but there lurked very often a "dry grin" behind the criticism. This smashing was all very direct and unique and Americans are in general fond of directness and uniqueness. It was, technically, illegal; but, even so, it was remarked that the saloons which Mrs. Nation wrecked, were themselves in brazen defiance of the laws of the state of Kansas—unenforced on account of the fear or venality of public officers.
The work of this determined woman went on with a thoroughness and promptness that made it ultra-interesting. She was imprisoned again and again, and became an inmate, at one time and another, of some nineteen different jails. She had trial after trial—in which was developed the fact that her tongue was as sharp as her hatchet; she often addressing even the judge presiding, as "Your Dishonor," while prosecuting attorneys she treated with supreme scorn. Not much mercy was shown her in the county bastiles: she was often bestowed in cells next to insane people—in the hope, she thinks, that she might become really crazy, as well as reputedly so. One sheriff, finding that the fumes of cigarette- smoking made her ill, treated all her follow-inmates to the little white cylinders, and set them at work puffing vigorously. Chivalry and humanity seemed, for the time being, to have faded from men's minds.
In these different immurments, she had time to write her friends and even published a paper, called, "The Smasher's Mail." She told how she came to do this work: it was, she claimed, by the direct command of God. She had promised Him that if He would forgive her many sins, she would work for Him in ways no one else would; and He took her at her word—ordering her to go and smash saloons. This, of course, provokes a smile, among most people, but Mrs. Nation is not the first one that has worked under God's command—whether real or supposed.
At last, so many fines were heaped up against her, which must be paid before she could be liberated, that it seemed to her as if she would never get free; but in this dark hour, a lecture agent appeared, and said he would pay the amount if she would give him some "dates." She laughingly says now, that she did not know what she meant: and actually wondered if he thought she was a fruit dealer. But when he explained what he meant by "dates," a chance to go on the platform and give the people a reason for the hatchet that was in her hand, she saw the gates were opened; and enthusiastically went from jail to the lecture platform.
She became immediately a drawing card—in assembly halls in some churches, and even at county fairs. She often made "big money" by selling miniature hatchets as souvenirs. She worked, tirelessly and industriously, to pay back the lecture agent for the sums he had advanced; and after a time found surplus amounts on hand.
She did not hesitate very long as to the purposes for which they were to be applied. Her personal expenses were very small; she dresses plainly; and believes that God is entitled to her financial gains.
"A home for drunkards' wives," was her first thought, after paying the fine money, and she set about it, and is working for it now.
After her platform work had proceeded for a time, it was decided that she should star in the play, "Ten Nights in a Bar-room." As all know, who have witnessed this simple but powerful drama, every act of it is a prohibition lecture, and Mrs. Nation's part, that of the mother of the murdered boy, was a lecture of itself. In one scene, she was represented as smashing a saloon, most thoroughly; and this business was the most popular of anything in the play—even at theatres that drew most of their patronage from habitues of saloons.
Mrs. Nation's reasons for stepping from the churches to the footlights, is not without its logic, in these days. "People go to the theatres more than they do the churches," she says, "and I want to go where there are plenty of people to hear me, and where they need me."
From the regular theatre she passed, and for the same reasons, to the vaudeville, and did her regular "stunts" along with the singers, the dancers, the harlequin's, acrobats, and the burnt cork humorists. The writer of this has seen her in one of these performances, and considers it entirely unique and unmistakably commendable.
It was in one of the most "free and easy" vaudeville shows in Greater New York, and the audience, composed of men and boys, was a hilarious one, and could have even become a turbulent one, if anything had occured that did not please them. Many were half drunk, or nearly so. "Smoke, if you want to," was lettered on a conspicuous sign, and most of this audience wanted to. In the midst of the exercises, an interlude occurred, in which the audience was invited to a saloon down stairs, where they could proceed still farther in the liquid burning out of their bodies. On the same stage of this same vaudeville theatre, John L. Sullivan, the retired prize fighter, had, only a week before, appeared "in monologue," and had sometimes been so drunk that he could not go through with his part.
