The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-08-16
TEN PER ANCE.

columns to the following eloquent and iorcible
address, delivered IN Temperance Hall, IN tins
city, week apo last Sunday, by J. /. MoNr
GoMERY, ESQ, Of Sandwich, H.:
Men fear to disObey ruinouS fashions and
fOllies. Fear never can make virtue. Virtue
is benefcence toward ones neighbor II We
deny the right Of society to cnslave our pas
sions, we can grow in purity Of character and
morals and cannot without we do. II We doubt
whether an action is good, let us abstain from
it, though every one else do otherwise. If
can suggest one thought that will benefit any
OF you, ! shall be satisfied. If | can DO you
good, it will please me; for no one can make
others happy without beneftting himself
Intempcrance, in eating, causes far more
diseases whereby We die than Incorporate
drinking, Blu! the latter is So fearful, we will
consider that to itself.
For thousands of years nearly all civilized
nations have looked upon drunkenness as a
crime Several thousand years ago the Chi
ncsc punished It by Imprisonment in towers
or caves or by compelling convicts TO work
upon the marshy roads or removing them
from their friends forever, Lattcrly they are
fined and required to pay the fines by working
! upon the public highways and buildings.
! Three hundred years since the statutes of Eng
ldllt llldl lIHt VI i've
be taxed each person who was drunk on the
| highway or in a public place To-day Great
Britain requires such person to pay fine Ct
ten shiIlIngs tor the first otiense; twenty shil-
! lngs for the second if so found within twelve
months from the first oiicnsc; and if third
Oticn>c takes place within twelve months forty
| shillngs, and one months imprisonment for
each twenty shIlings fine SOlon required
drunkenness 10 be publicly exhibited IN am
lphitheatres and every citizen, man, woman
and child was compelled TO look at the sight.
This he considered a cure for the vice; that by
publicly seeing exhibitions of intemperance
the people would learn to abhorlt. The Lace
demonians were once required by law to get
their slaves drunk in the presence Of their own
children to make the young abhor the wee OF
drunkenness. While doing this the fathers,
mothers and leaders in society, politics and re-
ligion set examples Of sobriety worthy our own
imitation
| From 800 years b. c. until \. D. 1000 the re
ligiOns Of the Indies all required their votarics
to drink but little and light wines and if men
must get drunk, they should do so in the pres
ence of their children that they might learn to
shun drunkards ana despisc drunkenness
which was called species Of madness. The
Mohammedan power was established IN India
in 1901; and from that time until it became
extinct in 1145, it taught in its social rules
political laws and religious creed that drank
enness was crime
From the time that Henry II of France took
the rcins OF that government in his own
hands, in 154,, until 1850 the French nation
was accustomed to look upon drunkenness as
no greater sin than covetOusness, although
most of the crimes in France tor those BOO
years are traCeable to that cause.
When Cyrus the tetotaler, with his huge ar
my of sober PersIans, swept the Empire OF
Babylon out of existence in Is. c. 53S, Belshaz
gar the king Of the Chaldeans, was inglor
ously drunk and holding high carnival with
his men of war, who, in their drunken revel
ries had left enclosed the huge gates leading
to the river and thus lost all
Cato the censor, the great statesman and
philosopher and temperance lecturer, said OF
Julius Caesar, that he diOte came S0JGr To the
overthrow of the Republic of Rome" Drunk
enness of the masses induced by copying theil
leaders, lost them their manhood first and lib
crty aiterward
Sulla, whose military achievements in Asia
Africa, Greece and Italy might have won him
eternal fame, is only known as Il drunken sol
der. lie wrote Us his own eptaph that mo
friend ever did him kindness and no enemy
a wrong without receiving full requltal :" yet
died by the bursting of bloOd-vesse in H. G.
~, caused by excessive use of strong drink.
The Moors, of SPAN, prded themselves upon
being good horsemen, keeping beautiful wo-
men and making excellent "drunk-cOmc" medi-
cine from their vineyards. Their notion of the
highest aim ct life seems to have been to train
young men for lancers, lasciviousness and
drunkenness; and these indelible marks so
plainly dIscernible today, will he handed down
to future generations in comparison with their
old crumbhng towers, ruined mosques and di-
| lapidated Chateaus.
The Poles are an inoilensIve, quiet people,
| yet we can learn lesson OF usefulness from
their history kosCnisco, in his memoirs, AS
related by Falkenstein, tells the world that he
daily instructed ms people that temperance
was next 10 the highest virlue-patriotsm be
ing first He attributes to that fact the cause
of his extraordinary military successes. When
his few remaining men, Of the 1000 he had,
requested him to "be of good cheer" he kind
ly answered: Poland and Temperance are
battling Russia and Drunkenness. If we win,
it means Aberty and sqfay; if we lose il will
be tyrdaay and sLacery" When five days had
elapsed aud 1880 of the 10000 troops of the
enemy had fallen, the world applauded and
said, Let our children read and learn"
over jOO years have come and gone since
America first tried Ia tame" q wild drinker'
by force lt.has quite signally failed. One
hundred and fifty years ago the pilory, stocks
and chains were The grinding terrors which
echoed in Protestant New England as the cure.
all for public drunkenness.
Alexander the Great supposed he had con
quered all the known world and "wept be-
cause he knew of no other he could conquer"
as We are told by many historians. This is a
base Islander upon human nature He had an
inordInate thirst for alcoholic stimulants, and
had just returned from one of his reckless,
murderous lnhuman public butcheries. He
had been on grand drunk for three days
nowadays il frequently lasts fortnight In
the increasing whIrl of excitement he had lost
all sense of shame, prudence and seligovern-
meht; he betrayed himself by his indiscretions
and his manhood was enthralled. When he
thought himself and his mighty empire safest
strongest and best IL was tumhling, rotting