have had in the past. You know too their victims will
come from the youth of your county. Those who are victims now will
soon be dead bodies, or "dead broke." The men in the saloon business
do not look to men who are drunkards now, for future use nor do they
intend to use horses or cattle or dogs, but _boys_. If I could
announce that on the evening before the vote is to be taken I would
present to the public the future victims of the saloons in this
county. If I had a prophet's eye and could select these victims, how
many homes I would enter where I would not only be an unwelcome but an
unexpected visitor. When the hour would arrive for the exhibition,
what an audience I would have! Nothing like it ever gathered in this
county; from every corner of it parents would come. When placed in
line on an elevated platform so all could see, I would speak through a
megaphone saying: "I present to you the future victims of the liquor
traffic in your county; here are the boys who will be your future
drunkards and here are the girls who will be the wives of drunkards."
I imagine some father, who thinks regulation the best policy, would
exclaim:

"There's my boy. I never thought the saloon would take my son. Don't
talk to me about regulation. Come, you fathers whose sons are not
here, and help me save my boy."

Another would press through the crowd to be sure that he was not
mistaken and say: "There's my daughter. I never dreamt she would be a
drunkard's wife. I have said prohibition won't prohibit, but I will
say it no more. Come, good fathers who love your children, and help me
save my child."

This is but the forecast for some parents in this audience. Would it
be wrong if I should say: "O God, if the saloons are to continue in
this county, if they are to have their victims in the future as in the
past, let the fathers who vote the curse on the county furnish the
victims." I do not offer up any such prayer, but I do say: "O God,
give to the home the protection of a prohibition law, and may the
victims not be anybody's boy or anybody's girl. Go out of this hall
tonight resolved you will link your faith in principle with your work.
Faith and work!"

I like that story of the mother in New England, who on a visit from
home, received a message calling her to the bedside of a daughter who
was hopelessly ill. Hurrying to the nearest railroad station she said
to the conductor: "Sir, do you connect at the junction with the train
tha