In the midst of all this, Carry Nation was announced, and she stepped upon the stage, unattended by any glare of colored lights or fanfare of music. A quiet, motherly looking woman, plainly dressed, with a Bible in her hand, she commanded almost immediately the respect of that large crowd—from the men in the orchestra stalls to the gallery gods. One half intoxicated fellow began to scoff at her, but was almost immediately hushed by the scarcely less drunken ones around him. It was a sight that hushed them all into respectful silence, for a respectable, earnest woman, with the Holy Book in her hand, will have a subduing effect upon almost any company of people.
Mrs. Nation announced her text, and preached a sermon, and delivered a temperance lecture, both within the half-hour. (The latter she calls a "prohibition lecture"—hating the word temperance, as applied to drink.)
She said words, such as had probably not been heard by most of those there, for a great many years. She told them what sots they were making of themselves, and made her points so emphatic that they cheered her —almost in spite of themselves. She commenced her speech as an experiment, so far as that day's audience was concerned; she closed a heroine. She did not remain idle during the time between her appearances on the stage, but cultivated the acquaintances of the actors and actresses, and, it is said, to their good.
That is what Mrs. Nation is doing now, on what is called the eastern vaudeville circuit; and it would be hard to see how one woman could do more good in half an hour, than she does; and that among those that need it most.
Mrs. Nation's whole name is Carrie Amelia Nation, but having noticed from old records that her father wrote the first name "Carry," she now does the same, and considers the name portentous as concerns what she is trying and means to do. She believes, she says, that it is her mission to "carry a nation" from the darkness of drunken bestiality into the light of purity and sobriety; and if she can do this, or in any great measure contribute to it, there are millions of people in the world, that will bid her Good speed.
A scientific article on the effects of alcohol on the human system. If any doctor should try to deceive you here is the proof of his malicious intent to drug you.
In order to understand what progress has been made during the year, it is necessary to note the condition of affairs at the commencement of the period.
Long before this committee began work the leading physicians of every enlightened country, the men to whom the entire profession looks for guidance, had declared against the use of alcohol both in health and in disease.
One reason why all the greatest physicians believed it harmful was because it had been found that alcohol was not a drink. The most abundant substance found in the human body, is water. About 130 pounds of the weight of a 160-pound person is water, "Quite enough if rightly arranged to drown him." Man has been irreverently described as "about 30 pounds of solids set up in 13 gallons of water." So it is quite natural for us to hunger for water; "death by thirst is more rapid and distressing than by starvation." "It is through the medium of the water contained in the animal body that all its vital functions are carried on." Dr. W. B. Richardson of England has pointed out more than fifty characteristics of the action of a natural drink upon the system. The action of alcohol is the opposite of these in every particular, and therefore it is not a real or natural drink. Of course the water which is found in mixture in all alcoholic liquors serves to quench thirst, even though it is often foul water.
