The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1870-05-25

P4Ss0 a. eAOsC OoyS-duJ uSdI6IS III lSLuS /
and any preachers and spouters of pro
gress 1t would have been very easy TO |
have got up a striking case for Parliament |
tary interference with the rich and aristo- |
cratic in their favorite indulgence. II
might have been shown-in the words we
proceed to borrow from the report of a |
committee of Clergymen of the Church of
England, presented TO the Lower House
of Convocation of the province of Center
bury, in Feb. l769-"that loss of health
and intellect, decay of strength, disease
IN Its most frightful forms, and premature
death were the usual products of intem-
perance." The family affections were
blunted or obliterated, the tenderest re-
latons were outraged and set at naught-
husbands were neglected by their wives,
wives subjected to revolving cruelty and
violence by their husbands, and the sin
OF the parent was visited upon stunted
slckly and debilitated offspring.
These eloquent words were applied by
their reverend authors to the drinking
habits OF the poor year ago, but they
would have equally well applied to the
drinking habits of the rich in the eigh-
teenth century, had legislation been at
tempted at that day with the view of en-
forcing sobriety on the offending upper
classes.
The reverend gentlemen, from whose
report to Convocation in 1869 we have al
ready quoted, admit this Improvement in
the manners of the rich. They state
THAT while the evil of social intemper.
ance has of late years greatly diminished
IN the upper and middle ranks of society,
no Proportionate Improvement has taken
place among the laboring classes of our
people; on the contrary, that drinking
prevails among them IN our commercial,
manufacturing and agricultural districts,
and IN both the army and navy to
trightful extent, and this, notwthstand-
lnS the multiplied efforts of religion and
philanthropy, and the many agencies en-
ployed during the last quarter of a CEN
tury to contract this baneful habit 1t
would also appear that the vice of intem-
perance is not confined to the male popu-
latlon, or to persons of mature age, but is
spreading to an alarming degree among
women and the young Indeed, it ap-
pears that in many parts of the country
the evil begins at the earliest age, and
that youths and children may be found
amongst its victims, and thus the physie-
al, moral and spiritual life of our people
becomes infected at its source"
Do not these facts, for facts they unfor-
tUnately are, warrant the true friends of
ntemperance-whoc comprise millions of
people-who are neither total abstainers
nor advocates of Maine Liquor or any
| other Blue Law, in oubting-whether
perfect freedom, together with education
of the mind and morals, are not the only
adequate remedies for habitual intemper-
ance? The rich have not been molested
| by law, or by the intermeddling of organ
lied philanthropy, but have been conver-
ted from gross intemperance into decorous
sobriety by their own sense of right and
proprlety. The poor, on the contrary
have been lectured at and preached at
and prevented by the law-as far as law
was able-from obtaining, more especially
on Sundays, the drink they required, anC
to which they were accustomed like theil
ancestors before them, and the result hai
been an increase of drunkenness.
1t should be borne in mind that the in
crease Of intemperance among the poorel
classes is by no means peculiar to thu
British Isles, that it prevails among tn!
Americans quite as much as among our
selves, and that the Americans, like us
are afflicted with two evils-the want o
cheap, good, nourishing and unlntoxica
ting wine; and that, like US also, they an
seriously afflicted with the fussy inter
meddlesomeness of well meaning but im
pertinent philanthropists, who, seein
nothing but the abuse of Gods bounty
seek by Blue Laws and otherwise TO pre-
hibit or to punish its use. The tone {
American society has not universally al
tanned that high pitch which it has assun
ed IN Great Britain, and which ostracise
habitual offenders against sobriety froI
the company of ladies and gentlemen, an
sends them to Coventry. All the effort
of the Blue Law glvers, where such Law
have been introduced, with a majority 6
their back, have only resulted in transfer
ring the public sale of small quantities
intoxicating liquors from the wine an
; spirit merchant to the apothecary, leavin
! the wholesale trade to the free use of a
who are wealthy enough to keep the key
of their own wine cellars.
A comparison and study Of all the!
! facts lead to the conclusion that law, BIZ
or otherwise, is of no efficacy in the el
forcement of sobriety, and that the re
:. remedies for intemperance are to be four
!, in totally different direction from tn
/, recommended by the weak people VIII
> afraid that their own moderation and tn
. of the poor, whom they treat as bah
! and sucklings, is not to be depended upC
think it wiser and safer altogether
g avoid the temptation, which they mig
I not be able to resist, and to prevent eve
a body else, including people of strong
!, will and sense than their own, from ru
= ming into it. The true remedies are to
. sought by the poor, and the friends of Il
poor, where they have been found by t
. rich-frst, in social efforts for raising t
standard of morality, so that the poor
!, borer's wife as well as the duchess shi
o set herself against drunkenness in her 10
er, husband, son or brother, as the one d
9 grading vice and sin which she will nett
e er forgive or tolerate and. second, in pI
: viding for people of small means real
- genuine and wholesome liquor, which tn
= may drink at their meals with their fan
Ii lies, without running any more risk
intoxication than the richer man dc
n when he drinks his pale ale or claret
1f moderation, and consumes them not
of the sake of stimulating hilarity, but as
fe ticles of diet, as healthful as his bread
~ his beef
- In one great and essential respect
w. poor have not the same means for prote
: ing themselves against knavish deal'
n and retailers as the rich have. The ri
- man has the pick of the market, as W
at as some knowledge of the purity and g
~ uineness OF the article which he desires
1t purchase. The poor man must deal wn'
4 he can, not always where be would-a
n is to an infinitely greater extent than
ss rich, the victim of the fraudulent trade
"a who first put water in his ale or beer
increase its quantity, and afterwards,
n disguise its consequent weakness, INF
a tobacco juice, cOccultS iadicltS, and Otl
~ noxious drugs in it, to make 1T strC
or again. 1t is this stuff which maddens
NJ poor, and it is against the robbers and
h. assassins-for they arc no better-N
Il resort TO such practice in order TO gr
at rich the sooner, that the terrors, not
N, Blue Laws, but of rational and well c.
he sidered enactments which it is possible
= enforce, should be relentlessly invoked
wv The penalties against this and other k
II. dred crimes committed by small rel
dc dealers in the food and drink Of the he
Il. less multitude, are far too lenient.
ca occasional fine of twenty shilGngs t
h man who plumbers to the extent, perhs
,st of double that amount per diem-to
ad nothing of the superadded poisoning
, but a small matter-a mere feath
nd touch on the NANCY back of scul
nv scoundrel, instead of the forty lashes "
". the cato -nine-tails, which would be