New-York tribune., 1874-03-28

The controversies which have sprung up
among the friends Of temperance IN this and
other cities of the East, afford sufficient proof
OF the wide divergence Of conditions which tho
same questions present in town and country,
and to which we have frequently referred
III these columns. One Doctor of Divinity
among US, than whom there are few ADLER
and none more devoted, man with opinions
| of his own, and with the courage Of his
opinions, has frankly stated his belief that
moderation in the use of intoxicating
liquors, and not abstinence, is the manly and
Christian-like way of meeting temptation and
setting a good example TO ones neighbors.
This position has been violently assaied by
many others of equal sincerity. with perhaps
| too strict a construction of the letter of the
| Gospel, not to soy with TOO lite reliance upon
its life giving spirit. The question is not 80
much one Of principle as of circumstance. The
temperance movement of this year, which
has effected such great and upon the whole.
sautary results, has been necessarily
movement for total abstinence. 1t
! could not be anything else from the nature of
tie case. 1t had Its rise in the rural town
ships of the West, where there is, strictly
speaking no moderate drinking. Society il
divided there into two classes, the large majority
who drink water, and the minority who drink
whisky. There is no middle camp. The dinner
party. which one of our great historians has
called the highest manifestation of modern
civilization, is unknown in every rural resi-
| dence west of the Allegheny mountains.
Even the sidebOard of our forefathers with
| its decantcr5 of Port and Madeira is obsolete
in all that region. The two national bever-
ages which survive are whisky and water.
The latter il drank in most cases at home.
and tho former at the grocery. The
one is universally recognized as the proper
| and wholesome drink of men. The other IL
| never defended and never drank without
certain degree of shamefacedness. The very
| names given to the places where 1t is sold
show how the public opinion of the drinking
classes shrinks from avOwing 1t. They are
never called whisky-shops. They hide their
true character under such euphemisms as
groceries and saloons"
The active campaign against liquor has been
carried on by women, who are tho greatest
sufferers by its rayages. They are all in favor
of total abstinence for the simplest rea-
sons Their fathers, sons. and brothers.
who have made their lives miserable,
fore they cannot believe such modera-
ton possible. Their self-lOve revolts at the
thought that Others may use without blame
beverage which transforms those dearest to
them into iends and brutcs. They shrink
from admitting that their men are weak
or deprayed beyond their fellows. They
seel. therefore for some reasonable explanation
for their fall, and some person to
hold responsible for it. These are at once
found in the rumseler who supplies the means
of debasement, and the moderate drinker, the
mythical character whose example has lured
the ingenious to ruin. All who have heard
the temperance lecturers or the Western VII
lage will remember the vigor and fire with which
these travelling orators always delighted TO
| paint the deep and emul0us depravity OF
these two classes of malefactors. The drunk
ard was always much more kindly treated
He was usually represented as suffering IN
nocent, who would reform and live cleanly IL
it were not for the temptations held out by
the dealer and the baneful example
set by the cold-hearted arlstOcrat who
"only drank what was good for
"him.n These were the only speeches
relished by the audience, and consequently
were about the only ones made. They pleased
the wives aud mothers of the drunkards, VINO
formed the bulk of the audience. They met
with no opposition from the rumsellers, Tor
there we're none in the meeting, and none
from the moderate drinkers, for there were
none in town.
The question whether wine is. as the old
Massachusetts, statute styled 1t, " good
creature of God" is entirely irrelevant to the
temperance crusade in the West. There Is so
little used in the country grog-shoDs that IL
is not worth counting. 1t Is more talked
about than drank. Young tOpers, whose
steady diet is whisky, will say they take
"glass of wine when they want it, and it is from
this mild and evasive expression of their in
dependence that their womenkind conceive 80
fierce hatred for the very name of wine.
But wine is rarely tasted by the habitu6s of
the bar-rOOms. There is. in short, too little
moderate drinking. and too little use f
wine to form any substantial public
opinion to resist the march of the crusaders.
The water drinkers sympathze with them, tho
drunkards do not dare to oppose them, and
80 grog-shop after grog-shCp is swept out OK
the way. The result is so good and so praise
worthy that most people do not care to question
the strict logical accuracy of the processes
| which have led TO it. The only thing which
can be insisted upon is that they shall Keep
within the law in all their operations, ana thls
they have generally done. They have relied
| in most cases, upon the efficacy of prayer
and upon the contagious enthusiasm
bred by their own sincerity and ardor, 70
accomplish their purposes. They are not per-
,Iaxad NV tho comnlicated conditions which