We also found, upon taking up the work imposed upon us, that alcohol had been demonstrated not to be a food. Many classifications of foods have been made, but about the best is that which divides them broadly into two classes: to use homely language, flesh formers and body warmers; those which build up or repair the bodily waste, and those which sustain the animal warmth. The slow fire within us being necessary to life we hunger for that only which will replace the substance destroyed by the burning. "To the child of nature all hurtful things are repulsive, all beautiful things attractive," As to flesh formers, it had been noted that all foods useful in repairing bodily waste contain the element nitrogen. Alcohol contains no nitrogen, and so could not be classed among body builders. The chief body warmer is sugar. Alcohol being a product of sugar, people were all misled for years into thinking that it does in some kind and degree feed the system. The mistake was easy, since after taking alcohol there is a temporary increase in vivacity of mind and manner and in surface temperature, and a lessened requirement for regular foods. These opinions had been tested in the light of truth and proved erroneous. Axel Gustafson, in his Foundation of Death, considers this subject at length. As early as 1840 French physicians discovered that alcohol actually reduced the temperature of the body. Prominent German and English medical men soon confirmed the statement, and in 1850, Dr. N. S. Davis of Chicago, the founder of the American Medical Association, in speaking of a number of observations during the active period of digestion after ordinary food, whether nitrogenous or carbonaceous, the temperature of the body is always increased, but after taking alcohol, in either the form of the fermented or the distilled drinks, it begins to fall within half an hour and continues to decrease for from two to three hours. The extent and duration of the reduction was in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol taken." The most prominent physicians in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Russia reached similar conclusions shortly after this. In explorations in the Arctic regions where the cold is intense, no alcoholic drinks are permitted. Dr. Nansen, the great Norwegian, attributes the fatalities of the Greely expedition to the use of liquor, and this is the only expedition of recent years which permitted the use of alcoholic drinks. As a matter of fact it was long ago proved that "Alcohol does not warm nor cool a person, but only destroys the sensation and decreases the vitality." Superficial observers, however, have upheld the use of alcohol as a food, saying, "See how fleshy it makes people." Well, healthy fat is not always an advantage, but beer drinkers' fat is not the genuine article. Healthy fat represents a stock of body warming food laid up for a time of need and is formed only in health. The "fat" usually exhibited by beer drinkers is not a fat at all; oil is not its chief factor. It consists of particles of partly digested flesh forming food which the system required, but which it was unable to assimilate owing to the presence in the body of the alcohol which the beer contained. This sort of fat instead of indicating health points to disease. This general teaching as to the worthlessness of alcohol as a food had been set forth by the leaders in medical profession, and accepted largely by the rank and file of practitioners for about twenty-five years. An occasional cry came from the other side, however, and late in 1899 Dr. W. O. Atwater, professor in Wesleyan University, announced that he had, by an extended series of experiments, proved the truth of the claims of those experimentors who believed alcohol to have value as a food. Dr. Atwater's reports were widely published by the whiskey press, and a state of some unrest amongst thinking physicians followed, which had not been wholly quieted when this committee began work.
At the time we began work, however, it had been demonstrated that alcohol is not a medicine. Many years ago Dr. Nottinghham, a great English physician, said: "Alcohol is neither food nor physic." Dr. Nicols, editor Boston Journal of Chemistry, long ago wrote, "The banishment of alcohol would not deprive us of a single one of the indispensable agents which modern civilization demands. In no instance of disease in any form, is it a medicine which might not be dispensed with." Dr. Bunge, professor of physical chemistry in the University of Basle, Switzerland, said: "In general let it be understood that all the workings of alcohol in the system which usually are considered as excitement or stimulation are only indications of paralysis. It is a deep-rooted error sense of fatigue is the safety value of the human organism. Whoever dulls this sense in order to work harder or longer may be likened to an engineer who sits down on his safety valve in order to make better speed with his engine." Dr. F. H. Hammond of the U. S. army said: "Alcohol strengthens no one. It only deadens the feeling of fatigue." Dr. Sims Woodhead, professor in Cambridge University, England, had given the following list of conditions in which alcohol should not be used: In those (1) who have any family history of drunkenness, insanity or nervous disease. (2) Who have used alcohol to excess in childhood or youth. (3) Who are nervous, irritable or badly nourished. (4) Who suffer from injuries to the head, gross disease of the brain and sunstroke. (5) Who suffer from great bodily weakness, particularly during convalescence from exhausting disease. (6) Who are engaged in exciting or exhausting employment, in bad air and surroundings, in work shops and mines. (7) Who are solitary or lonely or require amusement. (8) Who have little self-control either hereditary or acquired. (9) Who suffer from weakness, the result of senile degeneration. (10) Who suffer from organic or functional diseases of the stomach, liver, kidney or heart. (11) Who are young.
