University of South Carolina Libraries
I The Press and Banner. Twelve Pages. Wednesday, Feb. 8. 1888. rmiTUTjri rimum nrmnnrr ItrKAUIiS UttMl fijmn. A FOMIDABLE ARRAY OF FACTS FOR PROHIBITION. A Strong Appeal to Onr Kinder Feel* in);** and onr Better Natures, without Giving; Cause for Offence to Any Who May Differ in Opinion. In the recent contest in the city of Atlanta, Hon. H. W. Grady made the following address, which is so full of the milk of human kindness for all I mankind, and which presents the cause that he espouses with so much force, that we feel sure that every reader of the Press and Banner will thank us for reproducing it in these columns. The question is discussed from so high a plane that even those who may differ in opinion will respect him for his earnestness, and honor him for the fairness with which he has presented his cause, which is nniv ns nmfh our nansp as it wa9 his. I when lie delivered the speech: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I take it for granted that Atlanta is in earnest to-nignt. 1 am informed that there is a ten-cent circus, a dog show, a drama, and two patent medicine shows in the city, any one of which I would rather he'attending than here listening to myself, talk. [Loaughter.] Your presence here convinces me that you have determined to put aside pleasure to-night for business. [Applause.] Will you pardon me now, one word of personal explanation ? I alone am responsible for what I say here to-night. I. have Jnot attended a prohibition meeting and I am Inoi uuijuaiiucu wnu me uemns ux ujcuij of a prohibition campaign. My yiews on high license are woll understood. They prevented me from an active paricipation in the last campaign, and made me slow to reach an opinion in this, but I have reached that opinion in sincerity, and you shall have it in frankness. [Applause.] One word more. I have no personal ambition. I have no -political ambition, but were I consumed with it, and did I live to see its swift and perfect fruition, I should still despise myself if I had put your generous enthusiasirf to its use to-night, or had shirked my duiy that I might further it. I speak with but one object. More concerned am I that, having always fought with Atlanta united, I appear to-night to Ioe witn tne taction. ijuc my neari is whole for her and I speak in love of her without enmity to one human being, as far as I know, within her limits. [Applause.] I utter a conviction so profound and deliberate that to leave it unexpressed were as cowardly as to deny it when questioned on it. Now, I shall speak in perfoct pood humor, criticizing no man's action and impugning no man's motive. Atlanta has a serious problem to settle. If she reaches its conclusion in rancor and bitterness she will suffer, and this cause will I I suffer, no matter which sido may triumph. If she reaches it soberly, thoughtfully and deliberately, her people, honest, intelligent and reunited in her service, will enforo your victory if you win it, and mitigate the evils you fear if the opposition should win. [Applause.] I have two points to make to-night. I want to make them with such coherence as I can command, and beg your patience and attention. II believe tnat pronioiuon snouia oe tried for two years longer. Second, because this trial, imperfect and brief as it bas been, is a demonstrable success. [Applause.] In discussing these two points I shall not attempt to comprehend the general principles of prohibition nor indeed to commit myself to it. We are wisely left under our local option law to settle this question for ourselves. I speak to-night about Atlanta to Atlantians, about an experiment that is given us, it mav be of I ri i. ,1 T n : C T I I\JUU, W? ituvt 1 am nuio luat ji x tmi i show you it has not had a fair trial and that its imperfect trial has proved successful, that even Mr. Jefferson Davis? for ho knows that personal liberty and %vhero public injury begins?even would say, "let this trial be extended for the good it has wrought among the people I love." [Applause.] The basic principle of government is, and has been since the lowly Nazarine walked this earth, "the greatest good to the greatest number." Now, has prohibition had a fair trial in Atlanta? Tf'rips of no. no.l It was nassed I by a baro majority; it was two months before that majority was legally declared, there were licenses extending about ten months?nearly one-half of its probation there was organized resistance to its enforcement ; every step that was taken was experimental; there was not a door closed nor a fine entered and collected except by slow process of law. Every defense was exhausted and the cause had to fight with new mashinery, with undisciplined forces, and with half of its time consumed with unexpired licenses. I have heard many raon say?anti-prohibitionists? I "I would give half I am worth if prohi- j bitiou would really prohibit." Is there j any fair-minded business man who would i commit himself to a business venture in 1_.J ..,^.,1.3 I IVOlVlUg JLltUi IIU ?U3 ?ui iu auu >v uuiu abandon that venture at the close of such a trail as prohibition has had, and say "it won't work?" Is there any business man who would do that in his own business ? Is there any business man who hears mo to-nigbt who believes, in tho full sense