St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-02-14
Our New York Letter.

THE WAR OF ALCOHOL-THE TOTAL ABB
STEAMERS AND DAME PARTINGTON-A
FLANK MOVEMENT ON THE ENEMY
BROTHER TALMAGE's TRoUBLEs-CoN-
TRADITION OF A STARTLING REPORT
BROADWAY AND THE STAGES.
New YORK, Jan. 81, 1879.
To the Editor of the Caledonian
The temperance question is, perhaps,
the most difficult to deal with of all the
social problems. Everything alcoholic,
under the generic name of "Rum," APP
peals, in greater or less degree, to the
cravings ofan overwhelming majority OF
our population; but respectable mi
nOrity are its bitter enemies. Hundreds
of devoted men have dedicated their
lives to warfare upon it. The Francis
Murphys plead and declaim against it /;
the John B. Coughs hurl the myriad
shafts of wit, sarcasm, eloquence, and
impassioned denunciation against it ;
The Neal Bows, the Crosbys and the
Golfers, legisate and organize against
it. But after all, it must be conceded
that, by their results, the struggles of
all these wOuld-be eXterminatOrs of al
cOhol irresistably suggest the valorous
efforts of the immortal Mrs. Partington,
to ''sweep back the Atlantic Ocean with
broom.n What is the matter; intern
perance being freely acknowledged
evil, can nothing more effective be done
to mitigate it?
The solution OF this question is about
to be once more attempted here in New
York, and in somewhat novel way.
The eXperimenters on this new line
have watched the labors of the uncom-
promising total abstainers, and seemed
to have reached the conclusion that to-
tai abstinence may come as part of the
millennium, but is almost too much to
hope for at the present day. The result
is that the certificate of incorporation of
an association to be known by the title
of ''The Business Mems Society for the
encouragement of Moderation has this
week been filed in the County Clerks
office. The purposes of the society, as
stated in the certificate, are to encour-
age moderation in the use of alcoholic
beverages to promote knowledge of
science and statistics relative to the
manufacture and sale of alcoholic IL
quOrs to disseminate among the pcO-
pie useful information regarding the
principles of moderation, and the means
cal effect. The society intends to pre-
pare and furnish to applicants either
of three forms of pledges, to wit: A to-
tai abstinence pledge, operative for one
year, and renewable thereafter at the
will of the pledger; a moderation
pledge, binding the person who takes it
not to drink during business hours and
finally, an unique engagement to pre-
vent the person taking the pledge from
partaking of Intoxicating liquors at the
expense of another person, and from ex-
tending an invitation to any other per-
son to drink at his expense. The sOcie-
ty is also to exert its influence to in
duce retail liquOr-dealers to provide for
teetOtalers stimulating and nOurishing
beverages which contain no alcohol.
Still another purpose of the society is to
encourage the establishment of places
of cheap recreation and amusement
where no intoxicating liquors shall be
sold. The society will begin operations
at once, and its term of existence is fix
ed at twenty years. The incorporatOrs
of the society are well-known citizens,
and it seems to me, if its affairs are
wisely and vigorously managed, that it
may render good practical service to
the temperance cause.
Brother Talmage, the athletic and
agile exhorter of the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle, has lively time of it all around.
He breaches widely advertised sermons
on the terrible "gilded vice. of New
York, and most of the other prominent
American cities brooklyn always ex-
cepted,) draws great crowds to laugh
and applaud his variety performances
and then, when he pantingly pauses for
echoes OF commentator from his cleri-
cal brethren, hears only stern rebuke
and remuneration, followed up by a ru-
NOR, now current, that the Brooklyn
fresbytery will be called upon to dis
clpllne him for unseemly behavior. He
labors frantically to wipe out his church
debt, and only little while after he
has held Qualification meeting to cele-
brate the accomplishment of his task. is
made party to a lawsuit in which the
testimony is uncomfortably strong that
some OF his subscriptions were obtained
under false pretences, and that instead
OF his Tabernacle being free from debt.
1t still owes from sixty to seventy thou
sand dollars. Then, he is all the while
subject to the merciless lampoons and
cancatures of ribald press, and in ev-
cry way takes the penalties of greatness
IN heroic doses. 1 believe, however.
that there is not any truth in the vague
report that Brother Talmage is going to
escape the prosecutions 10y resigning the
ministry to accept a fattering star en-
gagement with a combined circus and
minstrel troupe
A recently revived project to Law a
street railroad in Broadway, from the
Battery to Union Square, ELECTS from
one of our prominent Sunday papers a
column of "Reminiscences regarding the
street, which the writer eulogizes after
this. wise: "There is probably not a
more widly-known city road in the
world than this. Even the street, which
two thousand years ago, and probably a
thousand years before that, was "calied