The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-07-31
LETTER FROM SHERIDAN.
NE Ep1ror OF TIE NEW NOHrnwEsr:


L herewith send you some extracts
from various sources which | particu-
larly desire you to publish; not that L
have much hope of convincing wine
bIbbers, for doubtless they know by ex-
perienee the ''truth" that "wine makes
drunken" but my object in continuing
this subject Is to show the youth and
those who have never investigated this
subject, the evils resulting from the
habitual use Of wine, and the great dan
ger in using it at all; and if shall sue
ceed in saving even efrom the delusiOn
that "wine is divine" the snare so
skillfully set for the unwary, shall feel
amply repaid for my labors. I have
spent hours looking over papers and
making selections, and have cut up pa
pers which had kept for years and val
ued very highly.
My letters are generally written after
the family have retired for the night,
and when almost too tired to WELD the
pen; but l am a mother, and know the
depths of mothers love, and 1t pains
me more than words can tell to find
that men of intelligence will urge upon
us the idea that furnishing an abund-
ance of cheap liquor will prevent intem-
peranee. Is it not sad TO think that
Ben Franklin, "whIle he was teaching
temperance and economy in his public
writings, was a friend and advocate of a
social glass of wine ?" Perhaps the
/ youthful indiscretion" laid to his
charge was the result of his wine-drink-
ing habits. 1t seems that ''Noah dis
covered new truths" by the aid of wine,
one of these being that he had been
drank upon wine and made fool Of
himself; and that drink, which caused
his shame, is called divine. Surely our
wise and loving Heavenly Father never
taught Noah, or any one else, TO make a
drink which overthrows reason and de-
bases the moral nature. God is not the
author of evil, neither does He sanction
the evils which His children are some
times led into. Many things recorded
, in the Bible are condemned as sins, and
many more upon which no comments
are made are also sinful. Inspired writ
ers recorded both good and bad actions
of both good and bad men and women
but where wrong-doing was recorded, il
was that others might learn to avoid
those acts.
In regard to Joseph's claiming t.
"prophesy by the aid Of cup of wine,
1 think there is slight mistake. Tht
, question is asked, 'Is not this it il
: which my lord drinketh, and whereby
; indeed he h?"-Genesis, 44:5. Bu
the margin has it maketh trial. Joseph
was acting from unworthy motives, de-
r ceiving, and now, when he had the
! power, he could not resist the tempta-
ton to take revenge upon those who had
treated him so badly; he accuses his
brethren of rewarding evil for good, and
of stealing, when, in fact, they had done
nothing of the kind. Then follows the
intimation that he was enabled to di-
vine by the aid of the cup. Joseph
knew his brethren, but pretended that
he did not, so his claim to the powers of
} divination by the aid of the cup was
pretense. He did not claim this power
before Pharaoh, but said, "God would
give an answer" 1 hope the youth Of
J our land will copy the virtues of the
J great statesman Franklin, but shun his
vices, and instead of adopting his errors,
1 hope they will investigate for them
selves.
Horace Greeley, in his tract on CAL
! coholic Liquors." says: ''The difference
between fermented and distilled liquors
, is one purely Of degree. Alcohol, the
Intoxicating and poisonous quality, is
, precisely the same in the two, but there
| is more of it in an equal quantity of the
l distilled spirit. They greatly mistake
: who, in this country, hope tolive longer
: by drinking wines or malt liquors, than
l they would expect to If addicted, in
stead, to distilled spirits. True, there is
less alcohol in the same quantity of fer
: mented beverages, but. the same guam
! tity will not content them. Deceive
> themselves as they may, it is the dlco-
! holic stimulus that their depraved ap-
> petites exact, and if INDUCED at all, they
; will be INDUCED to the constantly re-
t ceding point of satisfaction. The single
glass Of wine or beer a day, which
; sufficed at the beginning, wiz soon be
enlarged or repeated. 1t was enough to
f start the blood into gallop yesterday,
: but falls short to-day, and will not be-
t gin to do tomorrow. In nothing else
do sensible, moral, intelligent men act
so irrationally as when they persist in
the habitual use Of alcoholic liquors, F"
; and wine belongs to this class.
Mrs. w. H. MCKUNE.
. Sheridan, July 20, 1874.