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'Rum and Rjrin
Social Function of Anti-Saloon League.
The Anti-Saloon League recently organized in
West Point, Ga., has given a delightful social
function. An excellent program was rendered,
worthy of reproduction here, but lack of space pre
vents giving such as we should like to do. We
must, however, give the response of Miss Suejette
Lanier to the toast: “Our Young Men,” as pub
lished in the current issue of the West Point News.
It is as follows:
“Our Young Men.”
“I am glad that I may ‘toast’ the young men,
the hope and stay of the future. I say ‘the future’
for as yet you are passing through the moulding
process, and I feel greatly privileged to be allowed
to express just here and at this most opportune
time, not only my wish but my hope and expecta
tion concerning you.
“This is the time, young men, as both consider
ing your years and the epoch of your city’s stand,
to look with diligence as to the pattern of your
mould and to see that the forming of your lives,
which are poured into the mould, are making for
the things that are best.
“You wish to be strong, that’s good! To be
come strong, the soul must needs fight something,
overcome something.
“It cannot gain muscle on a bed of eider-down.
“Reality is only realized by tests. What do you
know of a ship on a still day? Os a soldier on
dress parade? Os a surgeon at his dinner table?
But give the ship a whirlwind, the soldier a forlorn
hope, the surgeon a swift opportunity, when friends
are breathless and then what they are worth comes
out.
“There are times when, to prove themselves, the
ship must wait for a whirl-wind, the soldier for
his forlorn hope, the surgeon for his swift oppor
tunity when friends are breathless.
“But you, young men, I am persuaded have your
opportunity waiting for you. Grasp it now and
prove yourselves that you and we may realize what
you are worth.
For your building of the future you are using the
present as a foundation. Let this foundation be
soberness and temperance in all things.
“Your lives that are in the mould now, are the
lives that will very shortly be directing the affairs
of state. Do you not then owe to those whom you
are to direct, to all who look to you for the shap
ing of these affairs, that your lives should be form
ed after a most upright and perfect model?
“I have just spoken of your municipal opportuni
ties and obligations.
“There comes to each of you personally test af
ter test. I cannot tell you what these tests are,
but I can say to you fight and overcome them and
thereby become strong. Solomon, who asked wis
dom of God and who was given the greatest wis
dom of the age, stands ready to counsel you con
cerning this question which agitates us now and in
whose interest we are here tonight. He gives ad
vice as to the only wise attitude toward wine, say
ing: ‘Look not thou upon the wine cup.’ This is to
tal abstinence with a vengeance. Not only ‘don’t
taste,’ but ‘don’t look.’ This is good advice, in
spired advice. If a thing ought to be left alone,
leave it alone utterly.
“If this advice will be followed by all our young
men, at no far distant time the Anti-Saloon League
will cease to be, having accomplished its great and
good work.
“Young men,, will you not take this stand?
“You are the great hope of a great future.
“I believe in you and for this reason I ‘toast’
you this evening.”
M. Ronsseliere, the premier opera singer of Paris,
will soon start on a tour of the United States at
a guaranteed salary of $1,500 a night. It is but a
few years ago this singer now commanding princely
sums, was working in a factory at 60 cents a day,
as a blacksmith in Algiers.
The Golden Age for April 12, 1906.
A Touching Incident.
I have read of a town meeting in Pennsylvania
where the question of license was to be decided,
writes a correspondent of the Herald and Presby
ter. As the question was about to be put, there
arose from one corner of the room a miserable fe
male, wrinkled and gaunt, and stretching out her
arms, in a shrill voice she cried: “Look upon me.
You all know me, or once did. You all know I was
once the mistress of the best farm in the township.
You all know, too, I had one of the best—the most
devoted of husbands. You all know how I had five
noble-hearted industrious boys. Where are they
now? Doctor, where are they now? You all know.
You all know they lie in a row side by side, in yon
der churchyard; all—everyone of them filling a
drunkard’s grave! They were all taught to be
lieve that temperate drinking was safe—excess
alone ought to be avoided; and they never acknowl
edged excess. But I saw the gradual change com
ing over my family and prospects with dismay and
horror, I felt we were all to be overwhelmed in one
common ruin. I tried to ward off the blow. I tried
to break the spell—the delusive spell—in which
the idea of the benefits of temperate drinking had
involved husband and sons. I begged, I prayed;
but the odds were against me.” And with her arms
flung high and her tall form stretched to its ut
most, and her voice raised to an unearthly pitch,
she exclaimed: “I shall soon stand before the
judgment seat of God—l shall meet you there, you
false guides, and be a witness against you all!”
She spoke and finished. But when the chairman
put the question, “shall any license be granted for
the sale of spirituous liquors?” the response was
unanimous—“No! ’ ’ —The Messenger.
The American Boycott.
*S*. C. Todd, Macao, China.
Something new has happened in old China. None
would have thought her heterogeneous, discordant,
unpatriotic people could have moved as one man.