demanded bj- the importance of the subject, that prohibition has had a fail trial in Atlanta? Iain satisfied that there is not one. It has barely begun its work! has barely establihed the first preraiso of the grand demonstration to which I believe, in God's mercy, it is committed. And yet you talk about stopping it hore because it has been proved that prohibition won't prohibit. If it has not had a fair trial, ought wejnotto Kivo it a longer trial? Was there ever I a city charged with so tremendous a problem as this? Whether or not it is better for men in largo cities to livo under prohibition : whether it is possible that men in largo cities may reap tho undeniable advantages ot tho prohibition of tho liqur t radio, it is not too fcinuch to say America waits on tho answer Atlanta siia;l give uj this question. [Applause.] I*, is noi tuo much to .say that if wo abandon i* to-i.ighi, cowardly abandon it to -1 11I?t, there will not bo found an Amor IM-.Ht city brave enought to take it up j win-re wo leave o!i'. J>ut if wo carry it j through two years longer and demon- | blj'iiio its sucocss, think of the harvest j tnatwill be reaped by American cities: under AriKi ican customs, and whose j hearts boat true to American institutions, j J know there are cities where it is impruc ticable, but I thank God Atlanta is not ono of them. Chicago will lack seven beads of being as much that way after the 10th of this month. [Applause.] In insisting that prohibition has not had a fair trial, I do not mean to beg tho second proposition 1 laid down, namely, that it has been a demonstrable sucoss. If there is a man here to-night who has not the lairness and the unprejudiced mind that will lead him to give ah important ques- l tion a full trial?is there a man who will I auanaon tnis experiment wnen is can ue shown that working even imperfectly, it has worked unspeakable good? I commit myself to that word with perfect fearlessness. I say "unspeakable good." If I talk until my tongue loses its power ot articulation, I could not give you one-half of the instances of good that have been put in my bands by kind friends this evening. I will hastily class a few, none of which will fail to prove significant. When you go to get the effectof a new movement for good or evil, where do you go ? Not to the rich and idle, because you mav eu'pll nr diminish t.lif?ir incrimfl anrt yet not change their habits, you simply diminish their hidden surplus. Not to tlio middle class, because when you diminish their income they simply pinch themselves and pinch so quietly that their neighbors do not know it; or swell their incomes?, aud they loosen out a little and pass something up to surplus. You cannot tell it there, but go to the poorer classes; the men who labor for their daily bread, and whose wages barely suffice to give it to them, and there you' find the first signs of a good or evil movemont It is at once the. truth and reproach of our civilization, that starvation follows e/v AI/\o<a nn 1 olirv** fhof on Qvri 1 mnirnTYVOnf OV VU'OO Vll l?WUi VUHV UU W t II UiVIVUiVUV is detected in the hollow* cheeks of little children and the haggard faces of womne before it is made manifest to the higher classes. Let me show you some facts?ray facts ?they always come out, remember that [laughter] they have been laughed at a good deal, but they always get there. (Applause.) When you want to discover the effect on the city you all agree that you must go to the poorer classes,because to pinch them means distress, it means outcry; and to help them means to still the cry and soothe the distress. Mr. George Adair rents houses to 1,300 tenents. lie states that he has issued in the last year one distress warrant to where he issued twenty-one, years ago. (Applause.; j. ciairn to do an inieiiigeut man with some courage of conviction, but I pledge you my word, if that one fact were established to my satisfaction I would vote for this thing if I never heard another word on this subject. Have you thought what that means?a distress warrant? It means eviction; it means the very thing that is to-day kinding the heart of this world for poor Ireland. It means eviction! It means turning women and her little children out of home that cover them, and to which they are entitled. I was astonished at Colonel Adair's statement. Mr. Tally, who rents six or eight hundred houses, say: "I usfed to issue two or three distress warrants?four or five?a month. I have not issued a single one in eighteen month." (Applause.) Now both of thom are prohibitionists. Let mo trv vnn with- TTarrv Krotisfl. H? was an an it-prohibitionist. He said; "My distress warrants averaged thirty-six to the year, and I have not issued one in twelve months. I said; "Then, my friend, I don't carry your conscience, out how can you be an antiprohibitionist." He said: "I ain't. My knowledge of the thing, day by day, among people I used to pester and evict has changed my convictions, and I am a red-hot prohibitionist." I went down to Mr. Scott, who did not vntft fnr nrnliihition and askeri him. H? said: "I have issued as many as twentyfive distress warrants in a month, and I have issued six in the last eighteen months, and five were to get people out of houses because they were obnoxious to the neighbors. I have not issued one