Additional Monologues The following monologues will be found in the numbers of "The Speaker" given after the title: BILL, THE LOKIL EDITOR, Field..... HOW SHE WENT INTO BUSINESS, Harris.. I 28 I 43 I 67 THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHIER, Poe I 70 I 77 I 85 MY COLLEGE EXAMINATION, B. Washington 3 255 3 262 FRANCAIS VILLON ABOUT TO DIE, Swain. 4 323 4 327 IMPH-ON, Nicholson 4 328 JOHNNY'S HIST'RY LESSON, Waterman....16 395 421 .16 454 ..17 9 MR. DOOLEY ON CHRISTMAS GIFTS, Dunne 17 25 110 .17 115 Volume V, No. 3. Whole No. 19 Personal Liberty BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN. HE liquor dealers, recognizing that their very obvious pecuniary interest would lessen the weight of any argument which they might publicly advance, are making their fight under cover of organizations purporting to represent those who use liquor. Many well-meaning men have been misled into believing that every attempt to lessen the evils of intemperance is a "fanatical attack" on "personal liberty." It is time the phrase "personal liberty" were defined. What is meant by "personal liberty?" Does it mean that person has a right to drink in any quantity, at any time, and in any place, no matter what injury he may inflict upon others? If not, with whom rests the right to fix limitations? A drunken man is a menace to the lives and property of those about him; have his neighbors no right to protect themselves? A drunkard robs his wife and children, and he may finally make his family and himself a charge upon society; has society no right to protect itself? The saloon is next-of-kin to the brothel and the gambling hall; it is a rendezvous for the criminal element and the willing tool of the corrupt politician; has not the body politic a right to protect itself from the demoralization which the saloon works? The right to drink does not necessarily include the right to demand the establishment of a saloon. The right to drink is sufficiently protected by any arrangement that permits the reasonable use of liquor under rea sonable conditions; and it must be remembered that the right to drink, like any other right, can be forfeited. Nothing is more sacred than the right to life, and yet one may forfeit his right to life if he uses it in such a way as to threaten the life of another. So, the man who drinks to excess may forfeit the right to drink; even the moderate drinker may forfeit the right to drink in moderation if, not content with reasonable regulation, he insists that liquor shall be sold under conditions that constitute a menace to the home and the State. The man who desires to drink moderately ought to join with those who seek to reduce the evils of drink to the lowest possible point, instead of allying himself with those who ignore the evils of intemperance and resist every effort put forth for the protection of society. A Wasted Life BY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN. I WOULD not say that the taking of a glass of liquor as a beverage is necessarily a sin, but that it is unwise. An international congress held at London last July, in which twenty-five nations participated, declared the use of alcohol injurious to the race; and this conclusion will hardly be disputed except by those who find a pecuniary profit in cultivating an appetite for strong drink. Drinking is an expensive habit, and the money expended on liquor could be expended more profitably on other things. One is appalled at the nation's bill for whiskey, beer and wine. Money is not only expended for that which satisfieth not, but for that which is likely to leave the person the worse for the drinking. Even moderate drinking brings no real benefit to the drinker to compare in value with the money expended. But even if one could afford to spend money on liquor -if any one can under any circumstances afford to use money in such a way-there is a danger that ought to restrain a cautious and prudent person; namely, that the habit grows, imperceptibly it is true, but surely. The ranks of the drunkards are replenished from the ranks of the moderate drinkers, and all of those who at last reached the point where they were unable to withstand the temptation began drinking with entire confidence in their ability to control their appetite. No one who has ever watched a young man go down the time-worn path from tippling to the gutter can fail to understand the great risk that one takes when he begins to use liquor at all. Why take the risk? What advantage is to be gained? When a fireman loses his life in an attempt to save the inmates of a building, we call him a hero. We recognize his business as hazardous, but it is a hazard that he takes for the benefit of others. The man who risks being consumed by a burning appetite takes the risk unnecessarily and without recompense. No hero's crown rewards his life; there are no rescued ones to sing his praises. If we only recognized that the tragedy of a wasted life is even more pathetic than death in a conflagration, a more earnest appeal would be made to the young to beware of the cup. After Midnight* BY REV. T. DEWITT TALMAGE. How many acts are there in a tragedy? Five, I believe. Then look upon the Tragedy of Drink. ACT I.-Young man starting from home. Parents and sisters weeping to have him go. Wagon passing * From "The Abominations of Modern Society," published by Adams, Victor & Co., New York. |