Newspaper Page Text
LAW ENFORCEMENT.
The news from over the State in regard to the
enforcement of the prohibition law is eminently
encouraging. Some of the most reluctant cities to
accept the law are enforcing it most faithfully and
most profitably. Notably so are Brunswick, Albany,
Macon and. perhaps some others. Brunswick, a sea
port, which is always said to be impracticable as a
field for prohibition enforcement, is spoken of by
those in a position to know, as the banner town for
the faithful enforcement. Brunswick set herself to
get the good out of the law if there was any in it.
Good men were put in office. Judge Tom Parker
on the bench of the Superior Court could be trusted,
of course. The city officials have been faithful, and
Brunswick rejoices. We do not understand that it is
not possible to get a drink in Brunswick, but it is
commendably difficult. Next to Brunswick comes
, Albany. Yet Albany stood next to Savannah in
opposition to prohibition. But Albany is regene
rated. And then comes Macon that has always
fought us, in these and scores of other cities and
towns the law is enforced and the towns are pros
pering.
This is inevitably so, and always will be so, for
the very obvious reason that the liquor sold in any
place takes away from the trade of that place, in
the first instance the Federal tax, which is about
one dollar per gallon besides the licenses and the
wholesale prices of the liquors are a dead loss.
Atlanta has been estimated to have spent $.1,500,-
000 every year. At least one fourth of this went
to pay-Uncle Sam, making $375,000. A trifling part
of the balance finds its way into local trade. Who
then is benefited? The foreign brewers, and* dis
tillers, a handful of salesmen and porters, and that
is all. Who is hurt? Every drygoods merchant
that might have sold -nods for a part of that money.
Every shoe man, every furniture man, every grocery
man, every meat man, and every real estate man and
house builder, who could not sell to those who drank,
because when they had spent their money for drink
they did not have money to spend for clothes, shoes,
groceries, fresh meat, houses to live in, nor school
books for their children. Another class of heavy
losers is the long line of squalid, hungry, shivering,
tattered wives and children who pay the fines of
those who drink, or suffer while they serve a sen
tence in the chain gang.
Just now there seems to be a falling off of law
' enforcement in Atlanta, except in the Recorder’s
Court. Whoever may be to blame, the city will
inevitably suffer. Every dollar that goes into blind
tigers and into beer that is a trifle “too near” does
not swell the volume of trade, feed and clothe the
needy, send children to school, nor pay rents, nor
buy homes. As sure as economic principles are
? true, Atlanta will suffer for this relaxation in the
> enforcement of the law.
It is evident that the A. P. A. that gave us so
much trouble in 1887, by furnishing the money to
defy the law is doing the same thing now. Let
all of our officers take notice. J. L. D. H.
"The Limit of the Line.”
(Continued from Page 6.)
“Your dear girl’s asleep/’ with biting sarcasm.
“She is a Southern witch. She maneuvered you
off to Sunday school. I wanted you to 'help me pick
plum blossoms.”
“Really, I forced myself on her company, Ethel.
Don’t make Alps out of sand hills.”
“Mountains out of mole hills, you mean?” She
moved her shoulders restlessly. “You are so hard
to influence. Pin on a red carnation and escort her
to church tonight.”
“I am not forty kinds of a donkey, Ethel.”
“Then you will never, never marry. Only men
who are forty kinds of a donkey do.”
Ford laughed heartily.
“You will make your specialist,” with a reprov
ing finger, “a member of the extinct Ananias Club
if°you keep those gurgles up. What is there to hee
hee about?”
“It remains to be seen, honey,” said Ford, with
audacity.
THINGS THAT NIEE HAPPENING
DEFIANCE OF LAW.
The National Prohibitionist quotes the following
lines from the Brewers Journal: “Whenever a law,
not fit to be obeyed, is enacted by legislatures sub
servient to interests in opposition to the interests
of the whole people, such law should be defied by
every citizen who loves liberty ami cares for the
welfare and progress of this Republic. In a case
of unequal and unjust, tyrannical laws the lawmaker,
and not the law breaker, is the real criminal.”
Do we find in such advice as this, an explanation
of the defiance of the law by the Atlanta near-beer
men ?
PROHIBITION FIRST.
There is going on just now in New York, as in
many other parts of North America (Seal) Wright
is in Canada), a most promising prohibition light,
piece by piece, step by step, the lines arc moved
forward. They are using in New York, what is
known as the “Venango” movement. We have not
seen a specific description of the plan, but from the
account of its work, it must be about this: The
town is canvassed with this proposition: You sign
this pledge to support prohibition nominees for
office, with the understanding that it is not binding
unless the prohibitionists get a plurality of the
voters in the town, or as we would say, “the pre
cinct.” If the number falls below a plurality, the
voters may vote with their old parties, otherwise
they vote for the prohibition nominees without
regard to the old parties. That is fine. It means
Prohibition first. J. L. I). H.
H *
THE MORAL UPHEAVAL.
The Baptist Chronicle of Alexandria, La., has
always been one of our best exchanges and recently
it has come into the editorial control of Dr. J. Benj.
