Newspaper Page Text
Banks County Gazette.
VOL 2.-NO.- 12.
Could Prohibitiou Be E.nforced
in New York ?
The following is taken from Frank
Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly:
“Let us imagine that a prohibition
amendment were adopted by the
State of New York, that all liquor
licenses were abolished, and the sa
loons ordered to be closed by the
mandate of the constitution. Does
any one think for a moment that in
cities like New York, Brooklyn, Troy,
Albany or Buffalo the saloons would
be closed? Would the local magis
trates summon jurors, or be able to
find jurors who would convict saloon
keepers for violating the statute ?”
Under the prohibitory laws of Kan
sas and lowa, trial by jury is not nec
essary. The sale of liquor is enjoined
as a nuisance, and dealt with sum
marily. In Maine, certain of the
offenses under the law are tried before
juries, but the injunction clause there
also is operative to a considerable ex
tent. A prohibitory law in New
York without the injunction clause
w'ould stand very little chance of be
ing enforced in the larger cities. It
was this lack of au injunction clause
that rendered the law such a compara
tive failure in Rhode Island. It was
its insertion both in Kansas and lowa
that marked the beginning of effective
enforcement.
But with an injunction clause,
would the law be enforced in New
York City? It is a question to be
faced. In answer we should like to
cite an illustration. Sioux City, lowa,
used to be known as one of the tough
est cities of the West. When the
prohibitory law of lowa went into
effect, it was openly defied in that
city. All the officials, without excep
tion, scouted it and derided it and
connived at its violations. Every
newspaper in the city sustained them
in this course. What was more, the
business men issued a manifesto, de
claring that any attempt to enforce
the law would disturb business and
impair the prosperity of the city, and
demanding that no such attempt he
made. If there ever was a city where
public sentiment was against the law
that city was Sioux City and that law
was the prohibitory law.
When the Clarke law went into
effect in 1886 it soon became evident
that there were teeth in it. It con
tained the injunction clause. Note
the result. Under that law, in the
face of overwhelming sentiment
against it, a mere handful of men and
women, perhaps half a dozen, headed
by Rev. Geo. C. Haddock and D.
Wood, a lawyer, began proceedings
to close the saloons. Were they
laughed at? Not for long. The entire
liquor traffic of that city soon became
desperate. In desperation and hate
they lay in wait for Haddock and shot
him dea*i on the street corner. But
that did not save them. The pro
ceedings were carried on and resulted
in closing every saloon in Sioux City.
If, under such circumstances and
against such odds as that, the law
could be enforced, we believe that it
could be enforced in New York City
if the legislature did its duty in fram
ing the laws. Under the right law,
a mere corporal’s guard of brave men
could shake the liquor traffic in this
city to its very foundations.
But the effect of a prohibitory law
would, in another respect, be immedi
ate and important. At present, the
liquor business attracts capital be
cause it is both safe and profitable.
If a prohibitory law were passed the
business might, if the law was not en
forced, remain profitable, but it would
no longer be safe. No one could tell
when the turn of public sentiment
might come that would, inside of
twenty-four hours, as in Topeka,
sweep the whole business to destruc
tion. As an outlawed business it
would no longer have the attraction
for capital that it now has.
Even before a hand was raised to en
force it, a prohibitory law would strike
a heavy blow at the business right in
its stronhold, New York City.
Give us a prohibition party victory
in this State, and a prohibition majori
ty in the state legislature and we will
go bonds to make prohibitiou prohib
it in New York City within six
months, and despite saloon sympa
thizers in all the municipal offices.
And we will not have to change a
word in the state constitution to do
it, either.—The Voice.
The Two-Cent Passenger Rate.
A prominent railroad official is
quoted by The Augusta Chronicle as
saying that the two cent passenger
rate, if established, would result in
the bankrupey of nearly every railway
in this state. This assertion is a fa
miliar one. It was heard when the
present railroad law's were passed,
and it was heard again when the
three-cent passenger rate was adopted
by the commission. As an argument
against the two-eent rate it is not
worth considering, since the rate has
already been tried in Georgia and has
been found to increase travel to a
more profitable extent than was pos
sible under the three-cent rate.
