The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1867-01-23
The Drink Question.

The Drink Question.
The hotel keepers in Boston are still
Catching it > at the hands of the law
They are wicked enough to dispose of
wine and spirits to such thirsty pilgrims
among theis guests AZ, despite the resolu-
ton Of the late Legislature to coerce every
body into becoming involuntary members
of the I. A. S., will "hanker" after the
forbidden drink. We regret that publ
cans should be such sinners But, after
oil, if an ''unco' righteous" law-making
body of topers flor nearly every member
of the Legislature of Massachusetts is a
capital Judge of good liquor) will under
take to keep the goodies. all to them
selves, what can they expect to awaken III
the bosoms of their monopoly hating con-
stituents but the spirit of rebellion which
leads at once to familiarity with other
spirits of a less temperate character
Our Saviour, we are assured, made wine
for the wedding that was destitute of that
Timothy's recommendation of the same
enlivening beverage. All the world over,
every people Of every nation, whether saw
age Or civilized, indulge in some spirituous
preparation as luxury. We are not sure
that the apple of which our progenitors
ate in the Garden of Eden was not one of
that primal species the juice Of which, like
champagne-cider, was deliciously intoxica-
ting, and that Satan "brought death into
the world and all our woe" by getting our
respectable forefather and his helpmate
slightly ''under the influence of drink. -
One of the first things that Noah did after
he had landed from tho Ark was to get
shockingly "how-come-you-so,"a and enact
the model artist. 1t is manifestly the dis
position Of human nature, therefore, to i'm
bibe something that intoxicates, and no
human law will ever be able to eradicate
it. Yet this is what the Massachusetts
law proposes to do. Hence it was la
mentable failure. Hence the men who
made it set a constant example Of its eva
sion. Hence drunkenness annually in
crcases under the stimulus of the legal acts
made to annihilate it altogether
Our excise-law does not profess to be
prohibitory and consequently is not open
to quite so much objection. 1t limits, but
it does not undertake to interdict, the
taste for "strong drink" like the law Of
Massachusetts,. And therein it exhibits
spice of sagacity. You might possibly
channel, but you could not dam up, COM
pletely, the overflow of Niagara. Our
Yankee friends think otherwise, and we
see the result. As for our own excise law,
VIC have no doubt it will be amended, now
that experience has taught us that amend
that which ''makes drunk come should
not be sold after midnight, and yet in
large cities like New York there are hun.
dreds of men whose avocations require
them to sleep through the day and toll all
night. For the use of such men London
licenses her "night houses" apart from
those she licenses for daylight business,
and there is no valid reason why New
York should not accept hint from her
example. As general rule, too, one
hundred dollars are sufficient to demand
by way of annual license from ordinary
retailers, leaving enormous business estab-
lishments to pay enormous fees out of
their proportionate profits. These and
other facts will be taken into considera-
ton at Albany this winter, we presume,
! and may the result be reasonable!
To conclude our homily, VIC have always
found the appetite for ''rum'' to increase
| with every attempt to extinguish it but it
may be diminished by judicious indul-
gence. Every physician is aware of that
circumstance. Massachusetts,, however,
will not recognize this philosophy Of
facts" 1t prefers failure under its own
distempered theory to success under the
system of common sense. Be it ours to
adhere more affectionately to the lessons
of experience, and leave the Bay State fam
atics to revcl in the luxury Of trying to
reconcile impossibilities.-N Y. Sunday
Times.