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A STUDY IN LIQUOR COLORS
By SOLON H. BRYAN.
It is an old saying that we never appreciate
our blessings until they are gone, and time, with
its varied experiences, seems to confirm this
statement. Even mothers-in-law must suffer un
til they die.
I do not know what the Georgia people are
going to do with the saloon question, but it
would seem that some of them look upon the
saloon as a departed blessing. But, as Ma
would say, “There ain’t no accountin’ for ther
way some people look at things, nur fer ther
way they look, nuther,” The optics of some
are defective.
The immediate occasion for these remarks is
the result of a visit which I have just made to
Mobile and Montgomery, Alabama, two cities
which are in almost every particular “wide
open.” My work for several years has been
confined largely to the states of North Caro
lina and Virginia, and the northern part of
South Carolina and Georgia, the greater part
of which territory is “dry.”
I recently jumped from Greensboro, N. C., di
rect to Mobile, Ala., stopping over for a day
or t"wo in Atlanta, and the contrast was so
great that I am positive a blind man would no
tice it. North Carolina is a very dry state.
Os course, the law is violated, more or less, but
the prohibition sentiment in North Carolina is
strong and the law is reasonably well enforced.
A man under the influence of alcohol is the ex
ception up there. The red nose and the blurred
eye are conspicuous for their absence. I
do not mean to intimate that the total absti
nence pledge is being kept by every citizen, but
1 do affirm that the condition of society, as it
touches all phases of life, are better than they
are where the saloon exists.
Alighting from a sleeper at Mobile, in the
early morning, I saw on my way to the hotel
every possible evidence of dissipation written
The readers of The Golden Age who have
become most favorably acquainted with that
gifted preacher, “booze fighter” and publicist,
John A. Wray, of Miami, Fla., will be glad to
learn that he recently closed a remarkable
meeting at Shelby, N. C., the home of his boy
hood.
There were about a hundred professions of
conversion and a general awakening toward
all things good and true. A fine description of
the striking man and his methods is clipped
from the Cleveland Star of Shelby, N. C.
‘ ‘ Possibly the largest crowd ever seen at a re
ligious gathering in Shelby heard Rev. John A.
Wray preach last night in the grove near the
Baptist Church. Rev. Mr. Wray who had been
advertised to assist pastor Suttle in a series of
meetings, whose coming had been looked for
ward to with so much pleasure by hundreds of
people in the town and county arrived Satur
day from Miami, Florida.
The first service was held Sunday morning.
The church building was packed and the serv
ice most impressive and effective. The serv
ice at night was held in the grove near the
church where a large platform had been erect
ed and seats to accommodate a thousand peo
ple, put in place. The scene Sunday night
simply beggars description. No such scene was
ever witnessed in Shelby. The grove was light
ed with electric lights, at least a thousand peo
ple were seated, many were in buggies and
autos on the outside of the circle.
To the front of the big platform filled with
singers, stood Rev. Mr. Wray, small in stature
but great in mind and heart, yet humble and
IVray Stirs Shelby
The Golden Age For November 9, 1911.
on the faces of many whom I passed. The sa
loons were wide open, and working men, en
route to their labor, entered hastily for their
morning dram. All during the day and until
late at night men were coming and going, pa
tronizing the saloons. Here I found the
red nose and the blurred eye, and the man too
full for either utterance or perambulation. The
scenes were typical, in large measure, of those
upon which 1 looked when a boy back in my
Arkansashhomose —of the time when prohibition
was young.
The world’s championship series of baseball
between Philadelphia and New York was being
played, and one day I dropped by the Item of
fice to hear the bulletins announced. The man
next to me was so full of liquor I could hardly
stand the odor. Upon another occasion I drop
ped in to see Al Fields’ minstrels. Next to me
were two ladies, cultured and refined, as their
dress and manners would indicate. In a few
minutes the usher placed a man on the other
side of me, also dressed nicely, but so strong
with the odor of whiskey that his presence was
obnoxious. In using the street cars I was al
ways subjected to the same experiences, and
while I was in the city, the Register published
an editorial condemning the police for ineffi
ciency of service for allowing profanity on
the street cars in the presence of ladies. I
mention these instances to bring out the fact
that in Mobile one is most always subjected to
the objectionable presence of the man under
the influence of liquor. It is not so in any dry
territory I have ever travelled, excepting, of
course, such places as Memphis, Savannah and
a few others.