Asa matter of fact, the two-cent
rate would only put the people of
Georgia on a level, so far as fare is
concerned, with people from a dis
tance who travel on the roads in this
state. Let us explain. From Janua
ry Ist to July 15, 1891, the southern
passenger association has issued
eighty-two circulars quoting ‘224
special rates of two cents a mile to
various societies and other organiza
tions. These do not include picnic
excursions and other local reductions
over the various roads, which wo<sld
more than quadruple in number the
reductions already mentioned.
In tfcspecial rates of two cents
a mile there w r ere a number of per
mits for one cent a mile, and, in some
instances, one and a half cents a mile.
Some of the circulars were for fifty
people, and others for one thousand
to one thousand five hundred. One
of them, authorizing “summer excur
sion rates,” allows anybody or every
body who wishes to make a trip for
pleasure or health to mountain or
seaside resorts, to go and return for
two cents a mile. This rate is in
force everyday from the Ist of June
to the last day of October.
Nat .rally it will be said that this is
a very good tiling, and it is, but it
must be borne in mind .that the far
mer, merchant or other citizen who
goes on business from one station to
another, and rides in the same car
and sometimes in the same seat with
the passenger hound for the pleasure
resort, is compelled to pay three cents
a mile. It costs no more to haul him
—nay, it doesn’t cost as much, and
yet the man of business is made to
pay three cents a mile while the
pleasure seeker pays only two cents.
These summer excursion rates are
quickly followed by the rates for
winter tourists, which last from the
middle of October to the Ist of May,
and which allow the citizens of the
northern and eastern states to ride
over the Georgia roads for two cents
a mile, while the citizens of the state,
traveling in the state, are compelled
to pay three cents a mile.—Atlanta
Constitution.
Duty.
If there is one word above another
that should at the present time be
correctly interpreted, and its meaning
fully understood, it is the word duty/
Of all the requirements which wait
upon manhood, at the present time,
the demand for an intelligent and
complete discharge of duty is para
mount. To know one’s duty and
then perform it, is not only the effing
necessity of the age, but the one
great factofr in all future progress.
Cowardice in some form or other is a
prevailing sin among the American
people. It has grown to such an ex
tent as to become the rule instead of
the exception, and to-day the United
States is a nation of cowards. Not
physical cowards, although there are
many of that kind, but moral cowards,
pure and simple. Stand on the street
corner and for every true man that
passes by, carrying with him the
courage of honest convictions, a thou
sand will pass bearing a load of some
species of cowardice. It is the polit
ical coward that them
HOMER, BANKS COUNTY, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, JULY 29,1891.
all. It remains for him to take the
lead in cringing servility and abject
negation of all claims to independent
manhood. To such an extent has
this condition grown that the once
proud and somewhat arrogant Amer
can citizen has become a fawning
sycophant. This loss of independ
ence and moral rectitude can be dis
tinctly traced to the machine sastem
of politics, which to-day rules and
governs in this country. It lias stunt
ed all honest efforts, blunted all con
scientious scruples, and brutalized all
fellow feeling among holders of offi
cial positions. By means of false
promises, to secure momentary power,
it lias built up and brought out an al
most universal desire to hold office.
To attain this much desired object
combination with those already in
position is necessary, and usefulness
to those above becomes the first step
in the advancement of those below,
and so the self-stultifying programme
is begun, which only ends in physical
or political death. The whole body
politic is stricken with this demoral
izing and degrading disease. It is
met with everywhere, and pervades
the entire nation. This condition
must be changed, and that at once,
or the future of this country can he
safely predicted. It can be done,
hut only through education upon a
higher and nobler plane of manhood.