Much has been said concerning the stimulating effect of alcohol upon the heart, and this had been treated at length. There is an increased action of about four thousand beats in twenty-four hours for every ounce of alcohol used. This fact still misleads some physicians into prescribing it to strengthen the weak heart, but the increase is not due to new force. The heart action normally is the result of arterial pressure and nervous action, two forces mutually balancing each other. The nervous action is diminished by the introduction of the alcohol; this destroys the balance and deranges the arterial pressure. Dr. James Edmunds, a great English physician, years ago said: "When we see a man breathing with great vigor, does it occur to us that he must be in good health? Is it an indication that he gets more air? We all know better. It simply shows that he has asthma or some such disease, and that his breathing is strained and imperfect. He is making use of less air than the person who breathes quietly. This is the case with the blood, work, so it plunges and struggles in the effort. And the cause of both cases is the same. There is more carbonic acid in the blood than either the heart or the lungs can handle. If for example I were suffering from general debility and milk were the food best suited to my needs, and if I should discover a tramp in my apartments drinking of my already too limited supply, would it be reasonable to assert that the exhibition of strength which I made in forcing him to desist is an indication that the entrance of the vagrant bettered my enfeebled condition? The greater activity of the heart is not due to the added strength resulting from recruits of friends but to a desperate struggle to beat back a reinforced enemy."
That alcohol does not allay pain had been established when this committee was organized. The only proper method of allaying pain is to remedy the disorder which produced it. It is no remedy to deaden the nerves so that we cannot feel it. This reasoning had been found good in the case of alcohol as a remedy in "colds." Whiskey does not relieve the uneasiness and oppression we experience when ailing from a cold, it only benumbs the nerves so we do not feel the trouble. The cure is not hastened but delayed in this way.
Besides the fact that alcohol had, before this committee's existence, been proved to be neither a drink nor a food nor a medicine, it had also been shown to be the cause of disease. Over five thousand of the most prominent physicians in this country had so stated it, and the proportion was equally great in all the enlightened countries of Europe. The most pronounced in this way, perhaps, have been the great leaders in medical science in Austria, Germany and France. Some of the points made against the use of alcohol were that it interferes with digestion by rendering insoluble the active principle of the gastric juice, and especially by preventing the solution of body-building foods. The natural action of various organs of the body is more or less arrested by alcohol, thus reducing the temperature. This from Dr. Edmunds already quoted: "The blood carries certain earthy matters in it in a soluble state, these earthy matters being necessary for the nutrition of the bones and other parts of the body. You all know that when wine is fermented and turned from a weak sweet wine into a strong alcoholic wine, you get what is called a 'crust' formed on the inside of the bottle. What is that crust? That crust consists of saline or earthy matters which were soluble in the saccharine grape juice, but which are insoluble in the alcoholic fluids. We find in drunkards that the blood vessels get into the same state as the wine bottles from the deposit of earthy matter which has no business to be deposited, and forms the 'beeswing' or crust in the blood vessels of the drunkard, in his eye and in all of the tissues of the body." Alcohol had been found to prevent the elimination of waste, thus the body is loaded with worn and decaying tissues, leaving the system an inviting field for all sorts of diseases. Life insurance companies, influenced by business interests wholly, make a distinction between liquor users and non-users. Nelson, a distinguished actuary of England, employed as an expert by life insurance companies, found after investigating over 7,000 cases, none of which were drunkards, that between the ages of 15 and 20 the proportion of deaths in total abstainers to those in moderate drinkers is as 10 to 18; between the ages of 25 and 30, as 10 to 31; between 30 and 40 as 10 is to 40.
With reference to the effect on the offspring of drinking parents, the medical profession had accepted the teaching of the French specialist, Dr. Jaccound, that "of the children of drinkers some of them become imbeciles and idiots; others are feeble in mind, exhibit moral perversion, and sink by degrees into complete degeneration; still others are epileptics, deaf and dumb, scrofulous, etc.," and of the English teacher, Dr. Kerr, that "long continued habitual indulgence in intoxicating drink to an extent far short of intoxication is not only sufficient to originate and hand down a morbid tendency, but is much more likely to do so than even repeated drunken outbreaks with intervals of sobriety between."
Thus the men who have been of the greatest honor to the profession in every land were a unit in opposing the use of alcohol in health or disease and in holding that if people are determined to use it there is less danger in health, as then the system is in better condition to throw off its evil effects.
