A Pilgrimage

from sample room to saloon, and from grocery to groggery, whilst the deposits of candidates, as has been lately testified in our Courts, are too often left there in escrow to stimulate idle retainers in ballot stuffing, false counting, and voting dead men's names. In the country districts it is little, if any, better; only the drinks are further apart. The whisky shanties at the crossroads, eye-sores of every neighbor-hood where they become established, are by force of' their attractions a resort for those soldiers of fortune who turn the scale in close elections and thereby rule the hour. page 10 Frequently they become, likewise, headquarters for central committees, from whence go forth edicts to shove delegates and pack nominating conventions.

I may illustrate this by an incident.

A late member of our General Assembly visiting, as one of a Committee, the State Penitentiary, inquired of a convict what brought him there. "Whisky," he quietly answered, and then asked in return. "And what brought you to Jefferson City?" Truth compelled the legislator to respond, "I believe it was whisky brought me here too." So it seems that the dram shop influence plays its part conspicuously in recruiting both the