"'When you are a mother you can better imagine than I can describe how I felt, lying helpless in bed, and seeing a man, my own husband, so cruelly beating my innocent child. Cora, poor Cora, went bravely to her brother's rescue, and her father, God forgive him, beat her until the blood came from his blows, and she fell to the floor, and then he kicked her.
"'I could stand this no longer. I sprang from the bed, but I was weak. I could do nothing, and he, the man who promised before God to protect me, kicked me, too. It seemed to me then that his boot-toe pierced my heart. Johnnie ran out to call some one in, but before he returned my husband had taken the blankets and other things that he could pawn and had gone.
"'Perhaps you think it strange for me to tell these things to you, but my heart is bursting and my brain is on fire with such misery that I must talk. Come and see what a man can do when crazed with rum€"a good father when he is himself€"and in a Christian country! Where are the preachers and the people who call themselves God's people, that they do not drive away forever the cause of all this?'
"I looked at the girl Cora; and I wish, father, that she might be put on exhibition in some public show window downtown, conspicuously labeled, 'A specimen of the work done by a father when under the effects of Christian America's legal poison.'
"She was literally covered with wounds and her legs were so swollen she could not walk.
"Now, father, get out your list of political parties, examine the candidates, and put me where I belong. This is a question that must come into politics, as all reforms come through the ballot-box, and I must give my influence to that political party or power making this a clear-cut issue. I am an Abolitionist."
"A what?"
"An Abolitionist."
"How is that?"
"Simply enough: I stand for the everlasting abolition of the liquor traffic. It is quite the proper thing for the daughter of a Republican to be an Abolitionist."
Judge Thorn laughed.
"You put your case plain enough," he said. "There is small room to doubt how you stand, but I think that you will see that abolition in this case would be impracticable. You know, my girl, in these days a half-loaf is better than no bread. Political parties, like the grass of the field, sprout up and die away. There are but two real parties. The fight on leading issues is between them. All that is necessary for you to do is to read the platforms of these two parties and make your choice. Listen!"
"'I could stand this no longer. I sprang from the bed, but I was weak. I could do nothing, and he, the man who promised before God to protect me, kicked me, too. It seemed to me then that his boot-toe pierced my heart. Johnnie ran out to call some one in, but before he returned my husband had taken the blankets and other things that he could pawn and had gone.
"'Perhaps you think it strange for me to tell these things to you, but my heart is bursting and my brain is on fire with such misery that I must talk. Come and see what a man can do when crazed with rum€"a good father when he is himself€"and in a Christian country! Where are the preachers and the people who call themselves God's people, that they do not drive away forever the cause of all this?'
"I looked at the girl Cora; and I wish, father, that she might be put on exhibition in some public show window downtown, conspicuously labeled, 'A specimen of the work done by a father when under the effects of Christian America's legal poison.'
"She was literally covered with wounds and her legs were so swollen she could not walk.
"Now, father, get out your list of political parties, examine the candidates, and put me where I belong. This is a question that must come into politics, as all reforms come through the ballot-box, and I must give my influence to that political party or power making this a clear-cut issue. I am an Abolitionist."
"A what?"
"An Abolitionist."
"How is that?"
"Simply enough: I stand for the everlasting abolition of the liquor traffic. It is quite the proper thing for the daughter of a Republican to be an Abolitionist."
Judge Thorn laughed.
"You put your case plain enough," he said. "There is small room to doubt how you stand, but I think that you will see that abolition in this case would be impracticable. You know, my girl, in these days a half-loaf is better than no bread. Political parties, like the grass of the field, sprout up and die away. There are but two real parties. The fight on leading issues is between them. All that is necessary for you to do is to read the platforms of these two parties and make your choice. Listen!"