Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-03-04
Che family Circle.
The Wine Question i'm Society.

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great curse of our social and national life.
1t is not Enthusiastically American, for
the same may be said with greater en-
phasis of the social and the 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 chill
dren, within every circle. that embraces
IL hundred lives, who grieve to-day oven
some hopeless victim of the seductive de-
stroyer. 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 destruction, and who have ceased to
fight an appetite that has the power to
transform every soul and every home it
occupies into hell. Oh, the wild pray
ers for help that go up from a hundred
thousand despairing slaves of strong drink
to-day! Oh, the shame, the disappoint-
ment, 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 responsibility for so much
sin and shame and suffering.
Society bids us furnish wine at our
feasts, and we furnish it just us generously
as if we did not know that Il certain per-
centage of all the men who drink it will
die miserable drunkards, and ntlict lives of
pitiful suffering upon those who are close
ly associated with them. There are liter
ally hundreds of thousands of people in
polite life in America who would not dare
to give a party, without wine, notwith-
standing the fact that in many instances
thew 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 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 compul-
sionS of social usage. Now we under
stand the power of this influence; and
every sensitive man must feel it keenly
Wine has stood so long is an emblem and
representative of good cheer aud generous
hospitality, that it seems stingy to shut Ii
away from our festivities, and deny 1t tC
our guests. Then again it is so generally
offered at the tables of our friends, and il
is so difficult, apparently, for those who
are accustomed to it to make Il dinner
without it, that we hesitate to offer water
to them. 1t has niggardly-almost III
notwithstanding; yet what shall 1
man do who wishes to throw what intiu
ence he has on the side of temperance?
The question is not new. 1t has beer
up for an answer every year and every
moment since men thought or talket
temperance at all We know of but one
answer to make to it. A man cannot
without stultifying and morally debasine
himself, fight in public that which he toll
crates in privace. We have heard of such
chlngsa us writing temperance addreSse:
with II demijohn under the table; auo
society has learned by heart the old tall
against drinking too much" The eXces:
of the thing YOU know by those who
have the power of drinking Il little. bu
| who would sooner part with their RICH
eye than with that little. A man who
talks temperance with wine glass in hi
hand is simply trying to brace himself st
tltt he can hold it without shame. We
trol, or that they can drink wine through
life without suffering, to themselves OF
others. 1t may seem hard that they
should be deprived of II comfort or Il pleas
ure because others are less fortunate in
their temperament or their power of will
But the question is whether a man is will
ing to sell his power to do good to great
multitude for glass of wine ut dinner
hat &c no ra1.a
If he is, then he has very little benevolence
OF a very inadequate apprehension 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 sincerely
Let these all declare that they will minis
ter 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, rs it undoubtedly is. Let
them declare that for the sake Of the
sake of personal character, and family
strength-they will discard wine from
ever, and the work will be done. Let
them declare that it shall be vulgar-as it
uhdeniably is-for a 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
prevalent already. European travel is
4 - ii o,,I
we go no extending it at the present rate,
we shall soon arrive at the European in
difference to the whole subject. There
are many clergymen in New York who
have wine upon their tables and who
furnish it to their guests. We keep nc
mans conscience, but we are compelled
to say that they sell influence at a shame
fully cheap rate. What can they do in the
great fight with this tremendous evil
They can do nothing, and are counted up
on 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, 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 sick
ening to contemplate. The sacrifice Of
life and peace and wealth will 60 on.
Every year young men will rush wildly to
the devil, middle-aged men viii booze
away into apoplexy, and old men will
swell up with the sweet poison and hecome
disgusting idiots. What will become OF
the women? We should think that they
had suffered enough from this evil to hold
it under everlasting ban, yet there are
drunken women as well rs drinking clergy
men. Society. however, has great
advantage in the fact that it is vulgar for
a woman to drink. There are some things