Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1878-11-19
The Problem Of the Greg Shop.

The Problem Of the Greg Shop.
Has not the temperance move>
ment in this country been too ex~
clusively moral appeal? Has it
not forgotten too much the nature
and the circumstances of the evil !?
Temperance addresses are largely
descriptions Of the effects of drunken
ness. They are tragi-comedies, in
which the speaker seeks to make
his audience laugh at the antics Of
the drunkard, and cry over the
broken heart and ruined home of
his wife and family. This strain is
varied with laundering dnunciations
of "the moderate drinker," com
pared with whose insidious
infamy the immoderate drink
er who totally imbrutes
himself is an object of pity rather
than of reprobation, and with these
are mingled chemical and sanitary
statistics. The appeal, however, is
moral, and the remedy usually pros
posed is absolute prohibition. The
friends of ''license,' however
stringently regulated, are regarded
as mere Laodiceans, or worse. But
this mere moral appeal to renounce
drunkenness because it produces
crime and unhappiness and disease
is too arid. 1t forgets the persons
to whom it is addressed, and the
conditions of their life. Consc-
quently there are the excitement
and fury Of revival, vast tempo
rary enthusiasm, and swift back
For what is drunkenness? 1t is in
its origin the perver5ion of a natu-
raj taste for social enjoyment, and
it is most prevalent among those
who have the least opportunity for
such enjoyment. When it has
fixed itself upon its victim, it is
largely dependent upon physical
conditions. The usual temperance
appeal to him is by the mere main
strength of his moral will to break
up the habit. His home is bare
and desolote, and the preacher
urges him to prefer it to the cozy
and warm and social saloon" His
system, enfeebled by excess, Graves
the stimulant, and the exhortation
is simply not to take it.
He needs especially every kind of
support and assistance and diver
sion, and he is told to help him
self. This is relief which forgets
the nature of the disease. That of
itself suggests the remedy. The
drunkard seeks social enjoyment
illicitly. Supply it to him lawfully,
show him that he can crafty his
moral tastes without shame to him~
self or harm to his family or society.
Give to the weak system which
Graves "a little something" a little
that will cheer and not
The drunkard knows
The misery that drunkenness pro-
luces, for be is it's victim. He does
not wish to hear of that. The in
,ipient drunka-d knows it also.
What they want is something to
AXE the place of drunkenness,
that will help them to
lelp themselves. If all the money
hat is yearly given to support talk
ne upon the subject were devoted
o doing something in the way sug-
,ested, the "liquor interest would ]
,e confronted with something that
t would fear. "Holly>Tree :" inns I
Ipon great and general scale, !
public cofee-houses " like those
n Liverpool, neighborhood clubs :
7hich would develop and illustrate
he neighborly sympathy which is
ow not suspected, and the sup
osed absence of which is most
these and similar \
would be a temperance 4
Movement which would aid the t
loral appeal and the sanitary argu- !,
lent with those social sympathies s
nd supports which are indispensa- 3
lie to the prosperity of the work. 3 g
EDITOR EASY CHAIR, in Harper's \
T1o1z1.0> fin. DpceY1ber "a !: