The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-04-23
Serving the Lord in the Livery of the
Devil.

A neighbor of your correspondent had
the attention of that enemy of rascals
the State Constable, fixed upon him by
villainous circulars sent back from dis
tant parts of the Union. 1t seems he
had book to sell by mail. 1t was one
that "would harm no person of pure
mind, and might do good if read from
proper motives" Some had objected tc
the immortality of the froutispiece, but ii
had been approved by persons of the high
est character. Neither the picture nor
the book would harm one just before 90.
ing to bed and more of the Sort 1t
would be forwarded by mail, prepaid at
letter postage, and therefore would not
be opened in transit. Of course dep
uty-constable visited the Maiden post
office at the earliest convenience, and a
woman was arrested when she came to
deposit closely sealed packages and take
away letters. When Maj. Jones came
to open the nefarious packages he almost
wished he had let the sinner alone. I'm.
agine the lecherous loon who had invested
his dollar in this precious literature, steal
ing to the hay left with his sealed treas
ure, only to find it to be q cheap copy of
the New Testament The nude picture
is the infant in the Madonna's lap.
EXACTLY QUITE THE REVERSE
Is the course of DR.. H. j. Bowditch,
Chairman Of the State Board of Health.
In answer to inquiries sent abroad, 164
persons had written their views of the
effects of alcoholic beverages in their re.
spective regions. These answers were
colored by the several personal views of
the writers, but they add little or moth
ing to the sum of our knowledge. This
year the chairman devotes sixty pages to
an analysis" Of this correspondence. He
stills up the well.known facts. that some
races are more drunken than others, and
so Of people Of higher latitudes. with the
phrases of "cosmic law" and "Isother.
mails" (By the "isothermal" of a place
he means its mean annual temperature J
But the point at which he aims is to en-
courage the manufacture of wine and beer
as remedy for intemperance His the
ory is that "cosmic law" demands alcohol
for the cxtra-tropical races, and that if
they matriculate on wine and beer they
will not graduate on rum and whiskey.
He gives scientific look to his loose.
jointed paper by map of the world, 25
inches by Is, which only serves to mark
the places from which he "analyses"
distorts-the answers. Very similar, but
less costly to the State Treasury, was the
attempt in the Agricultural Report to
enforce the doctrine that our salvation
from intemperance was to be through
wine-making. There are spots in the
wine countries where drunkenness is en-.
demic and al most universal and wine is
the only intoxicant. There are races
and ours is ne,-to which abundant wine
would be ruin, and to such the "cosmic
law" is "drink deep, or taste not"
THE LEGISLATURE AND TEMPERANCE.
Every attempt to make any radical
change in the liquor-laws of Massachu-
setts must fail this year. The treachery
of men who were elected as prohibition.
lists prevents the outlawry Of beer But
hereafter, as now, beer vote will be
necessary to legalize the traffic. This is
attempted only in those places where
prohibition is weakest but even in them
1t fails in much more than half the cases.
But these votes are not returned to the
Secretary of State, and can be ascertain
ed only by applying to the town clerks.
Only it is well known that in three. .fourths
of the towns the majority is for the stiff.
est kind of prohibition but when that
majority is two to one rum man may
represent it in the legislature.
THE MASSACHUSETTS, SCHEME OF REPREsEN
TATloN.
Our mode of representation favors po-
litical intrigue. Somerville, Maiden and
Everett, for instance, form district that
sends three representatives Somerville
always nominates one from her citizens,
Maiden always one, and the third is tax.
en- from one of the three towns by rule
made by the three Republican Town
Committees. Half the time we vote for
a man of whom we know nothing. The
number of representatives is 240; they
are elected by 1852 districts. of which but
SO are in one town only. The number oi
towns is about $40.
FRUIT CULTURE.
Some of your readers who do not sec
the american Agriculturia need to be
told,-and that promptly-of Barry,
Fruit Gardens. We understand the
raising of ANNALS infinitely better thar
perennials hence these last oftenest fail
and pay best when they succeed. We
cannot succeed in them without books
have long felt the need of one that GOV.
cred the whole ground from Strawberries
to pears. find ono here aud il is q
little more scientific than such books gen.
H., L. A. a..