Constitutional View - Prohibition and the Democratic Party -The Loss of Revenue and Destruction of Property-Importation of Liquor-An Open Letter Dissected.. 151 Senator Blai'rs Speech -- General Considerations-Review of Progress during the last Century Forms which Legislation has Taken- The PREFACE. Sometime in the fall of 1886 I took up a notion that I would write for some paper that would condescend to publish them, a series of articles on Practical Prohibition. Being a regular subscriber of the Texas Observer, a religious weekly published at Mexia, in this State, and knowing well the liberal sentiments of its able editor upon the question of prohibition, I requested him to grant me the use of his columns for the purposes stated. At that time I hoped to be able to exhaust the subject, as far reaching and extensive in its scope as it is, in a half dozen articles. My principal object in writing them has been, to awaken a more calm and unprejudiced investigation of the subject in the minds of our people, than has characterized the arguments going the rounds of the press, and the vindictive discourses of a large number of temperance lecturers, who have long been infesting the country and, in many instances, doing incalulable injury to the cause of prohibition; also to get our people to be more temperate on the subject in private conversation, and to discuss its merits and demerits with more tolerance and less vindictiveness. I did not dream of writing or publishing a book devoted to the subject of Practical Prohibition, at the time I began with the series, nor for a long time thereafter. Certain friends of mine, however, whose attention had been attracted by the arguments contained in the series, approached me with the flattering request that I cause them to be compiled and printed for general circulation in pamphlet form, and I had about decided to act upon the suggestion. A short time ago Mr. Luther Benson, the well-known lecturer, when on his tour through the northern counties of the State, spent a few days lecturing in Greenville, and while here was the guest of the writer. While at my house his attention was called to the series, and, as I had carefully preserved a file of the papers containing them, he took upon himself the trouble to read them in their order. He at once declared that he thoroughly and unreservedly endorsed every line they contained, and urged me to prepare them for publication without delay, and suggested that it would be more satisfactory to have them published in a more durable form than the one in which I had about decided to give them to the public. Upon his repeated assurance that he would aid me in every way possible in the matter of their distribution and sale so that I might suffer no serious loss by the venture, I decided that I would begin at ance the preparation of the work for the press. The idea of personal gain has never entered my mind in the publication of the work, and if the good people of Texas and other parts of the country should think the effort worthy of their favor, I shall be more than satisfied if I am able to come out even on the enterprise. The great cause of prohibition to which the book is devoted is entirely welcome to the long hours of patient study and labor I have given to its pages, which contain the series of articles contributed to the Observer, corrected and enlarged. the preperation of the work for the press I have received valuable aid from my young friend Earle Edmundson Esq., a student of law in my office. I am also indebted to Mr. Sam. H. Dixon of Austin, Tex., Author of "The Poets and Poetry of Texas" for his kindly supervision of the typographical arrangement and other matters incident to the publication of the work. I have been materially aided by the timely suggestion of others in the revision and correction of the manuscript for the press. Greenville, Tex., June 1st, 1887. V. W. GRUBBs. In Two reasons prompt me to accompany this volume with a brief history of the life of its author. First, I am a comparative stranger to the reading public, and a natural curiosity on the part of my readers will lead them to an inquiry into my antecedents, if I am supposed to have any; second, I hope thereby to encourage the young men of my State, whose opportunities are meager and whose surroundings inauspicious and unfavorable, to push forward with energy and perseverance in their efforts to succeed in life: to inspire them with renewed hope and self-confidence in their struggles with adversity, to make themselves useful in the world. It may be, too, that the secret wooings of vanity and conceit have contributed their shares in due season to urge me to speak, as I am going to do of my varied life and experience. However that may be, I am quite certain that the great desire of my heart is, to accomplish some good by giving the account, which, in the main, I promise, shall be true. Many things which have happened and many of the errors into which I have fallen, and which it would be of no possible benefit to my readers to know, I shall omit. They are ever too fresh in my own memory, and I would to God, that I could forget them, as they have long since served their purposes. I am the son of William Grubbs, now deceased, and was born in Calloway county, Kentucky, on the morning |