Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1866-12-21
EMPERANCE COLUMN.

lNE, DOMESI1C AND IOhElGN.-
The attempt to diminish intemper-
ance, and decrease the use of foreign
wines by encouraging the use of do
mestic wines, completely ignores all
the teachings of history and expert
ence. If we had never tried and
failed to make this nation temperate
by abstaining from strong liquors and
using the weaker, there might be
some plausibility in the argument that
homemade wines can and will super
sede not only all others, but all intoxi-
eating drinks whatever. But there
is now no substantial foundation for
such an argument. The experiment
has been made, and has proved abor-
tive. There is not the faintest prob
ability that it will prove any more
successful if renewed at the present
time. The circumstances are not any
more favorable; human nature is just
as strong, and temptations even more
numerous and powerful.
The fathers of the temperance re-
form, entering upon this work as they
did, without any experience, either of
their own or Of others, supposed that
the only thing to be done was to ban
ish distilled liquors from use. The
thought that there was any danger in
drinking cider, which was then the
every day beverage of the entire popu-
lation does not seem to have occurred
to them. Or the contrary they con-
sidered it perfectly harmless drink,
and even imagined t h a t drunk
ards might be reformed by inducing
them to substitute cider for rum, bran
dy and gin. The result is a matter
of history. 1t was an ignominious
failure. Men signed the temperance
pledge, lived up to it with all fidelity,
and yet became beastly drunk upon
cider. 1t was not till the second
stage in the temperance reform, when
the pledge Of total abstinance was
adopted, and cider as well as distilled
liquor was placed under ban, that
any substantial and permanent change
was effected in the drinking usageS
of community. Had native wine in
stead of cider then been the current
drink, is there any reason to doubt
that the result would have been the
same? If native wine should now
become as common a beverage as 1t
is in the wine producing countries of
Europe should we not have nation
of wine drunkards as we then had a
nation Of cider drunkards? ? Wine is
wine, whether made from grapes
grown in California, Vermont or
France, and in either contingency, it
is a mOcker, a deceiver, and an intox-
icater.
1t has been often and vehemently
asserted that In the countries where
wine is made and freely used as an
every day drink, intemperance is al
most unknown. But the fact is quite
otherwise, as may be established by
the mouth of more than two or three
witnesses. Those who have travelled
in wine countries, and have seen little
or no intemperance, have been those
whose associations were mainly among
the higher circles in which restraint
would naturally be practiced before
guests, or those who have travelled
in other seasons of the year than that
in which wine-drinking is most preva-
lent. Travellers who have had OPP
portunities of observation among the
peasantry of France, Italy and Swift
zerIand during the three months after
grape harvest, have seen quite diff
ferent state of things. Rev. E. :.
Lacy, of San Francisco, who had been
so deceived by the testimony of the
first class of travellers, that he regard
ed the introduction of wine culture
Into California as a harbinger OF gen.
eral morality, writes to the Pacific
as follows: Il have just spent six
months in a country place of Switzer-
land, where the people did nothing
but work in their vineyards, where
wine is cheap and pure, and far more
the beverage of the laboring classes
than water; where none think of max
| inc a dinner without a bottle of wine,
: where all the scenery about is of the
: most elevating and ennobling charac-
} ter. There more intoxication was
obvious than in any other place it was
ever nv lot to live in. The common
/, people passing to and fro from their
markets, would become intoxicated
: before reaching home; the wine shops
or cafes along the road at almost any
Q time of the day might be found full of
, men. On holidays and festal occa-
t sions you might suppose all the male
population drunk, so great are the
numbers in this deranged and beastly
condition"
Let those who would encourage the
manufacture and free use OF wine In
b the United States, consider well
/ whether such state of things as Is
: described in the last paragraph is
}, desirable 20 be reproduced in this
, country, and whether that would not
o he the almost inevitable result of
making wine as common and cheap
as cider formerly was, P. IL. w.
:. Coventry, Vt, Oct. 8, 1866.
r A married lady who was in the
i habit of spending most of her time In
I the society of her neighbors, happen