The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1872-09-05
The Wine Question in Society.

bic and candid people that drnnkcDness
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 nation
al lie of Great Britain but it is one of
those things about which there is no
doubt Cholera and small pox bring
smaller fatality, and almost infinitely
smaller sorrow. There are fathers and
mothers, sisters and wives, and innocent
and wondering children, within every
circle that embraces a hundred lives,
who grieve day over some hopeless
victim of the seductive destroyer. 10 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
! destruction, aud who have ceased to fight
an appetite that has the power to trans
form every soul aud every home it oc-
| cupics into hell. Oh, the wild prayers
for he p that 90 up from hundred thous
aud despairing slaves of strong drink to-
day Oh, the shame, the dsappoiut-
meDt, 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" aud live on as
If we had no share in the responsibility
for so much sin aud shame and suffering
Society bids us furnish wine at our
feasts, aud we furnish it just as generously
as if we did not know that certain per-
! centage of all the men who drink it will
die miserable drunkards, and inhict 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 10 many
instances they can select the guests who
will drink too much on every occasion
that gives them an opportunity. There
are old men and women W no invite young
men to their feasts, whom they know can
| not 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 com
derstand the power Of this influence and
every sensitive man must feel it keenly
Wine has stood so loag as an emblem and
representative of good cheer and generous
hospit!ity, that it seems stingy to shut
it away from orr festivities, aud deny it
TO our guests. Then again il is so general.
I ly offered at the tables Of our friends, and
1t is SO difficult, apparently, for those who
are accustomed to it to make dinner with
out it, that we hesitate to offer water to
them. 1t has iggardly-almost an
uplrieudly-seemlng yet what shall a
man do who wishes to throw what in
fucnce he has on the side of temper
ance.
The question is not new 1t has been
up for an answer every year and every
moment since meu thought Of or.taiked
about Temperance ut all. We know of
but one answer 10 made to it, \ man
cannot, without stultifyiug aud morally
dcba>ing himself, fight in public that
which lie toicrates in private We have
heard of such things as writing temper
auce addresses with IA demijUhn 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 a
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 wtout suffering, to
themselves or others 1t may seem hard
that they should be deprived Of a comfort
or pleasure because others are less for
tunate in their temperament or their
power OF will. But the question is
whether man is willing to sell his power
TO do good TO great multitude for a glass
of wine at dinner. That is the question
in its plainest terms If he is, then lie
has very little benevoience, or very
inadequate apprehension OF the evils Of
intemperance.
What VIC need in our metropolitan
society is declaration of Independence
There are a great many good men and
women in New York who lament the
drinking habits Of society most sincerely.
Let these all declare that they will min
lister no longer at the social altars of the
great destroyer. Let them declare that
the indiscrimnate offer of wine at dinners
and social assemblies is not only crimianl
but vulgar, as il undoubtedly is. Let
them declare that for the sake of the
young, the weak, the yicious-for the
sake OF personal character, and family
peace and social purity, and ma
tionals trength-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 vulgar-a as
it undeviably is-Ior Il man to quarrel
with bis dinner because bis host tails to