Now as to the progress made during the past year. In June, 1901, the American Medical Association met in St. Paul. The branch of it giving special study to the temperance question held several sessions, about one hundred of the most distinguished physicians in the country attending. Much time was given to considering Dr. Atwater's teaching to the effect that he had proved alcohol to be a food. During the previous year he had published the details of his experiments, and at the convention it was shown that his own experiments upset his conclusions. It had been held that except in rare instances alcohol taken into the system passed away from it as alcohol without change. Dr. Atwater's experiments strengthened somewhat the position of those who held that change is not infrequent, but he concluded that the portion broken up while in the body served as a food. A closer examination of his own experiments showed that the portion oxidized had gone to form other compounds in the system which were possibly more harmful than if it had all passed off unchanged. Dr. Max Kassowitz, professor in the University of Vienna, said, after Dr. Atwater's statement had been published: "For the animal and human organism, alcohol is not both a food and a poison, but a poison only, which like other poisons is an irritant when taken in small doses while in larger ones it produces paralysis." In connection with the fact that alcohol is simply a poison, it may be worth stating, that the original meaning of the word "intoxicated" was "poisoned." After reading Dr. Atwater, the Russian Commission for the study of alcoholism, after two years' work, said: "The claim that alcohol is a food in any proper sense of the term is not sufficiently proved." In the St. Paul convention spoken of, politics obtained a foothold, and some weak resolutions in favor of the army canteen were adopted but not even the champions of the canteen were willing to subscribe to the statement that alcohol is ever a real food.
Just previous to our last convention much noise was made through the daily press concerning a finding of some English scientist to the effect that an acquired tendency cannot be transmitted to offspring. We were told that this would upset the theory that children inherit a craving for intoxicants from intemperate parents, and "the moralists and reformers would have to readjust this logic on these points." In the annual report of the president of the Union a year ago, attention was drawn to the fact that those who indulge in this sort of sophistry have not read what the teachings of temperance workers have been on the subject. Such was not the opinion of the scientists making the report, for it says "Children of drunkards are liable to be mentally and physically weak and tend to become paupers, criminals, epileptics and drunkards." It will be seen from what has been said that this is the position we have held all along. Dr. Davis, the dean of American physicians opposing the use of alcohol, has published during the year a number of articles showing the impossibility of alcohol's being of service as a medicine, and has dwelt especially upon its harmful effects in fevers, diseases in which it is still much prescribed. The two influential temperance societies composed of American physicians have, during the past year, kept up the agitation against alcohol as a medicine, and good is coming from it, as gradually medical journals are giving more and more space to the question. The following international manifesto has been issued by the leading physicians of the world:
"The following statement has been agreed upon by the Council of the British Medical Temperance Association, the American Medical Temperance Association, the Society of Medical Abstainers in Germany, the leading physicians in England and on the continent. The purpose of this is to have a general agreement of opinions of all prominent physicians in civilized countries concerning the dangers from alcohol, and in this way give support to the efforts made to check and prevent the evils from this source.
In view of the terrible evils which have resulted from the consumption of alcohol, evils which in many parts of the world are rapidly increasing, we, members of the medical profession, feel it to be our duty, as being in some sense the guardians of the public health, to speak plainly of the nature of alcohol, and of the injury to the individual and the danger to the community which arise from the prevalent use of intoxicating liquors as beverages.
We think that it ought to be known that:
1. Experiments have demonstrated that even a small quantity of alcoholic liquor, either immediately or after a short time, prevents perfect mental action, and interferes with the functions of the cells and tissues of the body, impairing self-control by producing other markedly injurious effects. Hence alcohol must be regarded as a poison, and ought not to be classed among foods.
2. Observation establishes the fact that a moderate use of alcoholic liquors, continued over a number of years, produces a gradual deterioriation of the tissues of the body, and hastens the changes which old age brings, thus increasing the average liability to disease (especially to infectious disease,) and shortening the duration of life.
3. Total abstainers, other conditions being similar, can perform more work, possess greater powers of endurance, have on the average less sickness, and recover more quickly than non-abstainers, especially from infectious diseases, while altogether escape diseases specially caused by alcohol.
