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| The Montreal Witness, 3 January 1894 |
THE PLEBISCITE VOTE IN ONTARIO, 1894
It was 1894, ere the New Year's Day was o'er,
Noble Temperance workers gave a telling vote;
"Prohibition right away," was the watchword of the day,
For the country's weel they knew it would promote.
Joy! Joy! Clear the way before us,
High, high wave the banner o'er us.
From Atlantic's dashing roar to the far Pacific shore
Sound the joyous Temperance triumph evermore.
While the people's voice is heard be the whole Dominion stirred,
Deal destruction both to Licence and Saloon;
Full two hundred thousand strong join the great triumphant song,
Oh, the better time is surely coming soon!
Joy! Joy! Clear the way before us,
High, high wave the banner o'er us.
From Atlantic's dashing roar to the far Pacific shore
Sound the joyous Temperance triumph evermore.
By the tens of thousands dead, by the tears of living shed,
We adjure you to secure the boon we seek!
For the rulers can't refuse if you all your ballots use.
They must harken to the people when they speak.
Joy! Joy! Clear the way before us,
High, high wave the banner o'er us.
From Atlantic's dashing roar to the far Pacific shore
Sound the joyous Temperance triumph evermore.
Grateful then to gracious Heaven for the signal victory given
We will never cease to work and plead for more:
Strong in union, toil and pray for the dawning of the day
When the traffic shall be swept from every shore.
Joy! Joy! Clear the way before us,
High, high wave the banner o'er us.
From Atlantic's dashing roar to the far Pacific shore
Sound the joyous Temperance triumph evermore.
Words of joy – Joy! Joy! – from Archibald McKillop, "The Blind Bard of the Megantic", inspired by the successful, though entirely ineffective, Ontario Prohibition Plebiscite of 1 January 1894.
We twenty-first century Canadians know that rulers rarely "harken to the people when they speak."
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| Archibald McKillop "The Blind Bard of Megantic" 1824 - 1905 Author of Rhymes for the Times Temperance Odes and Miscellaneous Poems and The Flood of Death; or, The Malt that Lay in the House that Jack Built |
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