Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-11-28

any rational measure of legislation by
which it could be diminished; but il
one of them bestirred himself too active
ly in the matter he would find all hi:
affairs in some mysterious fashion grow
out of joint. Authors and journalist:
are still less in a position 10 cope with
the evil, for the press censors systemat,
ically refuse to pass writings in which
the prevalency Of drunkenness is taken
for granted.
| Before the abolition of the monopOlies
a land owner might set up distillery
on his estate, but he was compelled TO
sell the produce to the vodki-farmers,
and these spectators might build a
public house on his land against his
consent, though he was entitled to fix
the spot and to receive fair rent. A
present, the trade being free, licences
to distil and sell are conferred by gov
ernment, and almost every landowner
of consequence has one. Prince Wis
koff might get one if he pleased, and
more than one thought of so doing, but
he has been deferred for want of capital
to compete with his intimate enemy and
neighbor, Prince Runoff, who has dis
tillery in full swing, and floods the
whole district with its produce. The
Princes chief agents are the priests,
who in the farming days were allowed
a regular percentage on the drink sold
in their parishes, but who now receive
lump sum, nominally as an Easter
gift, but on the tacit understanding that
they are to push the sale of vodki by
every means in their power. The pious
men do not go the length of urging
their parishioners to get drunk, but
multiply the Church feasts whereon
revelry is the custom. They affirm that
simulants are good for the health, be-
cause of the cold climate. and they
never reprOve peasant whose habitual
intemperance is notorious. The Princes |
land agent, the tax-collector's. the con-
scription officers, all join in promoting
the consumption ofvodki by transacting |
their business at the village dram-shop.
with glasses before them; and even the /
doctor, who lives by the Princes pat
ronage, prescribes vodki for every \
imaginable ailment.
The inducements to drink i'm the /
towns are not less than in the country.
When the coachman, Ivan Ivanowitch. /
goes out for a stroll among the fine
streets of Odessa he is lured into the tea
shops by the loud music of barrel-or-
gans, and vodki is served him with his
tea as a matter of course. If he drives
his master to party he has no sooner
drawn up his trap under the shed in
the hosts yard, than the servants invite
him into lower room and give him as
much spirit as he will drink; if he goes
to the corn-chandler's for oats, to the
veterinary surgeon about his horses
legs, TO the harness-maker's or coach
makers the preface to all business is
vodki; and when he sets out to visit
MS kinsmeH upon holidays, vodki greets
lim upon every threshold. 1t is the
'ame with the dvOrnik when he ascendS
o the different flats of the house to col
ect rent or carry letters; vodki is
,ffered him before he has had time to
tate his business; and under these hos
)itable circumstances the wonder is
rot that the man should occasionally
,xceed sobriety, but that he should 81
,ften be sober. But in Russia sober
ervant means-erceptis ercipieRdiS-One
who only gets drunk upon the festivals {
# the Church.