The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-07-27
THE WINE QUESTION IN SOCIETY.

BILE 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 small pox bring smaller fatality, and
almost infinitely smaller sorrow. There
are fathers and mothers, and sisters and
wives, and innocent and wondering chill
dren, within every circle that embraces
hundred lives, who grieve to-day over some
hopeless victim of the seductive destroyer.
the city and in the country-North,
Est, and West-there are men and women
VIII cannot be trusted with wine in their
hans-men and women who are conscious,
too, hat they are going to destruction, and
who ave ceased to fight an appetite that
has th.power to transform every soul and
every bme it occupies into hell. Oh,
the wileprayers for help that 60 up from
hundra thousand despairing slaves of
strong drak to-day! Oh, the shame, the
disappointment, the fear, the disgust, the
awful pity, he mad protests that rise from
hundred thusand homes! And still the
smoke of the eerlasting torment rises, and
still we discussthe "wine question:" and
the "grape culure," and live on as if we
had no share in the responsibility for SO
much sin and shaAe and suffering.
Society bids US furnish wine at our feasts,
and we furnish it .lst as generously as if
we did not know a ertain percentage Of
all the men who drinkit will die miserable
drunkards, and inf1ict lives of pitiful suf-
fering upon those who are closely associat-
ed with them. There ,re literally hun
dreds of thousands of peoole in polite life
in America who would MT dare to give a
dinner, or party, without wine, notwith-
standing the fact that in many instances
they can select the very guets who will
drink too much on every OCCASION that
gives them an opportunity. Tlere are old
men and women who invite youlg men to
their feasts, whom they know canaot drink
the wine they propose to furnish without
danger to themselves and disgrace b their
companions and friends. They d, this
sadly, often, but under the eompulsio1s of
social usage. Now we understand the
power of this influence; and every se,si-
tive man must feel it keenly. Wine las
stood so long as an emblem and represen-
alive of good cheer and generous hospital.
ity, that it seems stingy to shut it away
from our festivities, and deny it to oul
guests. Then again it is so generally Offer
ed at the tables of our friends, and it is SO
difficult, apparently, for those who are
accustomed to it to make dinner without
it, that we hesitate to offer water to them.
1t has niggardly-almost an unfriendly-
seeming; 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 mo-
ment 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 toier-
ates in private. We have heard of such
things as writing temperance addresses
with demijohn 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 with
out suffering, to themselves or others. 1t
may seem hard that they should be depriv-
ed of comfort or pleasure because 9th
ers are less fortunate in their temperament
or their power of will. But the question
is whether man is willing to sell his pow
er to do good to a great multitude for
glass of wine at dinner. That is the ques-
ton in its plainest terms. 1fhe is, then he
has very little benevolence, or very mad
equate apprehension of the evils of intern
perance.
What we need in our metropolitan socie-
ty 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 minister no longer at
the social affairs of the great destroyer Let
them declare that the indiscriminate offer
of wine at dinners and social assemblies is
not only criminal but vulgar, as it undoubt-
eddy 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 ma
tional 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 vulgar-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, for it is becoming every
day more difficult to do it. The habit
of wine-drinking at dinner is quite preva-
lent already. European travel is doing
much to make it universal; and if we 60 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 Hu HAL b COuSClcuCc,
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 moth
ing, 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 feeble appetite for the sake of doing a
great good to a great many people, how
can they expect poor, broken-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 siok-
ening to contemplate. The sacrifice oflife
and peace and wealth will 60 on. Every
year young men will rush wildly to the
devil, middle-aged men will booze away
into apoplexy, and old men will swell up
with the sweet poison and become disgust
ing idiots. What will become of the
We should think that they had
suffered enough from this evil to hold it
under everlasting ban, yet there arc drunk
en- women as well as drinking olergymen.
Society, however, has great advantage in
the fact that it is vulgar for a 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 mcHa of her
than it does of men. 1t is her safeguard
in MANY ways.-Dr. Il q. Holland, in