Get on the Water Wagon - William Ashley Sunday

20 GET ON THE WATER WAGON. was ever hatched against our flag and every anarchist plot against the Government and law, was born and bred, and crawled out of the grog-shop to damn this country.” I tell you that the curse of God Almighty is on the saloon. Legislatures are legislating against it. Decent society is barring it out. The fraternal brotherhoods are knocking it out. The Masons and the Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias, and the A. O. U. W., are closing their doors to the whisky sellers. They don’t want you wriggling your carcass in their lodges. Yes, sir, I tell you, the curse of God is on it. It is on the down grade. It is headed for Hell, and by the grace of God, I am going to give it a push, with a whoop, for all I know how. Listen to me! I am going to show you how we burn up our money. It costs twenty cents to make a gallon of whisky; sold over the counter at .ten cents a glass, it will bring $4.00. “But,” said a saloon-keeper, “Bill, you must figure in the strychnine and the cochineal, and other stuff they pu’: in it, and it will bring nearer $8.00. “Yes; it increases the heart beat thirty times more in a minute, when you consider the licorice, and potash, and logwood and other poisons that are put in. I believe one cause for the unprecedented increase o" crime is due to the poison put in the stuff nowadays to make it go as far as they can. I am indebted to my friend, George R. Stuart, for some of the following points: I will show you how your money is burned up. It costs 20 cents to make a gallon of whisky, sold over the counter at ten cents a glass, which brings $4.00. Listen, where does it go? Who gets the twenty cents? The farmer for his corn and rye. Who gets the rest? The United States Government for collecting revenue, and the big corporations, and part is used to pave our streets and pay our police. I’ll show you. I’m going to show you how it is burned up, and you don’t need half sense to catch on, and if you don’t understand just keep still and nobody will ever know the difference. I say, “Hey, Colonel Politics, what is the matter with the country?”

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