Practical Temperance Work

If the north liad to riso up n its m iilit to crusli out sluvcry. and teuch the south ;i Uüson In respect to human bondage, it now looks as if the south was about to teacli tlie north a lessou u respect to practical tempéranos, of uo less Impórtenos. In the city of Atlanta, Ga., rccently, local prohibition luw was submitted to the peoplc and after a splrited contest, said to have been one of the most cxriting in the history of tlnit city, prohibítion wm carrled by upwarda of 'l0 majority. The qnestion was not advocated by the republicana or the demócrata, but was taken out of politics eutirely, and placed belöre tlie people on its merite, ai it gbonld have been. And hereáfter, the great city of Atlanta, one of tlie most noted in the southern states vrlll be strictly a temperance city, and the influence of lts action will i.,. v,.ryjrMt ¦ other and lisser communldea. "Hut will prohibition bc enforoad there!" asks a ilouliter at our elbow. Certainlj it will, it it can be enibroed anywhere. The people 11 eleot offioen for the very (iinpope of eiiforcinj; it, and these oflioers know that tlie people are back of them; they know they are dependent upon the temperance pcople for their offices, and unless they enforce the laws they ui-iv choeen to esforcé, off goei their official heads. They have the support nul buoking of a niajorlty of the people on wbom they are denendent ; that will be the secret of their motives and actloni. ilcre in the north the leaders are not content to couimence at the bultomof the temperance ladder and woik up. On the coutrary, ihey seem determinad to comïneuce at the top and woi k the otber way. They get a great state to adopt prohlbltion, and leave its enforcement to offioen who are dependent upon tin; voto of anti-teinperance men for their positions, ezpecting them to enforce laws that are fllled with creep-out holes tven as iu a sieze. A man who enforces the law in this country wants to teel that ht has the people or a majority of thern, upholdlug blm, or ha will not undertake it. In Michigan temperance folka will liml a temperance man upon a ticket, and by making a special effort, perhap9 elect him, and al'ter (loing to turn aroand and kick him because be doesn't accomplUh a revolution in the way lawi are enforced or in the sentiment of a coinmunity never raallzlng the tact that he is powerless as they. Here they form clubs and societies and then attempt to díctate to the ola partios wliat they abatí or shall not do; here they attempt toform a new party entlrely, with the one fouiulation stone of prohw bition alone to build upon; here they also boast that they will place a wholesale liquor dealer in the governor's chair of Michigan; here they are impracticable, unreaaonable, and bound to rule or ruin, and they have been successful thus far in rulning. Ex-Gov. öt. John, prohlbltion apostle, says that tlie tonth is far in advance of the north in teinperance, and yot scarcely a prohibltlon vote is ever cast in a southern state. Kut on this subject they are practical and sensible. They allow eaeh comniunlty to decided for itself wbether it will have temperance or whisky.