The Grenada Gazette

When this "local option" law is examined by the light of reason as well as sentiment, by the light of justice as well as prejudice, it does seem to us there is enough of old-fashioned fair dealing and primeval manhood amongst our people to vote it down with indignity. Let us look at it in a practical, common-sense way and see how it appears in the eyes of men who wish to be honest in their dealings with each other. Those who sell wine, beer, whisky, ice, soda and mineral waters, are merchants, and are like other merchants who buy and sell and pay their debts. This proposition a simpleton will not deny. Just think of one merchant doing business in the same town, under the same laws, actuated by the same motives, (to get gain) going to the ballot box to vote down his fellow-merchant in business, breaking up his trade, sinking his capital, distressing his family! That looks noble and manly, does it not? That is just what every merchant in this county will do when he throws in his vote for this law. Against those who sell liquors and have made money it looks like envy, the meanest passion in all the long roll of human infirmities. But, says my prohibition friend, "I get my ideas on this subject from the Bible. and I have learned, on many occasions, that "these men who sell whiskey keep the gateways of hell:" Has not rum and strong drink been sold in all the ages of the Jewish and Christian church? Surely no man that has read enough of the Scriptures to be known as a follower of Moses or of Christ will question the proposition. Read the following from Moses:

"Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed that the field bringeth forth, year by year. And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose, to place his name there, the tithe of the corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil and of the firstlings of thy herds and of their flocks, that thou mayst learn to fear the Lord thy God always."

"And if the way be too long for thee so that thou art not able to carry it; and if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name there. when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee; then thou shalt turn it into money and bring up the money in thine hand, and shalt go into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; and thou shalt bestow that money 'for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. for oxen. or for sheep, for wine or for strong drink,or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thine household, and the Levite that is within thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him, for he hath no part or inheritance with thee."—Deuteronomy xiv-22.

The vintage season of Palestine even to the time of our Saviour, was a most joyful one. It lasted for three months—August, September and October—which the peasantry introduced with every demonstration of joy, for like cotton-picking season here, it was the time that they made the most money and had plenty of wine to drink, and most plentiful rations. Surely no man will endeavor to refute these facts of sacred history unless he wishes to expose his ignorance.

But, says my prohibition friend, "You are taking me away back under the old dispensation. Moses used to be pretty good authority, but we have a greater than Moses—the Messiah himself." Well. how does prohibition pan out in the time of Christ and his Apostles? Our Saviour saw drunkenness in his day in Jerusalem and denounced it, as good men in all ages and countries have done, but he did not call on the Jewish Sanhedrin nor the Roman procurator to prohibit the uses of wines nor strong drink. That Christ himself used wine, is as clear as language' can, make it. He was familiar with the manner in which it was put up, not only in the firkins or jars, which were often hermetically sealed and buried, but in the leathern bottles or goat-skins used for that purpose. We have authority for saying that he not only used wine himself, but to accommodate the guests at a Jewish wedding he transformed eighteen gallons of water into wine. That his disciples used wine is almost absolutely certain, for Paul. the greatest of the twelve, recommended its use to Timothy. 'What is the "cup of blessing" which we find in 1st Corinthians, x-16, but the cup over which God was blessed for having furnished its contents? That is, for giving to men the fruit of the vine? Now prohibition goes so far as to prescribe the uses of wine which the Patriarchs, the Seers, the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles, and good men in all ages have praised and blessed.

Now when we remember that strong or alcoholic beverages have been used from the time that Columbus landed on this Continent through our colonial dependence, through our governmental independence up to this "prohibition craze," it certainly is time for our people to think and reason about this matter like men who are not to be led by the nose to gratify the fanatical whim of every man who can say "Lord! Lord!" without having any definite idea of the result of his prayers. We ask no charity for those merchants in our county who have sold wine and whisky and made a success of it; and made good use, in some cases, of their money for the benefit of the public. Some of these merchants have as clean and as honorable records as any merchants here. Not only have they been good, law-abiding citizens, but have been liberal in every department of charity and moral progress. Some of them have bivouacked in the open fields and the muddy swamps for four years, and have felt the hot breath of gunpowder while a majority of these men eager to break them down never heard the whistle of a hostile bullet. People of Grenada county, this is a serious subject which every man should take home to his own conscience, and weigh well the weak arguments and sensational appeals made to induce you to do violence to the simplest rules of justice and law.