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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.