PROHIBITION FOR THE FARMER 73 



will come to mankind. How glad I would be to-day 

 if I could look out upon the broad horizon and feel that 

 nowhere beneath the sun on this revolving planet did 

 there exist a business, the effect of which is to poison, 

 degrade and ruin humanity! I am not appalled by 

 the thought that prison cells will be empty and poor- 

 houses abolished, and poverty removed, as a result of 

 the destruction of a business which yields two hundred 

 and fifty million dollars a year of revenue, and employs 

 thousands of men in brewing, distilling, transporting 

 and selling distilled liquors. 



COMMON DESIRE FOR! STIMTILANTS. 



At the same time one should not quite forget the 

 universal liking of mankind for stimulants. There 

 might be some happy compromise in this matter, and 

 yet it is dangerous to compromise with the devil. He 

 is more than likely to get the better of you, while you 

 think you are winning your own point. The manufac- 

 turer of pure beer, I mean by that a beverage made 

 of malted barley and hops, and the manufacture and 

 sale of pure wine, and I mean by that a beverage 

 made solely of the fermented juice of the grape, 

 might still be permitted without great danger to hu- 

 manity. It is the distilled liquor which does the 

 damage, as a rule. If prohibition of all kinds of alco- 

 holic beverages is not possible at the present time, what 

 an inestimable blessing would be bestowed upon hu- 

 manity if the manufacture and sale of distilled bev- 

 erages were utterly abolished ! 



SOBRIETY A BENEFIT TO AGRICULTURE!. 



The benefit to agriculture in such localities as those 

 in which I live would be immense, and the poverty and 