Servility must give way to study, and
a desire for office to a thirst for
knowledge, with this much accom
plished, the balance is comparatively
easy. Education begets independ
ence, which in turn will overthrow
dictation.. It becomes, therefore, the
duty of the hour to persist in a prop
er course of education among the peo
ple. This education must be carried
to completion among the conservative
forces first, as there is no hope of
reaching the arrogant and domineer
ing except through defeat and disas
ter. The pile must always be fired
at the bottom instead of the top to be
successful. If these premises are
correct, the duty of every member of
the Alliance is apparent. It is not
only plainly to be seen hut imperative
ly to be performed, and demands im
mediate attention. In the honest,
intelligent, persistent discharge of his
duty lies the future importance and
usefulness of the Alliance, as well as
the progress and perpetuity of the
government. Present conditions arc
taking away the rights and privileges
of the people, which must he speedily
restored or the greatest calamities
which can overtake a republic awaits
in the near future. The responsibil
ity of a complete discharge of duty
attaches now to American citizenship
fully as much as in any period of the
nation’s history. It is therefore in
cumbent upon all, more especially
members of the Alliance, to fearlessly,
earnestly and continually labor for
the common good, and perform every
duty jlrith promptness and intelli
gence.—National Economist.
The Study of the Bible.
Tlie profit of Bible study depends
vyry largely upon the spirit with
which we pursue it. If we indulge
(he delusion that we are wiser than
flie Omnicient, and go to the Bible
simply for the purpose of obtaining
support for our preconceived opin
ions, we shall find that of which we
are in oursuit, and we shall be likely
to find nothing more. If we would
be lienefited by our study of the Holy
Scriptures, if we would obtain that
knowledge of the truth through which
we are made wise unto salvation, we
must bring to this exercise an humble
and docile spirit. We must come
feeling our need of the wisdom that
is from on high, and we must come
believing that the Bible is the very
word of God. If we approach the
Bible as critics, assuming that it is a
compound of truth and error, and de
ciding what we will believe and what
we will reject, we shall derive from
the exercise the benefit that coines of
critical study. We shall become
inoie critical. We shall be wiser in
our own estimation, though we shall
not become better judges of the truth.
The benefit derived, will be essentially,
if not exclusively, intellectual. The
intellect may be quickened as it would
be by the critical study of Plato or
Bacon, but the heart will not he made
better. We shall not grow in grace
nor in the knowledge of our Lord and
Savin' Jesus Christ. God reveals
himself in the Scriptures to such as
seek him with a contrite, believing,
and teachable frame of mind.
This revelation is the work of the
Holy Spirit. In the person of the
Spirit of God takes of the things of
Christ and shows them to the hum
ble studen" of his word. “The secret
of the Lord is with them that fear
lni; and he will show' them his cov
enant.” If we come to the Bible in
the exercise of filial fear, desiring to
know the truth, and with a purpose
to yield our hearts and lives to his
guidance, we shall not be left to fall
into serious error. God will reveal
to us all essential truth, and the truth
trill make us free. We shall obtain
favor with the the Lord and rejoice
in our experience of his mercy. But
if we incline to our own understand
ing, we shall be left to the conse
quence of your foil.—Presbyterian
Teacher.
Tlie Trouble hi Tennessee.
Governor Buchanan doubtless acted
with t,h very best intentions when lie
ordered the militia to the coal mines
near Briceville, Tenn., hut he now
finds himself in an embarrassing posi
tion.
Ihe miner, hacked by the people
of East Tennessee, arc determined
Chat leased convict labor shall no lon
ger compete with them. The news
papers declare that the calling out of
the troops was unlawful, and a de
mand is made for the immediate
annulment of the convict leases. The
Memphis Commercial says:
, “The honest miners who work in
the coal mines near Briceville have
good cause for complaint and for tak
ing the position of opposition to the
employment by the nine owners of
convict-leased labor, which they have.
