The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1867-11-21

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of both. A wedding without "toddy,"
"flip," "sling," or "punch," with rum
undisguised in abundance, would have i
been deemed a poor, mean affair, even
among the penniless while the more for |
tunate and thrifty of course dispensed !
wine, brandy and gin III profusion. Dan
the sexes jointly participated--was always |
eulivened and stimulated by liquor. Mill
tia ings-then rigidly enforced at
least twice year-usually wound up with
a drinking frolic at the village tavern.
Election days were drinking days, as they
still too commonly are and even funerals
were regarded as inadequately celebrated
without the dispensing of spirituous con-
ISOLATION; so that distinctly recollect the
neighborhood talk alter the funeral of q
poor mans child, that, if he had not been
mean as we'll as poor, he would have
cheered the hearts Of his svnpathlzlng
friends by treating them to at least one
gallon of rum. | have heard my father
say that he had moved through the hay
ing season of thirty successive years, and
never Gay without liquor; and the ac-
count of an Irishman who NOW ed and
pitched throughout one haying-drlnklng
only buttermilk, while his associates drank
rum, yet accomp plished more and with less
fatigue than any of them-was received
with as much wondering increduhty as
! though it had been certified that he lived
wholly on air. Nay: we had an ordina-
/ ton In Amherst nearly fifty years ago,
| settling an able and popular young clergy
man named Lord (I believe he s now the
venerable ex-president of Dartmouth Col
! le5e) to the signal satisfaction of the great
body of our people; and, according to
my recollection, strong drink was more
generally and bountifully dispensed than
on any previous occasion bottles and
| glasses being set on tables IN front OF
many farmers houses as an Invitation to
those who passed on their way TO or from
tie installation to stop and drink freely.
| We have worse liquor now than we had
then, and delirium tremens, apoplexy,
palsy, &C., come sooner aud oftener to
those who -use it; but our consumers oi
strong drink are class; whereas they
were then the whole people The pious
probably drank more discreetly than the
ungodly; but they all dssnk to their own
satisfaction, and L judge) more than wa:
consistent with their own good.
Ny resolve not to drink Was only men
toned by me at-our Own freside ; but j
somehow became knGwnln the ueig Dor
hood, where it excited some Curiosity, aAC
even stronger feeling, At the annua
sheep washing in June following, it va.
brought forward and condemned, when
was required TO take glass Gi liquor, and
on my declining, was held by two or three
Il,
while the liquor was turned iato III,
mouth, and some of it forced down ID.
throat Tnat was understood to be tn
end Of my foolish attempt at singularity
1t was not. however. / kept quiet, bu
my resolution was unchanged; and sooI
alter my remova! TO Puurney, | "assist
ed" in organizing the first Temperanc
Society ever formed in that town-per
haps the first in the country.
1t Inhibited the use of distilled LIQUOR
only, 50 that believe our first Presiden
died of intemperance some years after
ward bat a number still live to rejoic
that they took part in that movement AM
have since remained faithful to its pied Z,
and purpose. | recoiiect story told b,
! our adversaries a: that time of man VIII
/ had joined the Temperance Society jus
; organized in Il neighboring township, and
! dying soon aiterward, had been subjecte
: to autopsy, which developed cake of ice
: weighing several pounds, which had grad
| ually formed and increased in his stomach
| as a result Of his fanatical devotion TO col
: water Alas that most of our facetiou
| critics have since died, and no autops
r was needed to develop the cause of thet
: departure 4 glance at each fiery pre-
/ boscis, that irradiated even the cerement
: of the grave, was sufficient.
: Total Abstinence has never yet bee
= popular in this nor any other great city
$ and, as liquor grows questionable in tn
country, it tends to become less and les
2 So a great city derives its subsistenc
! and its profits from its lninistrations nc
only to the real needs of the sprroundin
D country, bur to its baser appetites, Il
: vices, as we'll and, as the country 81
/ comes less aud less tolerant of immor;
: indulgences and vicious alterations, th
n gains OF the cities therefore, and the
I consequent interest therein, most steadil
p increase Time was when the young ma
o of means and social position, who shunne
Y the haunts of the ganester, the wIles
q the libertine, and never INDUCED in
e drunken "spree," was widely sneered
q as "uilksop," or detested as a calcul
i ting hypocrite. Sheridan s Joseph Su
g face admirably reflects the once popul
$ appreciation of such absurd, fanatic
Puritanism but as the world grows wis
? and (iu an important sense) better, gre
# thoagh silent change is wrought in publ
q sentiment, which compels the vicious
IS conceal indulgeuces which they former
Q paraded, aud maintain an exterior dece