Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-07-11
Mistellal,erMs.
CHEAP WINE AND DRUNKENNESS.


DR.. Holland, in recent letter to the
Springfield Republican, gives the follow
ing results of his observation as bearing
upon the oft-repeated assertion that the
abundance of cheap and pure wines would
tend to diminish drunke mess ~
| There were two questions in America
in which for many years felt profound
interest On both these questions enter
tanned very decided opinions, and have
been most curious to see what foreign OBJ
servation would have upon them. As it
happens, find myself located just where
grand practical experiments are in pro-
gress--haye been, indeed, for a long time
in progress-that go far to decide these
questions with me; and, as one Of them is
decided against me, hope 4 may have
the credit of the candor with which have
always endeavored to regard them, in
what feel moved to write about them.
/ A large amount of land in the Canton
of Vaud is surrendered to the cultivation
of the grape and, as the wine of Swifz
erland is never heard OF out of Switzer
land it is plain that it is all drank here.
Indeed, | have been assured that the wine
produced in this Canton is drank mainly
in the Canton itself. Now, from near
Villevenue to Morges, distance of twen-
ty-Gve miles, as guess at random, the en-
tire lakeside, averaging half mile in
width, is vineyard. One can say, almost
with literal truth, that, throughout the
entire territory describe to you no crops
but grapes are grown.
For the last three weeks, the whole
working population, men and women,
have been in the vineyards gathering the
crop. The teams are employed in trans
porting the immensely large casks of new
wine from the presses to the cellars of
their owners, to the vaults of the dealers
who have purchased it, and to the railroad
depots for transportation to the storehouse
of spectators in other quarters. There
is an endeavor on the part of these peo-
pie to throw a romantic interest around
their vintage. The casks go through the
street with gay bouquets of flowers in
their bung- holes but from what ] have
seen of the effect of wine here, the show
is all sorry farce.
! There is no question that the people
would be better, healthier. happier, and
much more prosperous, if there were no
vineyard in the canton. We have been
told in America, and fully believed it,
that if q people could be supplied with
cheap wine, they would not get drunk
that the natural desire for some sort of
stimulant would be gratified in way that
would not only be harmless to morals,
and conducive to health. | am thorough
ly undeceived. The people drink their
cheap white wine here to drunkenness.
A boozier set than hang around the null
titudinous cafes here it would be hard to
find in any American city, and where they.
enjoy the license OF the Maine law. The
grand difference in the drunkenness of an
American and the Swiss city is found in
the fact that man who has wine in him
is good natured, and the man who is
equally charged with whiskey is demon.
There is no numbering, no fighting, no
wrangling. The excitement Is worked off
in singing, shouting and all sorts of insane
jabber. ..,4..
Then the steady old white wine topers
come into blossom. If you can imagine
caulifiower of the color of the ordinary
red cabbage, you can achieve very ade-
quate conception of faces that are not un
common in all this wine growing region.
So this question is settled. in my mind,
Cheap wine is not the cure of intemper-
ance. sesse.
The people here are just as Incorporate
as they are in America, and, what is more,
there is no public sentiment that checks
intemperance in the least. The wine is
fed freely to children, and by all classes
is regarded as a perfectly legitimate
drink. Failing to find the solution of the
Temperance question in the Maine law,
failing to perceive it in the various modes
and movements of reform, /, with many
others, have looked with hope to find it in
a cheap comparatively harmless wine; but,
for one, can look in this direction hope
fully no longer.
firmly believe that the wines of Switz-
erland are of no use except to Keep out
whisky, and that the advantages OF the
wine over the whisky are not very obvious.
tits the testimony of the best men in Switz-
erland- those who have the highest good
of the people at heart-that the increased
growth of the grape has been steadily and
correspondingly attended by the increase
of drunkenness. They lament the plant
ing of new vineyard as we, at home, re-
gret the opening of a new grog-shop.
They expect no good of it, to anybody.
They know, and deeply feel, that the
whole wine producing enterprise ischarg-
ed with DEGRADATION for their country"