The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1858-09-02

new meanings every time it is studied,
/ was more than ever impr essed with an
appreciation Of how completely he com
pretended the horrors which accompany
career of drunkenness. His graphic
plate, entitled Gin Lane was publish
ed in 1851, and exactly century after
wards appeared the illustrated work of
Cruikshanks, entitled The Bottle; but
Hogarth's single engraving is almost as
comprehensive as the numerous sketch
es of Cruikshanks' book, showing that
gin in London, as every where else, ever
tells the same sad tale. Nor if we 60
from gin to beer does Hogarth's plate,
entitled Beer Street, with its bloated
| figures, its conspicuous golden balls of
Pinch, the Pawn broker, and the books
in the wheelbarrow going to the trunk
maker, tell much more iattering tale
for brewed liquor than the other told for
distilled.
| The speaker then went on TO consid-
er the ethics of the question, and gave
an account of the phrensy all over the
world which had brewed, fermented,
and distilled every substance that could
be so used into intoxicating drinks-of
the attempts in olden times to arrest the
evil, and of their failure, in consequence
of the principle Of voluntary association
not having been brought 10 bear on the
gigantic evil. He then went on to say !
In another address, formerly delivered
by myself, I gave history Of the dis
coyery of alcohol, and of the estimation
in which it was held in the days Of its
first introduction into Europe, citing
some extracts to show the hyperbolical
praises which were bestowed upon it,
and exhibiting poison exalted to tie
place of a panacea. In The Chronicles
of Englande, Scotlande, and Lreiande, by
Raphaelle Holinshed British author
whose work was published in two folio
volumes in 1877, the wonderful sanatiye
powers ofalcoholare delineated in similar
view. 1t sloweth age, 1T strengthened
youth, it helpeth Digestion the public
were told, it cutteth phlegme, it aban-
doneth melanch ollie, it relisheth the
heart, it lighteneth the mind, it quicken
eth the spirits, it cureth the hydropsia,
it healeth the strangurie, it pounceth the
stone, it expelleth gravel, it puffeth
away ventosi.ie, it keepeth and preser-
veth the head from whirling, the eyes
from dazzling, the tongue from lisping,
the mouth from snaffiing, the teeth from
ehattering, and the throat from rafting !;
it keepeth the weasan from sitting. the
stomach from wambling, and the heart
from swelling 1T keepeth the hands
from shivering, the sinews from shrink
ing, the veins from crumbling, the bones
from aching, and the marrow from soak
ing 7 That is what was said of alco-
hol in 1877 Does it appear to us laugh
ably absurd !? Do we wonder that grave
and learned scholars should put forth
such a tissue of falsehoods for sober seri-
Gus facts? Does the delineation pro-
woke smile, and is it stamped with
untruth so apparent as to require no ref
utation +? Yet these opinions are by no
means extinct What was announced as
true by the scholars of the sixteenth
century, is still maintained by the dram
drinkers of the nineteenth. Do we not
every day see them extolling the virtues
of their potable stimulus ? What list
of diseases it will cure What list
will it prevent What list will it
ameliorate !! Does it not quench thirst,
impart strength, alleviate fatigue, stop
hunger, quiet pain :? Is it not good for
cold, for heat, for wet, for dry, for an
empty stomach, for full one, for diar-
rhoeas, for costiveness, for deficient and
for over action, and for all the thous-
and natural shocks that flesh is heir to 3
Such is the assertion of its blinded
devotees, and that, when we see all
around us the bones of its victims, and
the wrecks, the dessolatioE, the misery,
and the obstruction which has ever fol-
lowed lis internal footsteps. Upon an
other occasion formerly dwelt particu-
larly upon the morbid conditions that
result from the use of alcoholic liquors
and make up fearful catalogue of dis
eases. | then described lis terrible de-
lrlum as shown in the two forms of de-
lirium ebriosua and delirium tremens,
and dwelt upon its diabolical horrors
| also spoke Of the long catalogue of dis
eases produced by rum. pointing out
many Of them by name, and shall there
fore not repeat them here. Assuming
Them as already proven, let US look up
on this picture, and then upon that of the
writers of 1877, and that of the disci-
pies OF rum in our own day. Does not
the contrast give rise to emotions Of
character to induce every rejecting
mind to join in the effort to annihilate
evils SO dreadful, so extensive, so obvi-
Gus? To those whose hearts are in this
reformation it would seem SO, and yet
such is not the case. Glorious AS is the
temperance cause, irrefragible as are It's
arguments, apparent as are its facts. and
incontcstible as is its utility, many here
are who remain, either secretly or open
ly, in the ranks of its opposers. And
who are these persons
The speaker next divided the consul
mers of alcohol into two classes the
moderate drinkers and the immoderate