The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1868-11-03
Temperance Items,

to judge than mere travellers like DIR. Bell
lows and Theodore Parker. He says:
"We have heard Americans assert that
there was no drunkenness in any country
where wine takes the place of strong liqu-
ors. Now we have sifted this matter
thoroughly, both in Italy and Switzer-
land, and are bound to deny the truth of
this statement, Why is it, then that so
little drunkenness is seen by strangers p
Because Italian laborers rarely begin their
potations until their days work is done.
They carouse from about nightfall until
midnight-when, money spentsor credit
exhausted, they reel home, and the cries
and groans of wives and children soon tell
of the fury and brutality which mark the
drunkard the world over. Thinking it
probable that brandy did most of the mis-
chief l inquired as to this point, In
every case my questions caused surprise,
and the answer were always the same;
''No! no ! 1t is the wine-always the
wine"
Robert Tombs, American consul at
Rheims, in his work entitled "The Cham
pagne Country" says "The common
people, brutalized by ignorance, are rude
in manners and given to sensual indul-
gence. They are deep drinkers and gross
feeders. l have never beheld a coarser
scene of debauch than was openly exhi-
bited at Rheims night after night, during
the carnival, at the theater, in the cafes
and in the streets, where both sexes,
whether disguised or not, put no restraint
upon their tongues, gestures, conduct
A rabid thirst for champagne, hot punch,
and other strong drinks, prevailed, and
every one Sc emed eager 10 reach intoxi,
cation as the Siunmum Jonam. Success
crowned their efforts and universal drunk.
enness was the result"
Rev E. $. Lacy of San Francisco, re-
Gently spent several months in Switzer-
land, and he writes: II have just spent
SIX months IN country place of Switzer~
land, where the people do nothing but
work in the vineyards; where the wine
is cheap ard pure, and far more the bevs
erage Of the laboring classes than water;
where none think of making dinner
without Il bottle of wine; where all the
scenery is OF the most elevating, ennobling
character. Here more mtorication ,cas oJ-
r'oqs ta' III a1y ot4er place il ,cas erer ny
iot 10 lire in. On holidays and festal oc-
casion' you might suppose all the male
population drunk, so great are the num-
bers inthis deranged and beasIly condition.
\ State Convention Of the friends of
Temperance at San Francisco, October
10th, l7th, and 18th, 1866, adopted the
following resolution:
ResOlred That we consider the pro-
ject of banishing intemperance from Cali
tornla by introducing the general use of
wine as beverage, to be delusion and
a snare. Even were it possible to exclude
ardent spirits. and substitute the fermen-
ted juice OF the grape, there is no reason
to look for any other results than fol-
lowing in the ages of antiquity, when
wine was the only intoxicating beverage,
and when the drunkenness of wine-drink-
ing nations provoked the wrath Of God
and the denunciations of Holy Writ,
Horace Greeley wrote from Paris,
""' WINE "7" lh'oxlcate-doeS intoxl-
c"'g-.i"' ',ere are cohhrmed drunkards
III "F'S' ana throughout France, is noto'
r'ou' ana uhaeniaoie' lou can hardly
open n French newspaper that does not
con'"," some account oi robbery perpe'
''"'eu upon some person stupeiied by
ocerurinN'hg ponce case growing out
oi quarrei over Tie vince or cul-
prit' when asked to say why the sentence
H;n, Vi ~" nosI'.;n sHuu'p n9' oo pronounced upon
h" I'' ,ep,' '"s' ! was u,uiA ~neh TINS
w., ""rp "N'' ""' "'''" "o''''"s Vi inc mat
'osePh eed' OF San Francisco, wrote
10 me N"'oH" temperance Adrocate
"lhefe Is hrooao!y not village in the
sta'e' where wine has been made to any
iaiI OF individuals and families to intem>
perance ana oeggary, among those ems
| uaueu IT tnlS occupation. NOT few churrh