single distress warrant for failure to pay rent." I said, "You didn't vote for prohibition." He said, "I did not believe it was practicable." I asked, "What do you think now." He said, "I am going to vote, and vote for prohibition." [Applause.] Mr. Roberts was a prohibitionist. Ho is a square man and an intelligent man, and is running for council, which is a ??ond sitrn. rijanchtpr and nnnlnnan 1 He says, "My testimony is the same. I formerly issued two or three distress warrants every month, and I have not issued one in twelve months." Gentlemen?and ladies, [laughter] especially ladies: Is there any possible answer to that ? Is there any industrial, any social, any economical evolution that has been worked since this world began that would account for the diminution in this most vicious and intolerable of legal enactments? Have you thought about what a distress warrant is? Have you ever thought about a woman being turnod out of her house?the little cottage that covers her and her children ? Can you picture?you who live in com fortable homes filled with light and warmth and books and joy?can you think of theso people?human beings, our brothers and sisters?the poor mother, brave though her heart is breaking, huddling her little children about hor? and the father weak but loving, and loving all the deeper because he knows his weakness has brought them to this want and degradation?and little children, those of whom our Savior said, "Suffer them to come unto me and forbid them not," there asking; "Mamma, where will we sleep to-night?'' Can you picture that nnrl than fhpir fatinrr thomcnlvoo im or^A tho woman putting her hand with undying love ana faith in the hand of the man she swore to follow through good and evil report, and marching up and down the street?this pitiable processionthrough the unthinking streets, by laughing children and shining windows, looking for a hole where, like the foxes, they may hide their poor heads? My friends, they talk to you about personal liberty; that a man should have the right to go into a grog shop and see this pitiful procession?now stopped? Daradincr un and down nnr utroofo nrroin They talk to you about tho shades of Washington, Monroe and Jeiferson. I would not give one happy, rosy little woman, uplifted from that degradationhappy again in her home, the cricket chirping on her hearthstone and her children about her knees, her husband redeemed from drink at her side?I would not give one of them for all tho shades of all the men that over contonded since Cataline conspired and Ceasar fought. [At tho end of this sentence thero was tremendous cheering. Men and women waved thoir handkerchiefs, some of them standing up.] Mr. Grady proceeded: Xovr, my friends, wo arc told in opposition to what I havo said to you?and they are facts, they are my lact.s, they always ' "get thero"?that's "tho variety T breed now entirely. We are told in opposition to that, and Mr. Adair will testily, and seo Mr. Tally?I see him tonightoulthere(he was crying .just now but ho is smiling now) and 1 seo Mr. Koburts? their books ai'c testimony. Go and look at them, it moans simply this, that whoro Mr. Adair, renting to all sorts of people, issued twenty distress warrants a year ago, he issues"one now; it means that out of every twenty families evicted two years ago there are nineteen happy in their homes to-night. [Applause.] And yet we are told we must vote to restore the old order because it has reduced Governor Brown's rental column 85,000 a year. [Applause.] [At the end of this sentence the scene was almost indescribable. Thousands of handkerchiefs waved as before, men lield their hats and walking sticks and whirled them in the air. The cheering was al uiuai> uoaicmu^.j Mr. Grady resumed speaking. My friends, I don't believe that statement, to begin with. I do not believe bis rent income is fairly and permanently diminished five thousand dollars a year ?and if it is he is my friend, and I congratulate both him and myself on the fact that he is able to stand it. I say this in no spirit of sarcasm or criticism, but I do say if there is a law, if there is a govermental theory, if there is, may it please you, an untried experiment that will shelter one honest woman and two unconscious children in their homes, it is our duty to vote that law and this government's duty to enforce it, though it should cut itdown 325,000. (Tremendous applause.] And the reason for that it is not based in communism, but in human ity. If the government owes any duty to the individual it is that every man, woman and child that leads an honest life is entitled to food and shelter; and there is a difference to be found between diminishing the luxury of the rich and protecting the poor in their birthright; it is manliness, and humanity, and good gov- i ernnient to let the rich sutler. [Ap-1 plause.] THE HOMES OF THE PEOPLE. I am going to stick to the home because it is the type and center of our city, of our civilization. Prosperous homes mean a prosperous city; cheerless homes an unErosperous town. From the comfortable ome, with its ruddy windows and its laughing children, streams the light that illumes every department of trade or industry, whether the light comes from the cottaee or a nalace. From th? nhnArlfiss and desolate' borne comes