The daily gazette., 1877-10-08
OCTOBER 8, 1877.

INTEMPERANCE.-Th war on Alcohol
still continues to wax strong in this city.
as it does also in most of the towns
throughout the whole country. The re-
ports of the head men in this profitable
field for moral exercise and mental de-
velopment tell US that four thousand
drinkers have been reclaimed and in
duced to abstain from imbibing at the
altar of the great King of the inebriates.
What wonderful city, state or nation
we should see if all the drinkers to ex-
cess were turned out of sober communi-
ties, and like the lepers, placed by them
selves, with the right 10 regulate and
govern themselves as they saw proper.
How King Alcohol would manage to sup
port his subjects and obtain faithful obe-
dience, we dare not undertake to say ;
but as there are so many bright and in
genious as well as good and generons
minds worshipping at his altar and devo.
ted to his reign, we cannot venture to
say such state would not be governed
with reasonable right and an ordinary
amount of propriety.
No one can doubt that the people have
become very much more temperate
in the use of ardent spirits during the last
generation. We think that in the thirty
four years we have been engaged in pub
fishing the GAZETTE we can discover a
great change for the better in the people.
in this respect as well as in many others.
But we do not attribute all of the change
to the efforts or the advocacy of those
who by fits end starts undertake to con-
denim the entire use Of alcoholic drinks.
We have observed change for the better
in the character and conduct of the men
who are engaged in the sale of spirituous
liquors themselves.
There is one thing, however, we do not
understand, and it is this: That while
clergymen and infidels unite in the de-
nunciation of the use of ardent spirits
and endeavor to establish total absti-
nence societies, thousands of youths are
nightly found sick, excited and even
made ''drunk" by the use of detestable
ciegarS made from some kind of substi-
tute for tobacco. And not unfrequently
some preachers themselves are so addict
ed to the use of the weed that theil
studies are unfit tor ladies to enter
We speak from what we know and O.
what we were an observer, on this part O
the subject. One of the strongest advo
Gates of prohibition, and a pulpit oratoi
of much celebrity, at one time was 81
addicted to the use of cigars that he wa:
in the habit of asking young men who
went to him to inquire the way to truth
up to his ''garret" and presenting then
with cigar. He could not, apparently
enjoy himself when not in the pulpit un
less enveloped in a cloud of smoke
How many who went to inquire how
they should manage to walk in III,
straight and narrow way" have been di
Yerted from their inquiries and sen
away without the comforting instruction
they hoped TO receive, will only be know
in that hereafter in which so many hope
are TO bud and blossom or be crushed fol-
ever. Now We think some little atten
ton might be bestowed upon the intem
pe9ate use Of tobacco by clergymen an
moral suasionists, for we are convince
that cigars and tobacco break up th
family circle Of eveningst ten times wher
drunkenness does it once,
But to return to intemperance in dripl
we wish to call attention to the fact thi
prohibition has never proved successfl
anywhere, and that the prohibitory la
that was passed by the Delaware legisl
ture in 1855 proved to be very injurio,
so much SO that it destroyed all IL
lodges of the ''Sons of Temperance"
which there were abont six or seven
Wilmington at the time, and at a NEE
ing OF the Grand Lodge of the Orde
about year afterward, held at the hou
OF Mr.. McDonnel,a "a resolution was pass,
which declared in emphatic words th
the cause of temperance had been We
seriously impaired by the prohibito
law. 1t brought into use in the stree
the disgusting flask, through which I
red-eye flashed, and the small leatt
''pistol," which is now in such genel
use in Virginia to avoid the Mof;
punch. We cannot resist the opini
that a well regulated and enforc
license law is the best auxiliary IL
human ingenuity has yet so far devi:
through (which legislation can imp
aid to the cause of temperance.