The Story of a Dark Plot

Story of a Dark Plot, by A.L.O. C. and W.W. Smith

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Title: The Story of a Dark Plot or Tyranny on the Frontier
Author: A.L.O. C. and W.W. Smith
Commentator: J.H.F. Sutton
Release Date: May 4, 2007 [EBook #21285]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all other inconsistencies are as in the original. Author's spelling has been maintained.]

THE STORY OF A DARK PLOT;
OR,
TYRANNY ON THE FRONTIER.
By A. L. O. C.

BOSTON: THE WARREN PRESS, 160 WARREN STREET, 1903.

Entered according to Act of Parliament, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, by W. W. SMITH in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Statistics at Ottawa.
[Illustration: W. W. Smith, Sutton, P. Q.]

PREFACE.
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little.--(Isa. xxviii. 10.)
This is a divinely appointed rule to which we will do well if we take heed, as it will save from many disappointments and discouragements.
The writer of "The Story of a Dark Plot" has no hope by this work of revolutionizing society or even working any very marked reforms. Books and essays on temperance topics are numerous, and this is but one among many. However, it is hoped that this may prove one of the lines and precepts that are of some service to the cause. There is always need for those who are on the right side of any important question to unfurl their banners and show their colors bravely, but just now, in connection with the temperance movement in our Dominion, there is a very special call for action presented by the Plebiscite.
We sometimes read on the pages of fiction exciting and blood-curdling tales of deep laid plots for murder and other crimes, but just when our feelings are being aroused to the highest pitch, we pause and comfort ourselves with the thought that after all this is only imaginary.
Or perchance, we may read the truthful details of a more or less successful attempt to end the life of a fellow being, but if we are unacquainted with the persons concerned in the affair and the circumstances which led to it, and especially if it happened some distance from us, we feel but little interest in it.
Again we find in the records of the past that thousands have suffered and many died in a really good cause,--the victims of depraved and brutish persecutors who hated what was good. We cannot doubt the truth of the statements nor the innocence of the sufferers, but we may be tempted to complacently remark "the martyr age is past." But if we look about us with unprejudiced eyes, we must see that the sufferers for conscience sake are still not a few.
The details of the dark plot as given in these pages are all matters of fact, and perhaps if all the particulars could be known, it might seem blacker even than now. Moreover, it happened in an old and progressive county of Eastern Canada, just across the border from New England, and Mr. Smith had incurred the anger of his persecutors only by trying to enforce law and order and working for the protection and uplifting of his fellow-men.
In view of such facts, let the voters of our Dominion pause ere they give their sanction to a system which throws around the makers and venders of alcoholic liquors the protection of the strong arm of the law.
That this volume, by showing the liquor party in its true light, and thus warning our countrymen of their position and danger, may be the means of arousing some who, though temperance people at heart, are sleeping on guard, and of adding a few to the ranks of active workers for the cause of right, is the earnest prayer of
THE AUTHOR.

INTRODUCTION.
The publication of this book has been with the approval of some of the best thinkers on the temperance question, and we doubt not that its careful perusal by all who read it will prove a stimulus in connection with the cause of temperance, and if they are timid or hesitating will cause them to become decisive in the noble work for humanity. It is a well-known fact that the grand old County of Brome is one of the banner counties in every