From the testimony taken before the
legislative committee, who last Feb
ruary inquired into and reported ad
versely to a continuance of the con
vict lease system, it was proven that
the convicts >n these mines were
worked in three-feet seams of coal,
and that two of them, each costing
the company hut twenty-seven cents
a day, would together turn out
enough eoal to net the company $8
each day, whereas the honest miners,
working for so much per carload,
were put to work on eighteen-inch
veins, which necessitated their lying
upon their hacks during every hour
that they labored, the result to them
being about three carloads each day,
netting them about $1 per day. And
this is the system of greed, of avarice
and cupidity that the militia has been
called out to defend and protect, this
the degradation put upon labor, this
the stigma put upon honest toilers,
with whom every mechanic, every
farmer and every man in Tennessee
should sympathize. The convict lease
system ought to be abolished. But
what a measure of awful retribution
it would be if the miners should re
sort to violence and men innocent of
all responsibility for the dreadful
crime against civilization should atone
for it in violent encounter and blood
shed.”
Public sentiment is inflamed from
or e end of the state to the other, and,
no matter how the Coal Creek affair
may terminate, the probability is that
the Tennessee convict system will be
revolution ized.—Atlanta Constitution.
Death, Where is Thy Sting?
Death! Have you ever wrestled
with the death-sorrow till you know
its inner sweetness? Sweetness
greater than all, I would almost say.
The loss is loss. We say, perhaps,
“It is their gain,” and wish to be
willing, but we are not willing. Our
hurt gets no relief. The days go by,
and emptiness is as empty, and the
silence as silent, and the ache as re
lentless in its pain. What shall we
do? Our friends look on, and wish
that fhev could help us. And they
know that help will come, because to
their own wrestling it once came.
They know that the heart of this
pain is joy indeed. And if you ask
how it came about in distress so very
sore as yours, their differing words
will probably amount to this, that
such pain can he stilled in one way
only, and that is by being more ac
tively unselfed, by doing more for
others right through one’s sadness,
by trying hard to do simply right.
It takes a wrestle, yes, hut they will
assure us as an inward fact, whose
chemistry they do not pretend to un
derstand, that helpfulness and duly
done at such a time deepen and
sweeten into something within our
selves that almost seems a
new experience from its exceeding
peace. It is not tunc making us
“forget”—nay, just the opposite; we
know that somehow this new peace
is vitally connected with that pain;
and, at last we come to think of them
and feel them together. Later, we
begin to call it peace, and forget that
it was pain. And, by. and by, the
hour in memory which is our linger
ing-place for quiet, happy thoughts
is the very one for which is lighted
by a dead friend’s face. It is our
heaven-spot; and, like the fair city of
the Apocalypse, it hath no need of
the sun, for the glory of that face
doth lighten it. . . . It is only an
other instance of the correlation of
Pain with Gain—through struggle:
the corrcllation of difficulty with ex
altation—through wrestling; through
the struggle, through the wrestle,
through our will facing the tlie hard
thing, clinching it, never letting go
until we feel the gladness crowning
us. We speak of the “ministry” of
sin, of suffering, of disappointment,
of sorrow, and speak truly; but none
of these “minister,” not one, until
they have been mastered. First our
mastery, then their ministry. We
say, “The Lord hath chastened us;”
yes, but by summoning us to a wres
tle in which it is our part never to let
go!—Kev. VV. C. Gannett.
No Labor Lost.
To true workers in any well-chosen
field the words of Jesus, “One soweth
and another reapeth,” afford a very
comforting thought. How often
ministers of the gospel fields, seem to
labor in vain. They work hard and
pray much, and see but little fruit of
their labor. But their labor shall
not be lost. They have planted, arid,
sometimes, through others, the fruit
will appear. God will yet give the
increase.
The Sunday-school teacher goes to
his or her class every Sunday with an
earnest and consecrated heart, teding
the old story of Jesus and the cross,
apparently without results. But they
have not wrought in vain. All work
ers for Christ and in every good
cause are sowing the seed which wall
in time be harvested hy God’s reapers.
We may seem not to accomplish
much, but what we do will tell on
others, and will tell in eternity. Let
us remember, however, that if the
fruits of “well-doing” remain to
benefit and bless, the fruits of “wrong
doing” will remain to harm those
who shall come after us. Let us
strive, then, to fulfill life’s great pur
pose by working for God and human
good, and so leave behind us fruit
which will abide to bless, and not to
curse the world.—Anonymous.