the chill that paralyzes every interest worth preserving. When you go into a home, what is the first thing you look after? It is the hearthstone, to see if there is a fire. The hearthstone is the heart of the home, and the fire glowingand sparkling, with the little children gathered about it ruddy faced and happy, is to the house what sunshine is tc*God's flowers. It is about the hearthstone that the family gathers. There you find the wife, the helpmate of the husband and his joy?who has shared his sorrow and his trouble?you find the mi 1 5 3 '? I iimic uuosuuoiisutiu, luuoiu granamotner in the corner, smiling and peaceful, her last, best days blessed and softened by filial love and care. [Applause.) Think about the picture around the hearthstone in an humble home. Did you ever think about grandmother and a little child ? Is there any love on earth as sweet and pathetic ? See them, as they sit about the hearthstone of the home. How they cling to each other! How the little one clambers about her knees and looks into her face. How the old heart is bathed afresh in the rapture of the child, and how the old withered lips are attuned and used to the childish prattle ! How closely they cling togetner! and yet how diverse are their ways! The old grandmother with the lengthening shadows falling on her back as she walks down the hill, her face turned towards the skies beyond the pearly gates of which she can almost hear the singing of the hosts awaiting to bid her welcome; the child turned with ardent face to tno attractions and contentions of the world, with the rising sun falling full on its eyes. (Applause.) At last the time for separation comes. As each takes its God-given way, how ready to go, and yet how loth to part! How they turn as they drift away, looking one to the other, while the parting words grow fainter and fainter and fainter, until they all fall by tho wayside and the child's voice is lost in the rising clamor of the world, and her voice melts away in the kindling music of the skies. (Applause.) There they sit about the hearthstone, the grandmother and the child, and between them the wife, holding in her heart the double love that binds them together. (Applause.) Think of the mjftter of this housefather, son and husband in one?as he works at his bench or walks, whisthng uirougn ine icy nignc, ail .'aappy in the consciousness that his loved ones are warm and snug, and happy in their home. What would he tako for the consciousness that instead of huddling comfortless about a chill heartstono, the fire burns brightly for them ? What would you take to rob him of that consciousness ? Well, now keep that picture in your mind while I tell you what th9 coal dealers of Atlanta say about their retail trade this winter. Hero is their testimony! Do you remember how you used to see the women with a quarter or fifty-cent piece shivering at the coal yards, hurrying to buy a handful of coal, that they might get home where their little ones were suffering? How you used to seo men hurrying through the streets with a basket coal of on their arm, knowing that at Dome me Dreatn rrom tbeir lungs was almost freezing on the children's lips? And the little hand-carts that used to fill your streots, carrying a handful of coal, barely enough to give a child a taste of fire ? And don't you know the numbei of houses there were that in spite of all this were cold and cheerless and without relief? Where are the poople who used to buy a pinch of coal, aud the hand-carts that used to haul it? They are.gone! Mr. Wilson testifies: "There has been a remarkable change in my business. Men that used to buy fifty cents worth now buy a ton. I used to have twenty little hand-carts to deliver coal in ; now I use but one, and I have doubled my twohorse teams." (Applause.) Mr, Bridger testifies that he scarcely has a call lor coal on credit now. Mr. D'Alvigny testifies that he cannot get enough to supply the demand. Mr. John Stocks says there is twice as much sold as ever before. Every coal dealer testifies that there has boon a remarkable increase in his business. Instead of buying it haphazard, in little quantities, when tho twentylive cents that bought it was chanced between tho barkeeper and the coal dealer, they testify without break, that the people have laid in twice as much coal as ever before in a single fall; that they buy in lnr<rA nnnntitioe on,1 - .j.m.iwiwvo uiivi v/ii i;uau aiiuifflb | entirely. Houses will bo warmed this | winter, day and night, that scarcoly i knew what lire was last winter. Ask the | coal dealers, aud if their testimony eon-1 vinees you, ask if it isn't worth something to accomplish this. | Tako tlie item of furniture. Mr. .Snook [ says: '"i'liero is a great change in my business. It has increased in a retail way, especially among the poorer classes. Thoy buy a bettor class of goods and pay cash whore formerly they asked credit." Mr. Xeal testifies thai ho has done a three months' business oik- month in this year in furniture, and for cash, soiling bettor goods. Mr. Miller says be has sold | I more than ever iu bis life, and of better j class goods, and to cash buyers. He says tlio poorer classes buy three times as much as they ever bought, aud almost entirely for cash. Mr. Rhodes testifies?and, by the way, he has one