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I was a mere boy; and, thank God! I can say of my record on prohibition, that it is a consistent, long, faith ful and unselfish record which might even do no discredit to a bishop. When I joined the Baptist church, at the age of 14, I was a clerk in a store where whiskey was sold. Re fusing to sell another drop of it, the proprietor respected my scruples and closed that part of his store until he could hire another clerk. From that day to the present hour, if ever I have hesitated to smite the barroom system with voigp, pen or vote, the lost opportunity escapes my recollection. So well known is my position that, when Henry Grady was leading the great fight against the barrooms in Atlanta, some twenty-odd years ago, I was one of those to whom he tel egraphed for help. I well remember the day —a beautiful November morning, the Thanksgiving day of the year, 1 had planned to pass a rest ful day at home with my little fam ily, for I was a hard-working lawyer in those days, but the summons of Grady found me ready to go. I pah) my own expenses to Atlanta; made the great meeting as good a speech as I could cram into the fifteen min utes allowed me; saw and heard some of the ablest champions of prohibi tion, but did not, as I remember, see Dr. Warren Candler, Yet he may have been there. If the meeting was not graced by his presence I know it was blessed by his prayers. It would never occur to me to in fer from his non-attendance to hear me speak that he was faithless to the cause. As the bishop takes it so much to heart that I did not go out to hear his speeches in McDuffie county in 1884, 1 here and emnly hold up ,my right hand, and pledge my word that the next time Bishop Candler comes to Thomson to make any kind of a speech, night or day, rain or shine, I am going to drop everything and butt in at that meeting, and drink in every blessed word which falls from his eloquent lips. Never again will I make the mistake of-not going to hear Warren Candler —never. The state of Georgia has prohibi tion m more than two-thirds of the counties, and this advance of tem perance has been made under the lo cal option law. If the bishop had not been so hasty in trying to find a kink in my record to offset one in his own, he would have remembered that, in the legislature of 1882-8.3, the temperance committee of the house of which Hon. C. R. Pringle was chairman, selected me to close the debate for the local option bill. To be chosen for this place and for this important duty was not only an honor, but it proves how well es tablished was my reputation as a prohibitionist. It is hardly necessary for me to add that I did close th a debate, answering, as best I could, all objections to the local option measure, and setting forth as well as I could the reasons why it should be passed. Hon. Seaborn Wright was also a member of. the house, and we two youngsters battled as stoutly for prohibition then as we did afterwards in 1896 —the year in which Bishop Candler bolted the track. I do not recall that Bishop Candler was pres- WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. ent in 1882-83, taking a hand in the good work of passing the local option bill, but I have no doubt that he helped us in every way he could. He assures me ho favored the local option bill in those days when “pro hibition was not so popular as it is now. ? ’ I believe him. Os course, it is a little bit mortifying to have the bishop and his pious old negro forget that I worked myself “up to the shouting point for prohibition” sq far back as the legislature of 1882, but still “a fickle young man” like me must expect knocks of that sort, particularlv when a kink in the record of a bishop is disturbing the natural functions of the ecclesiasti cal memory. When in congress (1892-93), it was I who made the first fight that had ever been made on the congressional barroom, which for many years had been licensed by the speaker and pa tronized by the members of the house. It did not seem to me to be proper to have a liquor saloon in one of the rooms in the building our national lawmakers meet to make laws for a Christian people. Because of my exposure of the evils of this saloon I was furiously assailed by an overwhelming major ity on the floor of the house. But I felt that I was right, did not flinch, fought the whiskey men to a stand still and thus earned the bitter hat red of the members on both sides of the house. This had much to do with the formation of that iron resolution of Democrats and Republicans, that no matter what I might prove in a contested election case I should not be allowed to'come back to congress. But I had made such an exposure of the congressional barroom that, within a few years after I was de frauded of my scat, the saloon was abolished. During all the long and dreary years during which I have been a social and political outcast because of my convictions, Bishop Candler has been fortunate in keeping within hailing distance of the powers that be; and has climbed to such heights of power, fame and influence that trivial details of my own struggles have not attracted his attention. This is natural. Have I not already said that bishops are but human? In conclusion, I beg to say that when Bishop Candler intimates tiiac he was a stalwart reformer in the years of the past, when reform was not so popular as now, while I have only been outspoken when there was everything to be gained and nothing lost by declaring for reform, he makes a comparison between his record and mine which I can very well afford to leave to tfie decision of the people of Georgia who have known us both. Respectfully, THOMAS E. WATSON. Thomson, Ga., July 21, 1907. P. S. —The bishop will observe that 1 have taken his advice about cultivating my amiability. If he will read the foregoing letter closely he will see that it is every bit and grain amiable as the other one was. T E, W. From Texarkana, Texas, Bishop Candler fired a reply at Mr. Watson, and from Thomson, Georgia, Mr. Wat son touched off a return shot. These two articles will appear in next week’s Jeffersonian. 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