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The Field of the Prohibition Conflict.
President B. G. Lowrey, with the fidelity of a
brave, true man, didn’t hesitate, in his address to
the young women of Bessie Tift College, to urge
them to go home to work with enthusiasm and create
sentiment in the coming prohibition campaign in
Georgia. Mr. Lowrey is a son of General M. P.
Lowrey. Could anybody expect a son of such a
father to hesitate when opportunity and duty both
confront him?
The supreme court, in an opinion rendered Thurs
day morning, sustains the judgment of Judge Lit
tlejohn, in declaring the Smithville dispensary to
be a nuisance and as such has no right to exist. The
dispensary was outlawed by a special act of the last
legislature, but the commissioners disregarded the
act, holding it to be unconstitutional.
Thanks to the courage of a faithful man, Solicitor
General Hooper instituted nuisance proceedings to
close the place, and Judge Littlejohn ruled against
the dispensary. The higher court sustains the rul
ing, and the dispensary will remain closed.
About 10,000 saloons have been closed in Virginia
since the organization of the Anti-Saloon League in
that state six years ago. The Anti-Saloon League
is doing a great work throughout the country. —
Baptist Chronicle.
The recent ruling of Judge Artman, of Indiana,
declaring that no state has the right to license a
saloon to sell liquor because the state has no right
to license a man to do wrong, we have been in
former, was not appealed from. The liquor men were
afraid to try the test cast before the supreme court.
We have seen, however, a publication that declares
that a few weeks after Judge Artman had ruled, the
supreme court of Indiana ruled directly opposite
on a similar case. A careful reading of the notice
itself, however, shows that the supreme court did
not pass on the question covered by Judge Artman’s
ruling. So far that ruling stands. And it will grow.
Judge Artman’s decision has been printed in pam
phlet form by the Patriot Phalanx, of Indianapolis.
The pamphlet may be obtained of the Phalanx Pub
lishing Company at five cents a copy, or ten copies
for thirty cents.
At Thomasville, Ga., the other day, Judge Robert
G. Mitchell non-suited a case of Thomas Duren
against S. A. Roddenberry, mayor, and Policemen
Doss, Milton, Stephens and Martin. Under a statute
the mayor ordered the policemen to confiscate a large
quantity of liquor found in Duren’s store. The
whiskey was poured out on the ground and the suit
was to recover its value. The judge held that Duren
had no right of action to recover the liquor. Thom
asville is dry. And Judge Mitchell is disposed to
administer the law.
The supreme court of Georgia held in the case
against R. M. Rose and Co., liquor dealers of At
lanta, for selling liquor in Bartow county that the
defendants were not guilty because Bartow’ county
is not now dry under a prohibition law, but under
a high license law. Now Judge Fite says:
“The best thing for us to do now is to again sub
mit the question to the people, w’hich should be
done as soon as practicable. I have no doubt that
we will do as we did in 1884 —vote the sale of whis
key out of the county, and that, too, by an over
whelming majority.”
The “Baptist Standard” of Dallas, Texas, says:
“The cords are constantly tightening arpund the
saloons of Texas. They have been defeated, routed
and put out of business in nearly all the smaller
cities of the state. McLennan county, w-ith Waco
as the central city, is to have an election soon, and
Tarrant county, with Dallas, to come on later. The
prohibition forces are in good fighting trim. The
presnt legislature has greatly strengthened the local
option laws of the state, and it is not done yet,”
Th® Golden Age for April 25, 1907.
Among the Workers.
The noonday prayer meeting at the Y. M. C. A.
begin each day at 12.30 and closes at 12:50. This
gives to busy men an opportunity for a season of
social worship each day.
The series of meetings going-on in Atlanta pre
sents a new’ kind of revival work. There are now’
perhaps thirty churches holding daily services,
many of them twice daily.
We can attend but one at a time and are de
pendent on others for reports. Here are some:
At the meeting at 12 m. on Monday last at the
First Baptist Church, Dr. Landrum called for re
ports from the Baptist pastors present of the work
in their churches. The responses made showed
that the work of the Holy Spirit is in the city with
tremendous pow’er.
These meetings constitute a new sort of “union
meeting.” The plan used to be to get together in
one building and hold a union service. Now’ each
church holds its own service. The expectation is
that the general effect will be far more satisfactory,
a vastly greater number of people can be reached,
and then the Devil cannot get the opportunity to
raise up strife and hard words.
The Christian woman of Jackson, Miss., with
Mrs. A. H. Longino as presildent and Mrs. Edgar
Yerger as secretary, are making a praiseworthy ef
fort to establish a home for old ladies in Jackson.
This is one more instance of the awakening or
Christians to the appreciation of w’hat they owe to
the bodies of men and women for the Lord’s sake.
An exchange says: “By the advice of doctors
200 school children of Manchester, Conn., will un
dergo operation on their throats. These children
breathe through their mouths, instead of their
throats, and the doctors say this injures their intel
lectual capabilities.”
