Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-03-19
About the Temperance Question.
| Written for the Mad River Valley Lodge, l. o.


III the minds OF all intelligent people in
relation TO the use of alcoholic drinks, and
to make any startling revelations of the
evils of it is more than could be expected
from any common minds; but it seems {,
necessity to constantly remind people of
what they already know to persuade them
10 abandon habits fixed upon them
Sixty years ago it cost forty dollars for
alcoholic drinks mt an ordination attended
by DR.. Lyman Beecher. What contrast
OF then and NEARLY every clergy
man now preaching temperance. 1t is
one OF the wonders Of the nineteenth CEN
tury what radical change in tie public
sentiment. 1t seems little strange with
our boasted civilization that we should
have allowed this giant evil to get so
strong hold upon us, while the Moham-
medan S creed prohibits the use of wine,
and n portion os lis more ardent followers
exclude opium, tobacco and coffee, while
we are swallowing down hundreds of
millions of dollars worth every year of
ruinous compounds called rum, gin, bran
dy and wine.
The blood thirsty Turks have not
slaughtered so many Christians in their
provinces, in the last ten years, as alcohol
has in Chrstianized America. Is it any
worse to slaughter men, women and
children by the sword than it is to torture
to death with slow poison? Nearly
every city and large village in the land
has its army of Turks who are doing the
fearful work of eXterminating sixty thou
sand of our citizens annually, under the
sanction of the law, in three cases out of
four, while we lift up our hands in horror
ut the sultan of Turkey and his subjects.
| There were two words that were used
| for wine in the Hebrew tongue, and il is
claimed by many that one meant the crane
OF the pure Juice of it, and the other fer
mented juice that would intoxicate.
Hence, where the use was recommended
it was the iuice before fermentation. and
The command not to use was after fermen.
tation; and the use of wine and these
mlder beverages is one of the great evils
of 10, dav, and fear a GROWING one. Beer
saloons and beer gardens are sprinpinr
up in nearly every city, VILLAGE and ham
let. Immense wine cellars nre heinz com
,tructed on the Pacific sope. orchards are
being cultivated in all the statcs where
thry will grow. TO n orearor extent th,n
ever before, while the market is overs,ock-
ed with their fruit, and we fear that the
same way of utilizing them will be prac.
ticed in the future as in the past.
The late GOOD Horace Greeley reserved
IL large space in the New York Tribune to
educate the people to the cuture of cranes
Does any one suppose that there has ever
been such a demand for the article of
grapes for diet us to continually urce UPON
people the culture of grapes to a GREAT
extent? There can be no doubt in nnv
ones mind as to what use orapes would ne
put to as soon as the market IS over.tock-
ed with them, Us we see what becomes of
he apples as soon rs the crop exceeds the
demand for food and culinary purposes.
Many may and do sty that the mild
drinks are harmless. Has any one Il GOOD
reason to give why alcohol is not lust us
injurious in cider as it is in any other
form? You will see those same boated
forms and bleared ewes in the cider, wine
and beer drinkers rs YOU will in the rum,
gin and brandy drinkers; and | think in
many cases worse. The evil effects upon
the human system are more visible in beer
and cider localities than where stronger
, beverages are used 1t is no very rare
case that you meet men who look like
travelling cider barrels or beer casks.
Every particle of fluid taken into the
stomach passes through the system in the
blood, People that use these mild bever-
ages use them in larger quantities. and
thus are the vital powers more heavily
taxed to throw them off. There never has
been any real reason oiven WHY thcv are
not lust as GREAT physical evils rs STRONGER
drinks. MANY n man that would usn in
| =
in n wear. and feed il ont to bis family
would admit that it would he , GREAT cviI
to use the same amount of alcohol in ,nv
other form Whv mt DOT , Lnif h,rre1
of rum. dilute it with wofcr mt a I,tIr
acid into it. and feed if to vonr family
morning noon and niobt oi nnv otbr,
time that the appetite Graves ito Men wLC
habitually use cider soon are not sotisfef
, with it in its primitive state. hnt will nd,
something to il to make il more int,xicat
inp. They fix mn somethinu Good fo,
haying or for cold weather. or to drink
7 when they oct wet, and on a hundr,C
other occasions. and these occasions com,
y nearly every dny.
1t is one Of the most foolish Theories
, ever gotten up that intoxicating drink,
. are anv less corruutino in one fnrm th,,
, another. II is a theory without a ra,son
A. least, we never heard Of one that wa,
GOOD for anvthinr. If is a very r,re ems,
= that cider drinker is satisfied 10 uSe mucI
until after fermentation.
The financial evils of intempcrancc ar,
no small item MANY, family snfJnrs e.,
the real necessarirs Of life, who invrs
their means in cider and rnn thri. chance
3 for food and clohinp. Il would moi re
, ouire n yery extensive search to find neo
, pie who had several barrels of cider i,
their cellars, but who had not n dollar I,
E buy the necessaries of life for their fami
A lies, and perhaps hardly wood enough a
= their doors to keep them warm through
cold nightp Is all this u necesstyp Mus
you and your family be fed upon cider il
preference TO all other thinos: or has eide
! got so strong a hold of YOU that your appe
e tite will starve and freeze out of house an,
a homep Docs not beer have the same effec
= where that is the prevailing beverage
! Is the man any worse who saunders hi
L money at the beer saloons than the MAJ
o who squanders it at the cider milp
n In the great beer drinking citv of Gin
cinnati there is an infant ASYLUM. an