“Judge, I’ll state the case and let yer honor decide for me, which ye are hired to do anyway.  I was standin’ by the corner of the strate on me way home from work, when I spied the bottles in the window of the saloon.  The sight of thim bottles made me thirsty, so I wint in and took a drink.  Jist thin three other thirsty ones came in and I took a drink with thim; thin they took a drink with me and we kept on drinkin’ till we thought we were back in auld Ireland at Donnybrook Fair.  Whenever we saw a head we struck it and I suppose this gintlemin’s head came my way.  Now here’s the case, judge.  If I hadn’t taken the whiskey, I wouldn’t a been in the row, for I’m always paceable whin sober; if the saloon hadn’t been there I wouldn’t have taken the whiskey; and if the Court hadn’t licensed the saloon it wouldn’t have been there.  Ye can take the case, sir.”

What makes the drunkard?  The drink.  What supplies the drink?  The saloon.  What makes the saloon?  The law.  Who makes the law?  The legislator.  Who makes the legislator?  The voter.  It’s the “House that Jack built,” only I will change the verbage a little.  Intemperance is the fire the devil built.  Strong drink is the fuel that feeds the fire the devil built.  Distilleries, breweries and saloons are the axes that cut the fuel that feeds the fire the devil built.  License laws are molds that cast the axes, that cut the fuel that feeds the fire the devil built.  License voters and legislators are the patentees who invented the molds that cast the axes that cut the fuel that feeds the fire the devil built.  Prohibition ballots are the sledge hammers destined to destroy the molds that cast the axes that cut the fuel that feeds the fire the devil built.

There is a chain of responsibility running through the drink question which many good men fail to recognize.  You know a chain is made up of links welded together.  The drunkard is only one link; he is not a chain.  When you link him to the drink then you begin the chain; the drunkard comes from the drink.  That is not all of the chain however; the drink is linked to the saloon.  If you have the saloon, you have the drink, you have the drunkard.  This is not all of the chain; you have the license law.  If you have the license law, you have the saloon, you have the drink, you have the drunkard.  There is yet another link; the license law is linked to the license voter.  The drunkard comes from the drink, the drink comes from the saloon, the saloon from the law, and law from the license voter.  Who are the license voters?  Many of them are Christian men on their way to heaven; but the trouble with them is the other end of the chain is going another road.  “No drunkard can enter the kingdom of heaven.”