GET ON THE WATER WAGON. 15 Like a drummer on a railroad train. There were some men playing cards, and one fellow pulled out a whisky flask and passed it about, and when it came to the drummer he said, “No.” “What,” they said, have you got on the water wagon? and they all laughed at him. He said, “You can laugh if you want to, but I was born with an appetite for drink, and for years I have taken from five to ten glasses per day, but I was at home in Chicago not long ago, and I have a friend who has a pawn shop there. I was in there when in came a young fellow with ashen cheeks and a wild look on his face. He came up trembling, threw down a little package and said, “Give me ten cents.” And what do you think was in that package? It was a pair of baby shoes. My friend said, “No, I cannot trike them.” But he said, “Give me a dime, 1 must have a drink.” “No;” take them back home, your baby will need them.” And the poor fellow said, “My baby is dead, and I want a drink.” Boys, 1 don’t blame you for the lump that comes up in your throat. There is no law divine or human, that the saloon respects. Lincoln said, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” I say if the saloon, with its train of disease, crime and misery is not wrong, then nothing on earth is wrong. If the fight is to be won we need men—men that will fight—the church, Catholic and Protestant, must fight it or run away, and thank God she will not run away,” but fight to the last ditch. Who works the hardest for his money, the saloon man or you? Who has the most money Sunday morning, the saloon man or you? The saloon comes as near being a rat hole for a wageearner to dump his wages in as anything you can find. The only interest it pays is red eyes and foul breath, and the loss of your health. You go in with money and you come out with empty pockets. You go in with character and you come cut ruined. You go in with a good position and you lose it. You lose your position in the bank, or in the cab of the loco
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