hundred thousand dollars iu houses, and not one vacant, and he gets more reut than ever before ont of them? he says that the purchases the year are almost three times as much as "he ever sold before, and that he gets five times as much casli from the classes he deals with. So of all the furniture dealers?ask them. Walter Wood states that his Saturday nignt s trade in selling stoves ana cooking utensils, which used to be about ?10 or ?15, is now ?75. A. P. Stewart and Ilnnnicutt it Bellingrath confirm this. Ask them! I could weary you with testimony like that. I have a score of notes from prosperous merchants, on this table, telling how their trade has increased?showing that in everything that makes homes happy, that makes the women and children comfortable?in everything that profit the buyer and his friend, and the community he lives in, that the trade has increased, ana tnat this year's increase over last is simply phenomenal, and that is owing to prohibition. [Applause.] Why, the East Tennessee road brought nine million pounds of freight into Atlanta in August, 1887, over August, 18ftf>. This was one month. Nine million pounds increase of freight brought to Atlanta over the same month in 1886. This is prosperity by the record. See what the increase on tbe other ronds has been. Here are the figures, as shown by records in the Railroad Commission office: He was converted against his convictions. Mr. Grady turned and caught sight of Judge Hillyer, whose face was beaming, and having occasion to ask the judge a question, said: "By the way, doesn't the judge look happy to-night!" whereat the audience cheered heartily, and the judge laughed and looked happier than before. Mr. Grady continued: , Mr. Riordan was an anti-prohibitionist in the last race. He came into Colonel Maddox's office?by the way, Colonel Maddox's office seems to be a sort of a place for them to come. Mr. Riordan jsays: "I was an anti-prohibitionist on | principle." A personal liberty man, I suppose?"but I work from 60 to 100 men, and I have seen a change that, as an honest man, loving my fellow man, I dare not disregard, and I am for prohibition." Ladies and gentlemen, how can you answer such as that? I am not a profound lawyer. I don't know how much fersonal tho liborty I have got; sometimes wish I had more [looking with a smile at . Mrs. Grady, who sat in the audience,] that is purely a personal matter to which wo need not allude further?1 don't want any profound knowledge of law that clouds ray brain and judgment when such facts appeal to mo. Colonel Maddox did not vote in the last election until the last moment. He be lieved prohibition was impracticable and visionary. Ho might baye had the personal liberty touch.. He was not going to vote, and his wife said?and the wife is noarly always the best half of the two, and is in this case. His wife said: "My dear, you vote to-day; we have a boy." He voted under protest, he did not believe in it?it was new langled. Six months afterwards he was sorry he voted for it; looked like the town had gone to ruin; but to-day he is a wise and intelligent man, and he has looked about him and heard what people say, and seen tho town prosper and thrill with a growth grander than she ever felt before, and he is a dyed-in-the-wood prohibitionist. Mr. Rucker was the same way, and is ready to work night and day for prohibition. Do you know J. C._Allen ? Those who do not are behind. He was an anti-prohibitionist; he was so strong an-antiproliibitionist that he would not let bis boother-in-law?not his mother-in-lawtalk to him on the subject. He did not want to discuss it. He had a little dry goods store next to a saloon. Prohibition was voted in, and he has prospered since in spite of himself, which reminds mo of a distinguished Frenchman who was kicked upstairs. The saloon was vacated owing to ciroumstances over which the owner had no control. It did not look well vacant, and Mr. Allen rented it; and where the old red-eye used to stand, he put up calico, and to-day he is doing a splendid business, and people who used to go there to buy their body's injury and their soul's damnation, go there*to buy ribbons and dresses for their wives and little ones, as good men ought to do. "Seeine all this." I said, "how can vou be an anti ?" and he says: "I ain't; I have changed, and I am dryas a powder horn.". On Decatur street* there were twentythreo bar-rooms where there are now four wincrooms in what you might call the last extremities. All except one are occupied by grocers, drygoous stores, boot and shoes shops, or by some sort of business that builas up a man in place of a traffic that tears nim down. Where is the paralysis of business? Four saloons and nineteen stores doing business in place of twenty-three barrooms. I have told you in getting evidence of improvement or deterioration in a city that vou must go to the working classes. w -!?n x?- ?