The motion picture shows are allowed to run
on Sunday. The people throng them, by the
hundreds. As I was standing in front of one
of them, a modern touring car came rolling up,
letting out what appeared to be a family from
simple as a child, holding that great throng
in his grip from start to finish. Ilis subject
was: 4 ‘Will a man rob God?” The sermon was
searching and effective. Many Shelby people
are acquainted with Mr. Wray’s style. He
speaks rapidly. He says things, says them fast
and keeps at it.
Perhaps more than two hundred responded
to the invitation at the close of the sermon.
Mr. Wray spoke in highest praise of Pastor
Suttle, his earnestness and excellent arrange
ments and preparations for this meeting. Judg
ing by the spirit of the pastor and people he
predicted a great meeting. Certainly no meet
ing has ever had such a glorious beginning.”
DAYTON SWEPT BY REVIVAL.
We are in the fourth week of our great re
vival here in Dayton. I am somewhat like the
boy who caught the calf “and couldn’t turn it
loose.” Although I have been here about a
mouth already the interest is growing with
every service. Last night one of the most pop
ular theatrical troops in the country played at
the opera house; and besides, it was just pour
ing down rain; but there was a large audience
at church. And although it was raining out
side we sang enthusiastically, “There is Sun
shine in My Soul.”
I preached my dead level best on the subject
of, “Four New Things,” viz. a new heart, a
new man, a new name and a new city. The
altar was full of earnest seekers. Many of
whom were happily saved in the after service.
So far we have had over three hundred con
versions—all grown people, but twenty-three.
among the “four hundred.” I took note of this,
because I was surprised to see such a turnout
stop at the moving picture show.
When I talked with the Y. M. C. A. secre
tary about putting on a high-class lyceum
course, he said that the people had gone wild
about the motion picture.
I have lived in both dry and wet towns. I
have worked in both dry and wet territory. I
have carefully observed conditions and made
comparisons and am fully convinced that the
sale of alcohol in any form, or in any way, is
both a curse to the individual and the commu
nity, and the greatest menace to civilization
which we have. And the best of us are not
civilized to hurt. Our salvation as a nation
has not been worked out, nor can we attain un
to the highest ideal of political and social free
dom, with the corrupting, debasing and de
structive influences of the legalized sale of al
cohol in our midst. It is not a question of
method, but one of annihilation —either the an
nihilation of the saloon, or the destruction of
the ideals upon which our country was found
ed. While our father slept, the enemy crept
in, and it now remains for the sons and daugh
ters to raise and restore a standard of sobriety
and public policy, which will insure the perpet
uation of the principles which gave life to our
nation. It is a battle of ideas, a struggle be
tween the forces of degeneracy and those which
look to the advancement and consequent per
manency of the race.
Mobile, doubtless, has a distinctive problem
in the handling of the liquor question, but Mo
bile will eventually learn, as will Memphis, Sa
vannah and all the cities of the land, that the
highest efficiency in civic life is attained only
by communities which observe the laws of per
sonal and community sobriety, and that this
sobriety can not be realized through the legal
ized sale of alcohol in any form.
Counting the backsliders over 500 people
have surrendered to God. The army of the
living God moves on.
All the business houses in the city close for
the day services. And nearly every business
and professional man in the city is saved from
a life of sin.
Dayton is like the old man who was saved
the other night; next morning he remarked to
some friends: “This is no longer ‘Old Uncle
John.’ It is new John with old John’s clothes
on.” Dayton is a new city, its churches are
on a higher plane, its citizens more fraternal.
I go to Chattanooga next, where I hope to
have the editor of The Golden Age with me
part of the time.
A part of my religious work is to take sub
scriptions for The Golden Age. It fills a place
in journalism that no other paper even touches.
The South would be infinitely poorer with
out The Golden Age. It does so much for
Christianity, and against the saloon and other
devilment that it ought to be made one of
the most widely read journals of this continent.
BURTON A. HALL.
EPIGRAMS.
By Elam Franklin Dempsey, B. D.
Tlie mother makes the man.
*
Converts are a preacher’s best credentials.
A christianized womanhood means a chris
tianized world.
*
The saloon is itself the perpetual condemna
tion of the saloon.
¥
A Christian may not be anxious even about
anxiety itself.
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