Japan could do so, but China—never! And yet
the seemingly impossible has happened, and the
nations of the world have been brought aface an
other power to be reckoned with in the future.
China galling under indignities heaped upon her
gentry and sons of wealth by American immigra
tion officials, has arisen and said to the Republic
of the West: “Respect us or keep your goods!”
Newspapers at first passed it lightly with a smile,
but as the months have passed a mighty tremor has
been felt up and down the Empire. In the most
systematic way a thorough campaign has been con
ducted against things “American,” and the
“American Boycott” is now a well established
phrase in the language of the people.
It is said the movement was launched in Shang
hai, but active propagandists have carried it from
Manchuria to Siam, and instilled it into the Chin
ese far and wide. Canton, Macao and Honkong,
with their contiguous territories, have for months
been centers of the excitement. A Canton commit
tee with boycott headquarters has touched the Ce
lestials in all parts of the earth. Chinese residing
in America, Australia, the Philippine Islands, Ja
pan and the Malay Straits have sent contributions
by the thousands.
In Canton and other large centers store rooms
have been fitted up with samples of American wares
so that the people might be educated and made
able to distinguish things American. Daily news
papers have been especially launched to forward
the movement. Pictures of American atrocities on
the Chinese have been scattered far and wide, in
flaming the people. Bad women have heralded in
formation concerning it by their songs on the
streets at night. The stage has loaned its help and
actors have woven it into the play. Troupes have
been employed to go into the interior and make the
movement the prominent part of their perform
ance. In Canton a special caste has been gotten
up and characters have personified leading griev
ances speaking in the common language of the peo
ple, that all may understand.
There has also been the funny side. Here is a
barber who refuses to shave Americans; a beggar
throws away a coat that has just been given him,
as an accursed thing, because some one says it is
American. At the Honkong Navy Yards a man is
put to work repairing a diving suit, and when the
tube of cement is handed to him he passes it back
saying, “No can, b’long Amlican.” A Canton con
tractor quits a piece of work entailing a loss of sev
eral thousand dollars to himself because he finds
the contract is financed by American money, and
his co-patriots promptly make good his loss. “Flow
er Boats,” which are the houses of ill-fame in Can
ton, throw all their “Florida Water” into the
river, which others might do to the improvement of
the odor from that dirty and busy stream.
During 'September the Chinese annually worship
the moon, a special night being set apart for this.
At this festival large quantities of cakes, known
as “Moon Cakes,” are used. These are manufac
tured months ahead and many shipped to other
lands to the Chinese residing there. This year
these shipments were returned, because American
flour was used in their manufacture, while the de
votees here used substitutes, all to the loss of the
Moon Cake bakers.
Had Solomon lived in China he might have said,
as truly as he did of books, “of the making of idols
there is no end.”
A wealthy Shanghai merchant became so wrought
up over the indignities heaped upon his country
men that he was driven to suicide. This constitu
ted him a hero, and being deceased he came within
the circle of deity, and now his worship has been
established in Macao, Canton, Wuchow and other
places. Thus the American Boycott is responsible
for another idol, which will be handed down to fu
ture generations, as well as worshipped by the
present.
What have these highly wrought feelings accom
plished? Ask the American dealer. Recently the
manager of a leading firm; who has branches in a
number of interior and coast cities; said to me:
“Business is practically nothing.” Before the
movement began their trade had reached a highly
profitable condition. Similar testimonials could be
given by many. American trade had reached a
splendid growth, but now it is threatened with such
a back-set that years will he required to win it
back, German and British firms meanwhile reaping
the benefit.
But the more serious feature is the grave risk
that attaches to the foreigner’s life. It is an easy
step from foreign goods to inflicting bodily harm
on foreign persons. The American Consul in Can
ton, realizing the danger, has called all the mission
aries who are laboring in the interior to come into
the treaty ports.. We feel perfectly safe here in
Macao, as this city is governed by the Portuguese,
while Honkong being a British Colony, there is
equal safety there. But in the interior in many
places things are far from being in a peaceful
state. If the American Senate does not remove all.
hnrriers in the immigration regulations which have
hitherto been so objectionable to the better class
of Chinese, which have put them on a par with the
coolie class, there will he serious trouble ahead.
Tt is time for God’s reorfle to pray earnestly to
Him who can guide the affairs of individuals and
nations alike, and who can bring order out of this
chaos, to make this lead to an even wider door for
the gospel of Mercy and Peace.
Tots Win Suit.
“Tots Win a Liquor Suit.” Under this heading
the Chicago Record-Herald publishes in detail a re
markable verdict rendered in Judge Tuthill’s court
against several saloon keepers charged with having
made a father and wage earner into a drunkard.
The facts, briefly stated, are these:
The children of John Hedlund came under the
nurview of the juvenile court about three years ago
because of a drunken father and a mother unable to
children too young to help themselves.
When the case in question was brought before
the court the jury, consisting of wage earners, more
than half of whom were apparently of foreign de
scent, promptly returned a verdict of “guilty,”
the damages being fixed at $17,500.
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