4. All the bodily functions of a man, as of every other animal, are best performed in the absence of alcohol, and any supposed experience to the contrary is founded on delusion, a result of the action of alcohol on the nerve centers.
5. Further, alcohol tends to produce in the offspring of drinkers an unstable nervous system, lowering them mentally, morally and physically. Thus deterioration of the race threatens us, and this is likely to be greatly accelerated by the alarming increase of drinking among women, who have hitherto been little addicted to this vice. Since the mothers of the coming generation are thus involved the importance and danger of this increase cannot be exaggerated.
Seeing, then, that the common use of alcoholic beverages is always and everywhere followed, sooner or later, by moral, physical and social results of a most serious and threatening character, and that it is the cause, direct or indirect, of a very large proportion of the poverty, suffering, vice, crime, lunacy, disease and death, not only in the case of those who take such beverages, but in the case of others who are unavoidably associated with them, we feel warranted, nay, compelled to urge the general adoption of total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors as beverages, as the surest, simplest, and quickest method of removing the evils which necessarily result from their use. Such a course is not only universally safe, but it is also natural.
We believe that such an era of health, happiness and prosperity would be inaugerated thereby that many of the social problems of the present age would be solved."
The year has been marked by more detailed examination of the effects of alcohol upon the human system, with the result that progress towards its eventual overthrow as a medicine has been distinctly made. The greatest reforms are brought about quietly, but truth is mighty and does prevail. It will take time but gradually all will come to feel the suggestive power in the fact that "The table of nature is spread, and bountifully spread, for all its millions upon millions of guests, but wine and strong drink are not on the table."
SCIENTIFIC TESTIMONY ON BEER(From speech by SENATOR J. H. GALLINGER, M. D., January 9, 1901.)OPINIONS OF LEADING PHYSICIANS.
The alarming growth of the use of beer among our people, and the spreading delusion among many who consider themselves temperate and sober, that the encouragement of beer drinking is an effective way of promoting the cause of temperance and of aiding to stamp out the demon rum, impelled the Toledo Blade to send a representative to a number of the leading physicians of Toledo to obtain their opinions as to the real damage which indulgence in malt liquors does the victim of that form of intemperance.
Every one is not only a gentleman of the highest personal character, but is a physician whose professional abilities have been severely tested, and received the stamp of the highest indorsement by the public and their professional brethren. More skilful physicians are not to be found anywhere. We have not selected those of known temperance principles. What they say of beer is not colored by any feeling for or against temperance, but is the cold, bare experience of men of science who know whereof they speak.
Toledo is essentially a beer drinking city. The German population is very large. Five of the largest breweries in the country are here. Probably more beer is drank, in proportion to the population, than in any other city in the United States. The practice of these physicians is, therefore, largely among beer drinkers, and they have had abundant opportunities to know exactly its bearings on health and disease.
Every one bears testimony that no man can drink beer safely, that it is an injury to any one who uses it in any quantity, and that its effect on the general health of the country has been even worse than that of whiskey. The indictment they with one accord present against beer drinking is simply terrible.
The devilfish crushing a man in his long, winding arms, and sucking his blood from his mangled body, is not so frightful an assailant as this deadly but insidious enemy, which fastens itself upon its victim, and daily becomes more and more the wretched man's master, and finally dragging him to his grave at a time when other men are in their prime of mental and bodily vigor.
Dr. S. H. Burgen, a practitioner 35 years, 28 in Toledo, says: "I think beer kills quicker than any other liquor. My attention was first called to its insidious effects, when I began examining for life insurance. I passed as unusually good risks five Germans—young business men—who seemed in the best health, and to have superb constitutions. In a few years I was amazed to see the whole five drop off, one after another, with what ought to have been mild and easily curable diseases. On comparing my experience with that of other physicians I found they were all having similar luck with confirmed beer drinkers, and my practice since has heaped confirmation on confirmation.
