SEPTEMBER 15, 1912 



603 



Our Homes 



A. I. ROOT. 



Judge not, that ye be not judged. — Matt. 7:1. 



Thou Shalt not bear false witness against thy 

 neighbor. — Ex. 20:16. 



And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, 

 I pray thee, between thee and me, and between thy 

 herdmen and my herdmen ; for we be brethren. — 

 Gen. 13:8. 



In the Rural New-Yorker for Aug. 24, 



the "Hope Farm" man (friend Collin- 



wood) has sometliing to say in regard to 



"grain smut," which, in consequence of the 



recent rains, is unusually bad this season. 



And he goes over briefly the best methods 



up to date to counteract smut and other 



fungous gTowth. After what he says about 



the care of our crops in this line he gives 



us the following: 



HUMAN SMUTS. 



A political campaign is not unlike a thrashing- 

 machine. Men and what they say are run through 

 it, and usually you will find a black dust of abuse 

 and falsehood rising from it. This is what I 

 call human smut — the meanest and most danger- 

 ous part of politics. For example, I received a 

 note from a very well-known man in Ohio, who 

 said: 



"Mr. Roosevelt came through Ohio speaking 

 against Mr. Taft. At one place he was so drunk 

 that three men were needed to hold him up while 

 he talked." 



When I demanded proof it seems that this man 

 got the story from a minister, who got it from 

 another man, who in turn got it from "three 

 reputable persons." Another man claimed that 

 when Roosevelt spoke in Boston he was so drunk 

 that he staggered as he came on the platform 1 

 Another man, who sat on the stage, insists that 

 Mr. Roosevelt caught his foot on a hanging board. 



Now I call these things human smut — a germ 

 disease which gets into the minds of some men and 

 makes them magnify and repeat such hideous 

 stories. Every one knows where I stand on the 

 rum question. We have no more use for intoxi- 

 cating liquor than we have for typhoid germs, 

 and the sooner people know it the better I am 

 satisfied. The worst criticism I have of many 

 Prohibitionists is their narrow and malignant per- 

 sonal abuse of public men. Somehow they can 

 not see how this restricts their influence. As a 

 case of typical human smut there was a young 

 minister accused of beating his wife I The scandal 

 terminated in a secret trial by the elders and dea- 

 cons. The case against him was as follows: Three 

 reputable church members were in front of the 

 minister's house one night when they heard a 

 fearful scream. The shadows on the curtain were 

 very distinct. They recognized the woman's voice 

 screaming and pleading, and saw the minister 

 striking at her with a club, and heard language 

 "unfit for the pulpit." Then suddenly all was 

 dark, and there was a louder scream from the 

 woman ! A complete case, you will say, and 

 human smut flew through that town like that from 

 an oat-thrasher I 



Finally some one thought that, as a matter of 

 form, they should give the minister a chance. His 

 story was that he and his wife were having a 

 particularly loving time — as much so as was pos- 

 sible in that moldy old parsonage. All at once 

 a mouse ran out of his hole — across the floor. 

 Ministers' wives are very human, and this one 

 screamed and jumped on a chair, where she stood 

 waving her skirts and her voice to frighten the 

 mouse. Most ministers are also human until they 

 enter the pulpit, and this one caught up a boot- 

 jack and ran about striking at the mouse, and, as 

 he frankly admitted, using certain words which, 

 while seemingly appropriate in a mouse hunt, 

 were not for publication. The mouse got away 

 without damage, but the bootjack knocked the 

 lamp oflf the table and put • it out. Thus the 

 screams, the language, and the blows were all 

 genuine; but the witnesses did not read the shadow 



pantomime correctly. Murder was intended, but it 

 was mouse rather than wife. 



Now, human smut is scandal, and it can take 

 such a case as this and spread a social disease 

 which means ruin to reputation and blight upon 

 progress. To the point — I believe these stories 

 about Mr. Roosevelt are false and foolish. Men 

 who are upon the most intimate terms with him 

 tell me frankly that these stories are false. I be- 

 lieve them to be what I call human smut. They 

 and the people who repeat them and add to them 

 ought to be soaked in formalin and then sprayed 

 with lime-sulphur. Mr. Roosevelt is at a disad- 

 vantage in that he can not say at once that he 

 does not drink at all. I wish he could and 

 would say so; but the men who are gathering back 

 of him by the hundred thousand have been so 

 well soaked with a desire to help their country 

 that they are immune to human smut! You may 

 take it from me that, sooner or later, the new 

 party will be obliged to take a strong stand on the 

 liquor question. They were forced to take up votes 

 for women, though many of the leaders have op- 

 posed such a change. They will have to drink 

 cold water yet. 



I was exceedingly glad to see the above 

 — so glad, in fact, that I have given place 

 to it here in Gleanings. With the Rural 

 I heartily agree that Mr. Roosevelt is at a 

 disadvantage because he can not stand up 

 as Taft recently did and say that he does 

 not drink at all; and I think that President 

 Taft added that any man who occupies so 

 Iiigh and sacred a position as that of the 

 chief executive of the United States should 

 be able to say under all circumstances, "I 

 do not drink." 



Now, with this in mind I wish to express 

 myself a little more freely than ever I have 

 before in these pages in regard to the at- 

 titude of tlie Prohibition party toward the 

 Anti-saloon League. Let me make another 

 extract here from a letter from a good 

 friend of mine who is an active Prohibi- 

 tionist, and who occupies an important 

 position in the affairs of the great city of 

 Philadelphia. In his personal letter to 

 me I find the following: 



I am writing you a personal letter . 

 simply to enlighten you on some facts that I learned 

 while attending the national Prohibition conven- 

 tion at Atlantic City last week .... I learn- 

 ed from a good ministerial brother who attended the 

 national convention that both local option and the 

 Anti-saloon League were positively enemies of the 

 prohibition movement; and from very good data 

 which were furnished me the Anti-saloon League 

 was started by some liquor men in order to defeat 

 the prohibition movement. 



Philadelphia, July 26. 



The above statement was to me simply 

 appalling, and I can think of only one 

 parallel case just now. When Jesus com- 

 menced doing his great work of casting 

 out devils the Pharisees said, "This fellow 

 doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub 

 the prince of devils." 



Just think of it, friends. At the first 

 meeting ever held in starting the Anti- 

 saloon League, your old friend A. I. Root 

 was present. Dr. Howard H. Russell, who 