Of Interest to Many.
We clip the following pointed and
timely article from the Atlanta Con
stitution :
From time to time people in this
country receive letters, circulars or
adverrisements leading them to be
lieve that they are heirs to large sums
•f money or vast estates in England.
They arc induced to pay agents’ fees
in advance to lok after their claims,
and after living in expectation for
months or years, their hopes are dis
appointed, and they realize that they
have been swindled.
The other day a man who has made
his living out of these credulous
American dupes for a long time com
mitted suicide at a hotel in London.
SINGLE COPY THREE CENTS,
His name was George F. Parker,
alias Hamilton. In 1887 this man’s
“British-American Claim Agency” in
New York was broken tip by the p<>.
lice as a fraudulent concern, and
Parker was indicted, hut as his vic
tims lived at a distance they did not
appear to testify against him, and he
escaped punishment. His scheme was
to correspond with persons, pretend
ing that he had discovered estates
waiting for them in England. After
getting them interested he would col
lect a fee in advance, and that would
be the end of it. It is said that he
had fully 50,000 dupes.
This swindle has been very success
fully worked many times in the
United States. Thousands of our
people have .a vague impression that
there ought to be unclaimed money
coming to them in England, and it) is
an easy matter to make them believe
that by furnishing proof of their de
scent from some English family they
will he able to secure their inheritance.
This was the game Parker played, amt
for nearly half a generation he did a
large business and rolled in wealth.
But the end of tilts adventurer
carries its own lesson with iti Al
though he went to London with
money, his safety required him to
keep out of public view. Undor an
assumed name be lived l at a hotel,
and gave himself up to debauchery.
Self-murder was the climax of his
career.
There are other agents engaged in
this British-American claim business,
and their operations reach into every
state, and almost every county in the
union. Possibly one case in ten
thousand of theso alleged foreign in
heritances has something in it, hub
the better plan is to let them alone.
There is no money in them for any
body outside of the agent, and he is
generally a swindler of the Parker
stripe.
The Canada Presbyterian talks of
prohibition and politics as though it
lived in the United States: “Like all
great questions that stir tiie public
mind, that of prohibition necessarily,
gets into the party currents, and is
occasionally ‘whirled about in the
eddies. There are men in both par
ties who are sincerely anxious to pro
mote the cause of temperance, as
there are men in each of them who
would like to see the subject shelved
indefinitely. Few, however, care to
incur the responsibility of directly
opposing the movement, for the reas
on that a day will come when there
must he a beckoning with constitu-
cuts. The movement has now ac
quired that measure of strength that
neither of the parties can venture an
outspoken opposition. Both are de
sirous of being publicly regarded as
friendly to the temperance cause, and
political capital is sought to bo stor
ed up for days to come by those who
take part in the discussion; and, they
are not unmindful of the fact that the
votes they cast will be subjected to
future scrutiny. The friends of tem
perance have only to press forward.
When the politicians see that the
people are in earnest, there will be no
inclination to trifle with the subject.”
The New Era Hamburg, lowa, says:
This government h<?s given: to rail
road corporations millions of acres of
land and millions of dollars as sub
sidies. But did you ever hear of the
government loaning a laboring m m
who had been thrown out of employ
ment, with a family dependent upon
him for support, enough money to
get a breakfast with ?: But it loans to
the national banks, millions at one
per cent. Yes, the government has
had millions for corporations, but not
one cent for toilers.
Cornelius Vanderbilt and his mother
will, within the next four months,
have finished in New York the finest
mission building in the world. They
present it to St. Bartholomew’s church
and it is said to bo denominated the
“Parish House of St. Bartholomew’s
church.” Cornelius Vanderbilt bought
the land, which, with the excavation,
cost $75,000. Mrs. W. 11. Vander
bilt is erecting the building at a cost
of $225,000. Cornelius will add to
tliis a $9,900 concert organ.