< a xi ? A - i jiisjjouiuny is i-uis irut) ui .ivuauta, uecause this is the third city in the United States in the proportion of workers to population. Lawrence, Mas., leads with 51 per cent, of her population wage earners, Lowell follows with 49 per cent., and Atlanta and Fall River tie for third place with 47 per cent. Now here is a class of people representing in the workers of number foryseven per cent, of the entire population. Add the women and children who do not work, and we see this class represents sixty or seventy per cent, of our population. If I have shown that this class is benefitted in an unspeakable manner by the untried experiment of prohibition, is it not our duty to continue this experiment that the greatest good may come to the greatest number. " Ono minute further," said Mr. Grady, looking at his watch. [Cries of go on, go nn.1 "Thflro is inst on? thine flirf.hor What harm has it done? If it has dono harm, let us see what. They said we were going to be ruined, that bats and owls would fly in and out, and the real estate men have the renting of nine out of ten houses that are rented. They testify without a break, absolutely without a break, that they have fewer houses on their lists than thcv have ever had since they have been in business. Two of tbem have advertised iu the last few days for one hundred houses, aud to-day j\lr. Tally told me that ho actually left his oliico because ho was borod by pooplo who wanted to get somewhere to live in this town. Mr. .Scott told mo that he could put tenants in '>')'< houaes iu thirty days from tn-irinrrn\v Tlir.v foil in wn i..at in population. Thero arc jus!. as many houses in Atlanta to-day, anil more, and ! they aro all liil!. Well, il tlio population has decreased, wlio (ills them? I'orhaps ] they arc occupied by shados of Lincoln ] and Jell'crson and -Monroe! A distinguished friend of initio?and f I he is my friend, and worthy of your confidence always?printed yesterday some figures to show that there were fewer street taxes this year than last. Ho was correct as far as he went, but he did not get ta the forks of the creek. Ho took his figures from the tax assessor's books. Now, the men who give in their taxes are rich men, careful men, like Judge Ilillycr and Mayor Campbell Wallace?not like me and a few fellows around me. This is important, because those figures looked like something. He showed that the number of persons who oaid street tax in 1885 was 3 814. Ho showed that the number who paid their tax at the assessor's office in 1S85 was 3,500. That shows an apparent decrease of 214 peoplo. Well, I am seeking after truth, and that sorter staggered mo. "Is that a fact? I asked. "Is that the end of it? I asked Judge Hillyer, and he has been stuffing mo anyhow. "Nc. In addition to the men who gave in at the tax assesor's office in 1885, there were -1,180 who were looked up"?made to pay with a little addition. That made a total of 7,994. Next year there were 3,900 peoplo who gave in, or 214 less than the year before, but they found out among the hedges and byways 8,490, one of whom I have no doubt I was with. That makes a total of 12,(N)4 total taxes'paid last year, against 7,994 the year before, showing a gain in this good old city of 4,070 poll taxes. The tiguros for this year have not been furnished. To bo perfectly frank, they j nave 1101 goi me yci. jl ininit iney win show an increase of three or four "thousands poll taxes in this city, two-thirds of which, in ray honest conviction, are due to prohibition. These arc the figures. They came though .Judge Hillyer to me, and I give them to you without change. There are 829 more children in attendance at tho schools this year than hist. How do you account for that? (Laughter.) It has beeh two years since prohibition was adopted, and there are 820 more children in tne schools. That means one of two things, and you can take either horn of the uilemma, either there are more people here or there are more people able to send to school. Take the fact of owninc houses, Artemus Ward says: "A man may die for his home, but who ever heard of a man dying for his boarding house?" I say to you here, it is tho poor man's home, and the poor man's home alone that has stood time and again between Jay Gould and Vanderbilt and the enraged mob of American workingmen. It is the conservatism of the homeowning wage-worker that has kept socialism out of the admirable labor organization. In the last two years there have been 678 citizens who have become home owners, against 153 in the two years preious. Owing no man send owning no mau, as master, wearing the collar of no jitutiuii, irou uoru amencan citizens, not quibbling about personal liberty, but standing with wife and little ones, honest and independent, above penury and degradation. (Applause.) There are a great many things about prohibition that people do not like. I think it was an outrage to arrest those two young fellows on Marietta street, and I don't hesitate to say so in this company. But if you judgejevery cause by a single incident, what cause will hold itself blameless? If you judge prohibition by every act done by one of its adherents, where will you find anti-prohibition.? (Great applause.) When I find an objection I turn to look for a good. If it is more serious in my opinjon than the good, I simply stand back, but if the good outweighs the oblonfinn fhoi*o ia oimnlw /tAtiMA man who has got honest convictions? that is to waive the objection. I doubt if our women?God bless all? i can do their best work in the public turmoil of this campaign. I wish it was so we could take hold of it with such manliness that every woman could go back home and rely on her prayers and our efforts the carry it throajr. Woman's i best work is gentleness. She should come as the dew comes, not in the garish sunshine or the rushing strom, but when the earth is wrapped in night's sober hush falling like a soft distillation of the stars on the! Bleeping flowers. (Tremendous applause.) Better work there, but I honor ner when she comes to the front in an emergency like this, bringing her scarred heart and tender nature and shining eyes to our aid. Tf uDU X 1 cau ill tuo nCLlLULIU /L tuo iO" port of Mr. W. A. Pledger's speech, last night, in which he said: "Don't be misled by women and preachers; listen to mel'"-Bill Pledger. "Don't let Hawthorne, or Barnet, or Mr. Gaines, mislead you; listen to me!"