body politic for which they pretend to have so much

concern.

Before taking up the discussion of the main questions involved, I shall now attempt to answer that important and pertinent question. It is because of their insatiate desire for office. They are fully cognizant of the true situation. They are aware of the time honored weaknesses and prejudices of the people. They thoroughly appreciate the political power wielded by the whisky element of the State. They know that whisky is practically invincible at the ballot box, and they know full well that if they incur its displeasure and combined opposition, they will be left "when the roturns are all in" and the votes are all counted. They are mighty in the defense of time-honored principles and the blood-bought rights which have come down from the days of our revolutionary fathers; they can stand up in Senates and other high places of the government and defy the god of War clothed in the thunders of destruction, aspecially when afar off, but they are paltry cowards when it comes to making and prosecuting a war against popular prejudice and error, against popular vices, against whisky, whose ravages are strewing our fair land with the wrecks of humanity, their kindred, their friends, and last, but not least in their estimation, their beloved constituents. They believe it to be unpopular even to be a hero in such a strife. They temporize, they halt, they finally go over to the enemy, while they profess to be friends to humanity. Such statesmen! such demagogues! From such political quacks and inglorious time-servers, “Good Lord deliver us.” But I am not going to say hard things about them. If they will only condescent to read and consider the contents of the following chapters, I shall be content, hoping that they may find some thought which may lead them to see this question in its true light, and to realize the error of their way before it is too late. I shall not call it a crime. Let us here compro

mise on a name for their indifference to the interests of the public which they so much love as they profess, and call it "innocuous desuetude."

Another serious obstacle in the way of expeditious temperance reform is the prevailing opposition on the part of the great masses of the people to any sort of innovation upon long established custom. This persistent adherence to precedent, though based upon popular error and though proved beyond question to be at variance with every principle of reason and of expediency, has stood in the way of every effort of genius in the advancement of intellectual, moral, social, or material progress. So thoroughly are they wedded to the errors and follies of the past that they refuse to believe the truth when practically demonstrated through the medium of every one of their five avenues for the accumulation of experimental wisdom. When the lonely pioneer in science, politics, or religion, has been able by dint of long hours of unremitting study and perseverance to evolve one truth from a great mass of long accepted error, he is regarded with suspicion and disfavor by the unskillful masses who accuse him of conspiring with the devil or some hateful political party to destroy the long cherished institutions of our fathers. They cry out, "Let him be crucified," and if it were not for the protection given by the laws of the country, they would crucify him in the very light of the boasted civilization of to-day. In other times the pioneers of truth suffered martyrdom; they were put to death by the most cruel methods contrived by the barbarous ingenuity of popular vengeance. In those times the science of human government was unknown; statutes for the protection of the innocent-bills of right, habeas corpus, and the long catalogue of constitutional barriers which to-day shield and protect from violence the humblest and the weakest of our citizens-did not exist. If they did not at this time stand in the way of popular ignorance and

prejudice, the very ground upon which we stand while we boast of our advanced civilization, would be drinking the blood of martyrs who have dared or may dare to doubt or gainsay the wisdom of our ancestors. There may be those who cannot think so at first, but if they will only look abroad and take note of the bigotry and intolerance, which everywhere exist among the ignorant and superstitious, they must realize that the broad agis of our constitution and laws is all that protects us from the fires of persecution, not only for religious, but for scientific and political heresy. Why, the altars of popular ignorance, bigotry and intolerance would be everywhere smoking with the blood of their victims condemned, immolated and sacrificed for no other crime than an assault and battery upon popular error. Moreover, we may say that the devotees of science in all its departments are even now suffering a martyrdom little less severe. Social ostracism, personal villification, and every humiliating insult and injury are constantly being inflicted upon them with impunity.

Let a man advance a new idea about any thing whatever, and a lot of aping boobies, by whom he is surrounded will swear that he is crazy. They will not only accuse him of being hopelessly insane, but they will absolutely prove him to be guilty. There may be no writ de lunatico inquirendo issued against him, but he will be crazy all the same, and, like the lepers of old, he will be forced to remain outside of the camps of the multitude. His life must ever be one of hopeless solitude. If he should ever be restored to soundness of mind and discretion, it will be long years after he is dead. It will be after the truths of his transcendent genius has evolved, have undergone the test of experience and have received the stamp of popular approval. The very boys around him despise him and refuse to be caught in his company. They mock him, as he walks the streets alone wrapt in the serious. contemplation of his own social banishment. If he has un

fortunately lost his profusion of "capillary substance," they tell him as they did one of old, "Go up, old Baldhead." He is equally despised by the girls. The children whom he loves so much to caress ever mindful of the unkindly words of their parents towards him, turn away from him as they would from a viper. He is, indeed, "a stranger in a strange land with no friendly tear to be shed for his suffering." Is it strange that he should grow weary of life? that he should grow despondent? that he should long for a summons to "join the innumerable caravan?" that he should grow impatient, and tiring of life rush unbidden into the presence of his Maker, who, alone is able to give him the rest he so much desires? Is it a wonder that he seeks refuge from the terrors of a persecution, scarcely less rigorous to his sensitive nature than the great inquisition? The sneers of the heartless masses, who have neither the capacity nor the disposition to understand and appreciate the truths he has wrought out and promulgated, have driven more men of acknowledged brilliancy to self-destruction than any other agency, and yet the world keeps on sneering and will continue to keep it up until the requiem of time shall be sounded by Gabriel. I may have occasion to recur to the perils to which genius is exposed in its contests with ignorance, prejudice and error, in a future chapter of this work. I return to the consideration of the difficulties in the way of reform as applied to the subject of prohibition and temperance.

The world is full of doubting Thomases; those who doubt the wisdom, propriety, and practicability of every conceivable measure; of every character of effort that may be undertaken to check the spread of the evil, or to ultimately suppress it. They doubt the wisdom and propriety of preaching temperance from the pulpits; of proclaiming it before the people from the forum and upon the highways and hedges; of teaching it in any form or manner whatever. They doubt if

it is a moral question; they doubt if it is a religious question; they doubt if it is a political question; and, finally, they doubt whether it is a question at all. They particularly doubt the efficiency of legislation, however stringent and severe, and however great the facilities for its execution, to accomplish anything whatever in the way of checking or suppressing the infamous liquor traffic. It is truly a wonder why they do not doubt the wisdom and propriety of a law to punish a man for theft of horses, knowing as they do that it does not absolutely prohibit some men from tampering with forbidden horse flesh. These systematic doubters, and the world is full of them, doubt if such law is right and they doubt if it will prohibit. They doubt the right of a majority of the people to interfere with the drinking proclivities of others, and then doubt that they would drink less upon the passage of such laws than they do under the license or any other ssytem. The latter doubt is quite easily removed by a featherweight sophism of an anti-prohibitionist orator. They soon become convinced that prohibition is bad, because it prohibits, and worse, because it does not prohibit. Beautiful sophistry! My dear, doubting friends, what are you going to do? Do you realize that drunkenness is an evil? Do you observe that the evil is abroad in the land? Do you know of any better remedy than local option? Do you know of a more efficient one than State prohibition? If you do, then lay aside your doubts and come to the front. Let us hear from you at once. There is no time for delay. Moral suasion, preaching and weeping have done all they can; they have done wonders. If it had not been for their efforts in checking the spread of this evil, the Lord only knows what would have become of his people. These potent influences have done much to keep men from committing the ordinary crimes and misdemeanors of the country-perhaps about as much as the penal laws of our State-but they have never