Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-07-22

T,o xy,no Question in society.


The Wine Question in Society.
1t is universally admitted among sensible and
candid people that drunkenness is the great
curse of our social and national life. 1t is not
Enthusiastically American, for the same may
be said with greater emphasis OF the social and
national life of Great Britain; but it IS one of
those things about which there is no doubt.
Cholera and smallpox bring smaller fatality,
and almost infinitely smaller sorrow. There
are fathers and mothers, and sisters and wives,
and innocent and wondering children, within
every circle that embraces hundred lives, who
greve to-day over some hopeless victim of the
seductive destroyer. In the city and in the
country-north, east, south and west-there are
men and women who cannot be trusted with
wine in their hands-men and women who are
conscious, too, that they are going to destruc-
ton, and who have ceased to fight an appetite
that has the power TO transform every soul and
every home it occupies into a hell. Oh, the wild
prayers for help that go up from hundred
thousand despairing slaves of strong drink to-
day! Oh, the shame, the disappointment, the
fear, the disgust, the awful pity, the mad pro
tests that rise from a hundred thousand homes!
And still the smoke of the everlasting torment
rises, and still we discuss the "wine question"
and the grape culture" and live on as ii we
had no share in the responsibility for SO much
sin and shame and suffering.
Society bids us furnish wine at our feasts
and we furnish it inst as generously as if we
did not know that a certain percentage of all
the men who drink it will die miserable drunk
ards, and infct lives of pitiful suffering upon
those who are closely associated with them
There are literally hundreds OF thousands OF
people in polite life in America who would not
dare to give dinner or party, without wine,
Notwithstanding the fact that in many instances
they can select the very guests who will drink
too much on every occasion that gives them an
oil 1
who invite young men to their icaSts, whom
they know cannot drink the wine they propose
to furnish without danger to themselves and
disgrace TO their companions and friends. They
do this sadly, often, but under the cOmpulslonS
OF social usage. Now we understand the power
of this influence; and every sensitive man must
feel it keenly. Wine has stood so long as an
emblem and representative OF good cheer and
generous hospitality, that it seems stingy to
shut it away from our festivities, and deny II TO
our guests. Then again it is so generally Of
fered at the tables of our friends and it is so
difficult, apparently, for those who are accuS-
toned to il to make a dinner without it, that we
hesitate to offer water to them. 1t has a mig
gardly-almost an notwithstanding; yet
what shall man do who wishes TO throw what
| influence he has on the side of temperance?
The question is not new. 1t has been up for
| an answer every year and every moment since
men thought or talked about temperance at all.
| We know of but one answer to make to it. A
man cannot, without stultiiying and morally
debasing himself, fight in public that which he
| tolerates in private We have heard of such
| things as writing temperance addresses with
| demiiohn under the table; and society has
| learned by heart the old talk against drinking
too much-"the excess of the thing, you know
| by those who have the power of drinking
| little, but who would sooner part with their
right eye than with that little. A man who
| talks temperance with Wine-glasS in his hand
is simply trying to brace himself so that he can
| hold it without shame. We do not deny that
| many men have Self-control, or that they can
| drink wine through life without suffering, to
| themselves or others. II may seem hard that
| they should seem deprived Of a comfort or a
| pleasure because others are less fortunate in
| their temperament or their power of will But
| the question is whether man is willing to sell
| his power TO do good to a great multitude for
glass of wine at dinner. That is the question in
its plainest terms. If he is, then he has very
| little benevolence, or a very inadequate appre.
henson of the evils Of intemperance.
| What we need in our metropolitan society is
| declaration of independence There are great
many good men and women in New York who
lament the drinking habits Of society most sim
cerey. Let these all declare that they will
| minister no longer at the social affairs of the
| great destroyer. Let them declare that the in
| discriminate offer of wine at dinners and social
| assemblies is not only criminal but vulgar, as it
undoubtedly is Let them declare that for the
| sake Of the young, the weak, the vicious-for
| the sake of personal character, and family
peace, and social purity, and national strength
they will discard wine from their feasts from
| this time forth and forever, and the work will
be done. Let them declare that it shall be vul-
| gar-as it undeniably is-for man to quarrel
with his dinner because his host fails TO furnish
| wine. This can be done now, and it needs to be
| done now, Tor it is becoming every day more diff
| ficult to do it. The habit of wine drinking at
| dinner is quite prevalent already. European
| travel is dong much 10 make it universal; and
if we go on extending it at the present rate, we
| shall soon arrive at the European Indifference
| to the whole subject. There are many clergy
men in New York who have wine upon their
tables and who furnish it to their guests. We
keep no mans conscience, but we are compelled
to say that they sell influence at shamefully
| cheap rate What can they do in the great
fight with this tremendous evil? They can do
| nothing, and are counted upon to do nothing.
| If the men and women of good society wish
to have less drinking TO excess, let them stop
drinking moderately. If they are not willing
TO break off the indulgence of a feeble appetite
| for the sake of doing a great good to a great
many people, how can they expect poor brOk-
en-down wretch to deny an appetite that is
| stronger than the love of wife and children, and
even life itself? The punishment for the failure
| to do duty in this business is sickening to con-
| template. The sacrifice of life aGd peace and
| wealth will 90 on. Every year young men will
| rush wildly TO the devil middle-aged men will
oooze away luto apopIeAyJ anu Ola men VIII
| swell up with the sweet poison and become dis
| gushing idiots. What will become of the womeD2
We should think that they had suffered enough
from this evil to hold it under everlasting ban,
yet there are drunken women as well as drink
ing clergymen. Society, however, has great
| advantage in the fact that it is vulgar for Il
| woman to drink. There are some things that
woman may not do, and maintain her social
standing. Let her not quarrel with the fact that
society demands more of her than it does of
men. Il is her safeguard in many ways.-Dr.
f. G. Holland, in Sc,fbner's for august