"The first organ to be attacked is the kidneys; the liver soon sympathizes, and then comes, most frequently, dropsy or Bright's disease, both certain to end fatally. Any physician, who cares to take the time, will tell you that among the dreadful results of beer drinking are lockjaw and erysipelas, and that the beer drinker seems incapable of recovering from mild disorders and injuries not usually regarded of a grave character. Pneumonia, pleurisy, fevers, etc., seem to have a first mortgage on him, which they foreclose remorselessly at an early opportunity.
"The beer drinker is much worse off than the whiskey drinker, who seems to have more elasticity and reserve power. He will even have delirium tremens; but after the fit is gone you will sometimes find good material to work upon. Good management may bring him around all right. But when a beer drinker gets into trouble it seems almost as if you have to recreate the man before you can do anything for him. I have talked this for years, and have had abundance of living and dead instances around me to support my opinions."
(By Delle M. Mason.)
I have come home to you, mother. Father, your wayward sonHas come to himself at last, and knows the harm he has done.I have bleached your hair out, father, more than the frosts of years;I have dimmed your kind eyes, mother, by many tears.
Since I left you, father, to work the farm alone,And bought a stock of liquors with what I called my own,I've been ashamed to see you; I knew it broke you down,To think you had brought up a boy to harm his native town.
I've given it all up, mother; I'll never sell it more.I've smashed the casks and barrels, I've shut and locked the door.I've signed the temperance pledge—the women stood and sang,The clergymen gave three hearty cheers, and all the church bells rang.
But one thing seemed to haunt me, as I came home to you;Of all the wrongs that I have done not one can I undo.There's old Judge White, just dropping into a drunkard's grave;I've pushed him down with every drop of brandy that I gave.
And there's young Tom Eliot—was such a trusty lad,I made him drink the first hot glass of rum he ever had.Since then, he drinks night after night, and acts a ruffian's part,He has maimed his little sister, and broke his mother's heart.
And there is Harry Warner, who married Bessie Hyde,He struck and killed their baby when it was sick, and cried,And I poured out the poison, that made him strike the blow,And Bessie raved and cursed me, she is crazy now, you know.
I tried to act indifferent, when I saw the women come,There was Ryan's wife, whose children shivered and starved at home,He'd paid me, that same morning, his last ten cents for drink,And when I saw her poor, pale face, it made me start and shrink.
There was Tom Eliot's mother, wrapped in her widow's veil,And the wife of Brown, the merchant, my whiskey made him fail;And my old playmate, Mary, she stood amid the band,Her white cheek bore a livid mark, made by her husband's hand.
It all just overcome me; I yielded then and there,And Elder Sharpe, he raised his hand, and offered up a prayer.I know that he forgave me, I couldn't help but thinkOf his own boy, his only son, whom I had taught to drink.
So I have come back, father, to the home that gave me birth,And I will plow and sow and reap the gifts of mother earth.Yet, if I prove a good son now, and worthy of you two,My heart is heavy with the wrongs I never can undo.
Or, The joint Keeper's Dilemma.
Say, Billy, git ten two-by-four'Nd twenty six-by-eight,'Nd order from the hardware storeTen sheets of boiler plate,'Nd 'phone the carpenter to comeMost mighty quick—don't wait,For there's a story on the streetsShe's coming on the freight.
O, many years I've carried onMy business in this town;I've helped elect its officersFrom mayor Dram clear down;I've let policemen, fer a wink,Get jags here every day;Say, Billy, get a move on, ferShe's headed right this way.
I don't mind temp'rance meetin'sWhen they simply resolute,Fer after all their efforts bringBut mighty little fruit;But when crowbars and hatchets'Nd hand axes fill the air—Say, Billy, git that boiler ironAcross the window there!
It beats the nation—no, I thinkThe Nation's beatin' me,When I can pay a license hereAnd still not sell it free;Fer I must keep my customersOutside 'nd make 'em wait,Because the story's got aroundShe's comin' on the freight.
There, Billy, now we've got her—Six-eights across the door,'Nd solid half-inch boiler ironWhere plate glass showed before;But, Bill, before that freight arrivesYe'd better take a pick'Nd pry that cellar window loose,So we can git out quick. ED. BLAIR.