?Bill Pledger. "Don't let the good women of the city? the salt of the earth, wearing heroism as a garment?don't let them mislead you ; listen to me !" When, he said, talking about the women in this campaign, the mothers in Israel and the wives of the best men in this town, when they left their homes and put away their womanly nature they forfeited their right to , Oman's homage, and this sentiment met ] with applause at the hands of that audience. (Hissesand cries of shame.) ]Sro matttor what my opinion may be, I will never cast my vote with a people that applaud tbat sentiment. (Tremendous cheering and cries of "Amen!" "That's right!" and "Goon; we will stay all night.") Mr. Grady?I want to catch the last ' street car. ' A voice: "We will hire a carriage for you." Continuing, Mr. Grady said: ( ' My friend, Mr. Hooper Alexander, has sent me a note in which ho says: "I see you are on statistics. If it is worth noticing, I can add a few. I examined the city court criminal docket ( this afternoon, and it shows a marked and steady increase in misdemeanors < from 1881 to 1885, a falling off of twenty 1 ner cent, ill ISSfi; the record of 1887 t shows 313 indictments against 765 in 1885 s and 440 in 1886." Mark that. An increase in 1885, and in 1886 there was a decrease from 675 cases to 440. That was with the experiment only half tried. The present docket extends from 1S81 to 1887. Crime in 1887 less than half that of 85 and loss than any year of the docket. There was scarcely a case of vagrancy for a year past. I assume to keep no man's conscience; I assume to judge for no man ; 1 do not assume that I am better than any man, but that I am weaker, but I say this to a you, I have a boy as dear to me as the i ruaav arops tnai gainer aoouc ms neart. c I find my hopes already centering in his a little body, and I look to him to-night to s take to himself the work that, strive as I c may, must fall unfinished at last from c my hands. Now, I know they say it is s !)ropcr to educate a boy at home ; that if d je is taught right at homo ho will not go v wrony. That is a lie to begin with, but that don't matter. I havo aeon sons of some as good people as oyer lived turn out badly. T accept my responsibility as a father. That boy may fall from the (! right path a:3 things now exist. If he " does, I shall benr that sorrow with such S resignation r.s f may, but I toll you, if I 1 were to vote to recall barrooms to this I o city, when i know that H !ius prospered i( in their absence, nnd that boy should fall throughtho'u-:tgcn<y, I tell you?ami this conviction lias coino to :no in the still i, watches of tho niylit?I ooiiUl not, wear- ' inj? thcHTowning s:>rrov.'of his dlsgraco V rind looking into tho eyes nf her whoso ? Iicart ho iirwl broken-F < ouKl not, il'I i? bad voted to recall these barrcoms, had it answer for my conscience or support for remorse. (Applause.) I don't know how any other father feels, but this is the way I feel, if God, permits me to utter the truth. . Now for a last word, my friends. I never spoke to you from deeper conviction than I speak to-night. I beg of you, in the interest of peace and fairness, to give this experiment a fair trial. Note what it has clone in a year of imperfect trial. Give it two years more that it may demonstrate what it can do. Then if it fails it will fall, if it is good it will stand. ir you are in aouot aoout wnat you should do give us the benefit of the doubt. Give tho doubt to the churches of the city that stand unbroken in the cause. Give the doubt to the 20,000 prajvsrs that aseend nightly for this cause from the women and children in Atlanta, prayers uttered so silently that you cannot catch their whispered utterance, but so sincerely that they speed their soft entreaty through tho singing hosts of beaven into the heart of the living God. If you are in doubt as to what your duty is, turn for this once, to your old mother whose gray hairs shall plead with you as nothing else should?remember how she has loved you all her life and how her old heart yearns for you now. Take her old band in yours, look into her eyes fearlessly as you did when von wnra a barefoot hov_ and sav "T liavo run my politics all my life, and today I am going to give one vote for you. How shall I cast it?" Watch the tears * start from ber shining eyes, feel the lump rising in your throat, and tell me if that is not better than "personal liberty." If you are in doubt ask your -wife?ask hor who years ago put her little hand in yours, and, adoring and trusting, left the old home nest and