That is queer. How does the breath continue to
come out through the mouth, without coming
through the throat?
The great revival in Atlanta is in progress. Dr.
11. M. Wharton is the central figure among the
Baptists. He closed a two weeks’ work on Wednes
day, April 17, at the First Baptist Church, and
moved over to the Second Baptist Church on Thurs
day to continue two services each day at that church
for two weeks.
Dr. Wharton holds a sort of union meeting every
day at 12 o’clock, at which the progress of the work
in other churches is reported. Then follows one of
his penetrating sermons on religion in the home.
The night services are evangelistic and results are
glorious.
At this writing the First Baptist Church has re
ceived upw'ard of a hundred new members
The Central Church has engaged Rev. J. D. Win
chester, who is conducting a meeting of great
power.
Capitol Avenue Church has its meeting conducted
by Rev. T. T. Martin, one of the most successful
evangelists in the South.
Reports from Woodward Avenue, Emmanuel Bap
tist and McDonald Baptist are all in the highest de
gree encouraging.
At the Western Heights Baptist Church Captain
J. I). Taylor, the “Sailor Evangelist,” is leading
a revival which grows in interest with every meet
ing. The revival began last Sunday and will con
tinue for some time.
Valdosta. Ga., April 17. —For the past two weeks
Rev. W. N. Briney, of the Christian Church of Lou
isville, Ky., has been conducting a series of meet
ings at the Christian Church, and the meetings have
been very largely attended.—The Georgian.
power.
All Sorts of Gambling
fiy J. L. D. Hillyer.
I was talking to a much beloved brother, one of
the best boys I knew’ over forty years ago, and now
one of the best church officials in Atlanta. He told
me that in a meeting of the officials in charge, the
question of the selection of a teacher for a class of
children was under discussion, and the name of a
certain lady was proposed. One of the officers ob
jected because she “played cards.” Our brother
thought the objection well put. He knew my rela
tions to the prohibition fight, and challenged my
equal opposition to the gambling evil. He thought
that gambling is doing more harm than liquor sell
ing. Maybe it is. Here, fine ladies, members of
churches, call their associates together over a game
of bridge, or progressive euchre, or draw poker.
Merchants in a hundred ways are offering induce
ments to trade by giving out coupons that are to
draw prizes—maybe. Children are encouraged in
all sorts of schemes to win a stake by chance. Bets
are laid on ball games, horse races, prize fights, cock
fights, cotton futures and election returns. Some of
these are not counted as gambling, solely because
the statutory definition of gambling has not been
made to cover them. But in their deadly moral ef
fects they are as bad as anything else.
The woman’s club that plays bridge for a prize
may plead, “Since the prize is put up by only
one person for the rest to contend for, there is
no gambling, because each player has not put ‘a
stake into the pot.’ ” And on that they pursue
that species of dissipation, that furnishes most am
ple excuse for the husbands and sons to gamble in
any way they please. But the plea has no merit.
The players do put up a stake. Mrs. A, Mrs. B and
Mrs. C and Mrs. D are playing bridge. Mrs A is
hostess of the party and puts up two prizes. At the
next game Mrs. B is hostess and then she puts up the
prizes, and then in turn the burden falls on Mrs C,
and Mrs. D. The fact that one person advances all
the money in one game does not keep it from being
a bet on the part of the others. They are bound to
do their part to maintain the routine of the club.
And they are therefore betting the amount that they
will pay for prizes in some future game, and pledg
ing their “honor as gamblers” that the prizes will
be offered when it comes to their turn to offer them.
That constitutes “an ante” as real as any black
leg ever dropped into the “pot” in a game of draw
poker. I believe that if solicitor generals and grand
juries had the courage to do their duty, they could
make out half a dozen indictments every day by
calling as witnesses the editors and news gatherers
of the society page in our daily papers. This form
of gambling cuts deeper and makes a more deadly
wound than any other.
*
Predicament of the Large Lady.
It wrns on a suburban train. The young man in
the rear car was suddenly addressed by the woman
in the seat behind him:
“Pardon me, sir,” she said, “but would you mind
assisting me off at the next station? You see, I
am very large, and when I get off I have to go
backward, so the conductor thinks I am trying to
get aboard and helps me on again. He has done
this at three stations.” —The Argonaut.
Reading Enough.
A traveler who not long since was journeying on
horseback through a thinly settled section of one of
our Western states was stopped one day by an old
farmer who showed his interest in the newcomer by
asking many questions.
After relating much about the Spanish war and
other happenings of even less recent occurrence, of
which his questioner had heard nothing until then,
the stranger asked the countryman why he did not
take a weekly newspaper and so keep himself in
formed.
“Wai,” answered the farmer, “when pa died he
left me a stack o’ papers that high” (lowering his
hand to a position just above his knee), “and I ain’t
got half through th’ pile yet, so what’s th’ use get
tin ’ more?” —Exchange.
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