For
instance, a foolish statesman can to-day plunge fifty millions of people
into
WAR
--a thing represented among words by three letters, but which among
events entirely fails to find complete expression, from the lack of any
other misfortune worthy of comparison. An angry statesman, acting like a
boy, may stop, not a game of marbles, but ten thousand grain-laden
ships. But, notwithstanding, as an attendant in the betterment of her
condition, Society is advancing rightly toward the rum-bottle. She does
not hearken always to the voice of
THE PROFESSIONAL TEMPERANCE "WORKER"
because a betterment in Society is naturally and rightly the result of
self-interest. The man who spends his time altogether in the bettering
of others does not establish reforms on the surest basis. Society
usually has to do his work after him, with considerable delay and
additional cost. He is all right in the abstract, but he delays matters.
What I would illustrate is this: The place for the reformer to deal with
drink on a fair battle field is in the city. The place where the
professional reformer finds it profitable to go is in the country, where
the youth wear
THE BADGE OF TEMPERANCE
in their cheeks--not in the button-hole of their coats.
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