Lawrence. He takes hold with power and well
directed power at that. On the lines that The
Golden Age is on, he is with us. May the Lord
speed him. Here is a sample of his view of filings:
The Moral Upheaval.
“That there is a moral unheaval among the peo
ple cannot be denied. The trend of the times are
for better conditions. The very atmosphere is
charged with psychic influences which are acting
as a moral stimulant to all spheres of human en
deavor. Recently the Supreme Court of Illinois
confirmed the moral legislation of that State hold
ing that a city had the power to forbid immoral
moving pictures, shows and theaters. Just about
the time this announcement was made we hear of
the theater managers of New York City declaring
that the vile plays of the metropolis must be sup
pressed. Even in New Orleans judges are waking
up to the trend of moral events and placing penalties
upon the violation of the anti-race track gambling
law which will forever put the gamblers out of
business. These things show that movement for
moral reform is not a surface movement. It is a
“Really, you should save such words for Shirley.
lam not a queen bee, you know. Why don’t you
try out darling, on her? I’ve heard it helped.”
“By Jove, Ethel, you make me positively dizzy.
I couldn’t think of calling Miss Shirley darling.
I’d choke first. I’d feel like I had swallowed four
and twenty fishbones.”
“Do you wish me to propose to her, for you,
Monsieur Gregg ?’ ’
“No, thank you. You are awfully kind. But
don’t bother your pretty tongue with such non
sense.”
“Proposing is nonsense, is it? What? I like that.
Why don’t you make a mock proposal to me?”
“I might get serious.”
“You are quite a serious young man,” gazing at
him mischievously.
“Um!” Ford rose, and gazed at himself thought
fully in the mantle mirror.
“I love you a lot, Ethel.”
“Really? How charming. But, you know that
you were looking at yourself, when you said that.”
The Golden Age for March 18, 1909.
movement that has taken hold noon the life of the
people.”
I? *
BEATING THE MOSQUITOES.
One of the achievements of the age is the conquest
of the mosquito. At Andersonville, in 1864, we
used to stop quite often at the close of the day and
look up. The deadly insects that we did not then
suspect were dangerous, would swarm over a black
hat in a whirling column, extending many feet up
ward. Quinine, Dogwood bark and calomel would
be poured into the place that tin 1 mosquitoes had
poisoned, and some of the sufferers would get well.
In 1881 this writer was in Warren county, Miss.,
doing the work of a country pastor. Always ex
posed to the ravages of the buzzing beasts, one hot
afternoon, in August, on Monday or Tuesday, he
rode eight miles across a creek bottom to visit a
bereaved family. The gray-back mosquitoes were
on him all the way. Before the next Sunday night
he had swallowed about 150 grs. of quinine, and the
equivalent of about 40 grs. of calomel, and if you
can believe it, he is not dead, but here to tell it.
All that is changed now. Look at this story from
an exchange:
“Baltimore, in 1906, appropriated SIO,OOO for a
mosquito campaign in 1907. The entire city was
gone over. Cisterns, tanks and wells were covered
with wire gauze. Pools, ponds and fountains not
containing perch, which live on the mosquito “wrig
gler,” were covered with kerosene. All vaults
were covered with kerosene every other week.
Households were warned and fined if any pan of
water was left for five days —the period for breed
ing mosquitoes. The result was immediate last year.
Mosquitoes were greatly diminished, and malarial
fever decreased. For this year $5,000 was appro
priated.
“The mosquito has been so reduced on the Isthmus
of Panama, where malarial fevers were rife, that
they have almost disappeared, and Ihe death rate
has become less among the men working there, than
in this country for men employed on public works.”
It It
OHIO STRIKES HEAVY BLOW.
“The Dean bill, which was intended to repeal the
Rose County Option bill in Ohio, failed in the Senate
of that State by a vote of 18 to 16. The distillers
and brewers and saloon-keepers of Ohio and then
friends and sympathizers everywhere exhausted
every possible means to seeaire the passage of the
Dean bill. Its defeat sounds the death knell of the
liquor traffic in Ohio. Already about sixty counties
in that State have gone dry and others will continue
to do so. It will be a matter of only a few years
until the people of the State will be calling for
State-wide prohibition, in order to protect them
from Cincinnati and Cleveland, and other cities
which may still retain saloons. ” Baptist and
Reflector.
“So it doesn’t go, eh?”
“No,” with a pretence at weeping.
“Can’t I get you a new dress, in nine shades of
green? I wish to be sincere about something.”
“No; bad form. You can only give baby girls
dresses. ’ ’
“ I can buy it for Aunt De Peystcr?”
“If you have sense enough. She loves solid
colors. Why don’t you give it to Little Nell?”
“Brilliant idea!” backing away from the glass.
“I. may fool that specialist yet. I am going to
bone up on the back numbers of a fashion journal
I saw on Mother De Peyster’s table.”
“That name!” Ethel murmured. “Every letter
in it bristles like a lance. No wonder it took so
many millions to balance it—a poor person would
expire under such a nomenclature.”
“It is my middle name,” Ford returned with a
dazzling smile. “But until I ask you to share it,
ma belle, it might be wise for you to withhold your
verdict.”
To be Continued.
7
