American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-08-10
The Wine Question in Society.

The Wine Question in Society.
IT Is universally admitted among sensi
BILE and candid people that drunkenness
is the great curse of our social an,
national life. 1t is not characteristicall,
American, for the same may be said witt
greater emphasis of the social and nation
al life of Great Britain but it is one O
those things about which there is NJ
| doubt. Cholera and small -poX brin:
smaller fatality, and almost infinitely
smaller sorrow. There are fathers ant
mothers, and sisters and wives, and limo
cent and wondering children, within
| every circle that embraces a hundred
| lives, who grieve to-day over some hope
less victim of the seductive destroyer
In the city and in the country-North
East, South and West-there are men ant
women who cannot be trusted with wine
| in their hands-men and women who arr
conscious, too, that they are going to
destruction, and who have ceased to figh
an appetite that has the power to trans
form every soul and every home it occu
pies into hell. Oh, the wild prayers
for help that go up from a hundred
thousand despairing slaves of strong
drink to-day, Oh, the shame, the dis
appointment, the fear, the disgust, the
awful pity, the mad protests that rise
from 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 if we had no share in the re
sponsibility for so much sin and shame
and suffering.
Society bids us furnish wine at our
feasts, and we furnish it just as generous
ly as if we did not know that a certain
percentage of all the men who drink it
will die miserable drunkards, and inflict
lives of pitiful suffering on 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 opportunity.
There are old men and women who invite
young men to their feasts, 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 compulsions of social usage.
Now we understand the power of this in
fluence 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 fes-
tivities, and deny it to our guests. Then
again it is SO generally offered at the ia
bles of our friends, and it is so difficult,
for those who are accustomed
to it to make dinner without it, that We
hesitate TO offer water to them. 1t has a
observation-disclosures an unfriendly-seem-
ing; 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 stultifying and morally debasing
himself, fight in public that which he toll
crates in private. We have heard of such
hings as writing temperance addresses,
with a demijohn under the table; and So
:iety has learned by heart the old talk
against drinking too much-"the excess
If the thing, you know"-by those who
nave the power of drinking little, but
who would sooner part with their right
we than with that little. A man who
alks temperance with a wine-glass In his
land is simply trying to brace himself so
hat he can hold it without shame. We
10 not deny that many men have self-con-
ife without suffering. to themselves or
,thers. 1t may seem hard that they
hould be deprived of a comfort or a plea
ure because others are less fortunate in
heir temperament or in their power of
will. But the question is whether a man
S willing to sell his power to do good to
great multitude for a glass of wine at
Inner. That is the question in its plain
st terms. If he is, then he has very
title benevolence, or a very inadequate
of the evils of intemper-
nee.
What we need in our metropolitan So
.iety is declaration of independence.
There are a great many good men and
women in New York who lament the
Thinking habits of society most sincerely.
let these all declare that they will minis
er no longer at the social affairs of the
treat destroyer. Let them declare that
he indiscriminate offer of wine at din
lers and social assemblies is not only
criminal but vulgar, as it undoubtedly is.
let them declare that for the sake of the
-oung, the weak, the viciOus-for the sake
If personal character and family peace,
md social purity, and national strength
hey will discard wine from their feasts
rom this time forth and forever, and the
work will be done. Let them declare that
shall be vulgar-as it undeniably is
or a man to quarrel with his dinner be-
ause his host fails to furnish wine. This
AN be done now, and it needs to be done
low, for il is becoming every day more
lifficult to do it. The habit of wine
Thinking is quite prevalent already
European travel is doing much to make it
Universal and if we go on extending it
t the present rate, we shall soon arrive
{ the European Indifference to the whole
ubject. There are many clergymen in
Sew York who have wine upon their
ables and who furnish it to their guests. |
We keep no mans conscience, but we are |
to say that they sell influence
t shamefully cheap rate. What can
hey do in the great fight with this ire
nendous evil, They can do nothing, |
nd are counted upon to do nothing.
IF the men and women of good society |
wish to have less drinking to excess, let |
hem stop drinking moderately. If they |
re not willing to break off the indulgence |
f feeble appetite for the sake of doing |
great good to II great many people, how
an they expect poor, broken-down
wretch to deny an appetite that is strong
r than the love of wife and children, and
ven life itself? The punishment for the
allure to do duty in this business is sick
ming to contemplate. The sacrifice OF
fe and peace and wealth will go on.
very year young men VIII rush Wildly 10
he devil; middlc-agcd men will booze
way into apoplexy, and old men will
well up with the sweet poison, and be
ONE disgusting idiots. What will he
ONE of the women We should think
hat they had suffered enough from this
vii to hold it under everlasting ban; yet
lcre are drunken women as well as
runken clcrgymen. Society, however,
as great advantage in the fact that it is