Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1868-12-05
Wine as az Ally of Temperance.
BY HORACE GREELEY.

Some friends of temperance, whose sin
cerity and zeal i have no desire TO i'm
pugn, hold the multiplication of vine
yards among us, and the consequent
production of cheap, uLdrngged Ameri-
can wines, as signally conducive to the
extirpation of intemperance Seine of
them talk and write as though all abun-
| dance of pure cheap win.s would of it.
seh suffice to deliver our country from
the scourge and. shame of. drunkenness.
| judge differently, and propose to give,
very briefly, the considerations on which
my conviction is grounded:
/. We have no reason to suppose that
the wine which brought the patriarch
| Noah to shame was other than that
"pure juice of the grape" which hear
so unsparingly eulogized as an antidote
to intemperance. We have not the faint
test suggestion of strychnine, coculus in
dicus, logwood, or even good Bourbon
whisky, as among Its ingredients Noah
had planted the vine, plncked the grapes,
expressed their juice, or directed these
processes to be executed by those of. shis
household ); he is most unlikely to have
poisoned himself with narcotics or,other
haleful drugs. Yet the wine made him
drunk. and it has since served myriads of
his descendants exactly as itserved him.
Its nature and effect have been identical
in all ages, and are the same to-day.
II. The Hebrew prophets abound in
denunciations, warnings, remonstrances,
which alike bear testimony to this world
old truth. "Wine is mocker," "Look
not upon the wine when it is red" etc..
''for at last it biteth like serpent and
stingeth like an adder;" "Who hath
wounds without cause? They that tar
ry long at the wine cup" etc.. etc, are
proofs that wine served -Israelites in
Jadea as whisky serves Irish and other
Americans ipNew York. And, while
the infrequent illusions to mixed wines,
etc, Indicate that the original bottle-imp
was accustomed, thirty centuries ago, to
take to himself seTen other devils worse
than the first" as he Goes today in our
great wine-factoriosi this city, several
of which, without handling one drop of
grape.iuicetrom January TO December
inclusive, d" yet turn out their thousands
Of bottles daily of the choicest brands OF
Champagne, Hook, Burgunda, Madeira,
etc.. il is nowhere intinated that the
evil effects of wine drinking were confin-
ed to those who imbibed these bewitchcd
wines, but the contrary. We are warn
ed against excess and against evil mix
lures; but we are also more frequently,
and not less impressively, warned against
wine itself aA....e.,'...v,.v.,.
Ill The great minds of Greece and
Rome have also borne testimony against
wine rs a corruptor of morals and de-
stroyer of manly vigor and vitality 1t
would be easy TO bristle with citations,
but they will suggest themselves to the
remembrance of every scholar. only ask
attention to the fact that the classics, like
the Scriptures, were written in thosemild
and geuial regions of perpetual sunshine
encirclingr the Mediterranean which we
are often told are free from the curse of
drunkenness because they abound in
wine. Mohammed was native of a
still warmer, SUMMER cline; and he did
not find the state of things so confident
.1y alleged four thousand miles away.
He absolutely forbade the use of wine
by his followers,5 because he had seen
and realized that it habitually trans
formed rational beings into furious, con-
scienceless brutes. 1t was on the Med
iterranean that Shakespeare makes Cas-
sio remorsefully exclaim: 90 thou in
visible spirit Of ,oi,ae! If We had no
other name BY which to call thee, we
would call the devil 20
Nv. 1t is true that, IN warm, equable
temperate climates, the tendency to ex-
cess in drinking is less vehement than
where cold IS excessive, the skies more
sullen, and the alterations of tempera-
ture sudden and extreme. 1t is not
true that drunkenness is unknown in
any region where wine or alcoholic
sstimulants are freely used. On the con-
trarys it is observed by recent travellers
that excess in drinking is rapidly gain
ing ground in Italy since she threw off
the yoke of native and Austrian de-
pots; that her tipplers are calling for