went out with ycu into the unknown world?remember how she has stood by you when all else lorsooK?now .sue nas uvea only in your life, and carried your sorrows as her own, and ask her how you shall vote. I do not believe that women shoald counsel men in politics, but this question is deeper than politics. Your wife need not tell you how to vote on tariff, or on candidates or on any political issue, but this is her election as well as yours. On this jeopardy is staked the home you builded together, the happiness you nave had together, and the welfare of the little children In whose veins your blood and hers runs commingled. Her stake and fhaira nn this AlAntinn la crraafar tV?o? yours. Then ask her, if you have any doubt how you shall vdte on that day. Now, a word to the good women here. You can do great work quietly and gently in your homes for this cause and for the good of your city. You can do this work in the home circle, where no man can say you nay. Mothers, go to your son on election morning, call him back to the time when he learned God's name at your knees, and wake when he would in the night, he would find your soft eyes above him and your loving arms about him, and say: *'My son, find your way this morning in memory to those days when nothing stood between us, and when these kind hands sheltered and protected you." Wives, go to your husbands that morning. Not in pique or criticism, but with a love and tenderness that shall break through his pride and indifference, lay his hand lovingly on the heads of the little ones, the pride of his life and yours? oh, you who went down into the very jaws of death that you might give them , to him !?and say: "My husband, whatever you do to-day, do it for these little ones and me!" ("Applause.] Now, my friends, I have done. What ? I have spoken to you to-night I have M An In onV\/\? AAMn it> in ouuui caiuosiucm auu m ulu. If what I have said has impressed you, I beg of you to let the impression deepen, rather than pass away, for I know and you know that this issue goes deeper than words can go. It involves thousands of hearts now rejoicing that late were breaking; it involves the happiness of women and children, the most sacred charges vouchsafed to our care, it involves the fate of this tremendous experiment that Atlanta must settle for the American people. Against it there is nothing but the whim of personal liberty. Your city has prospered before. If you are a merchant or manufacturer, your books will tell you this. You know that you have prospered this year in your business, ask your neighbor of his business. Look abroad about yon on these bustling streets, and on these busy stores; on these shops and factories, in which the fires scarcely ever die, and then vote in the light of reason and of conscience, and however you vote, may God bless you, and the city you love so well. [Tremendous applause.] Then looking over the vast audience, stilled to hear the voice of the speaker, Mr. Grady said with great earnestness and eloquence: "The best reforms of this earth come through waste and storai and doubt .and suspicion ; the sun itself when it rises on 3ach day wastes the radiance of the moon ind blots the starlight from the skies, but Dnly to ifnlock the earth from the clasp jf night and plant the stars anew in the opening tlowers. Behind that sun, as behind this movement, we may be sure there stands the Lord God Almighty, master and maker of the universe, from ivhose hand the spheres are rolled to their orbits, and whose voice has been the harmony of this world since the morning stars sang together. (Tremenious, loud and long-continued applause.) Card from Mr. Grady. Mr. Grady on the morning after the ;lection printed the following card: When ever> thing else I have said or lone is forgetten, I want the words I iave spoken for prohibition in Atlanta, ;o be remembered. I am prouder of my share in the campaign that has ended, iu ts defeat, than of my share in all other sampaigns that have ended in victory. [ espoused its cause deliberately, and I lave worked for its success, night and lay, to the best of my ability. My only firrppt is that, mv fthilitv wan not crftatAr. Q > ?/ J * . O [ am firm in the conviction?and from his conviction I shall never be shaken? hat Atlanta has prospered under her wo years of prohibition, as she never prospered before, and that the experinent of "prohibition in a large city" lucceeded in Atlanta as no experiment inder like obstructions ever. succeeded jefore. I write these words in behalf of i cause that enlisted my heart and reaiou and conscience as no other cause lid, and from which they can neve* be stranged. It is to the honor and trength of that cause that its defeat but leepens the devotion and loyalty of those i*ho have fought and sutFered with it. Henry W. Gkapv. }>o man has a right to destroy liis \vn life, and he, therefore, can not ielegate the power to destroy it to a overnment or community of men. teviewing the events of late years, in tlier countries, and in our own and joking upon what is now passing round us, we are strengthened in the elief that all war, all destruction of mman life, under whatever plea of olicy or necessity, and with whatever bjcct, is utterly opposed to (lie relig>11 of Christ and tiic* true welfare of mukiud.