parts of the world, stood on their feet.
"Remain standing, I ask you! Let not one of you act the coward! There
are others here today, who came in, as I did, to visit. Stand up! Show
your colors! If you remain seated you will be classed with the enemy.
The time to honor your cause is at hand. I ask you seventy thousand
church-members present to choose this day whom you will serve."
Mr. Venerable, who was an experienced man in these uprisings, whispered
to an excited saloon-keeper: "Let them proceed. A house divided against
itself can not stand."
"I demand order," shouted a high-license advocate who owned a brewery,
but the agitated fellow was soon calmed by these personal words from
the venerable chairman: "_Let these people go. They will soon get into
factional contention and thereby break the point of their steel more
effectually than we could do it._"
"Remain standing, ye noble band of men and women!" shouted the Kansas
man with increasing earnestness. "You, who are too cowardly or
indifferent to rise from your seats, are throwing your influence this
day on the side of the enemy, thereby casting a reflection on the
church of our Lord Jesus Christ, and--"
This was more than a certain minister could bear. So, before the Kansas
man had finished his last sentence, he sprang excitedly to his feet
and shook his fist defiantly: "I want it distinctly understood that
I am just as good as the man from Kansas, and just as much of a
temperance man, but I don't believe in this way of showing my colors.
I would not be standing now had I not been insulted more by that crank
of one idea, standing there, than by Mr. Wine Expert who so contemptibly
perverted Scripture."
Mr. Wine Expert sprang to the edge of the stage to defend his position,
but Mr. Venerable was instantly at his side. "_Come, come, don't spoil
that fight; suffer rather than have them combine against you,_" were
the quiet words of logic that brought him to his seat without uttering
a word.
Then up jumped a few prominent church-members to express their
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