The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-11-17

IO SuOub, 10 QTlHh, TO IeGl lnelr veins
heated and swollen with wine, to hear
and see around them riotous orgies, to
glut themselves with sensations and noises,
this was their first need.
And these original characteristics are
unchanged. They are in the stock still,
beneath the connections of society and
the polish of modern manners. We are
still carnivorous, and the beef-eating An
glo-Saxon is proverb among men. We
are still drinking race, and between us,
on both sides of the Atlantic, we manage
to swallow down yearly, the enormous
amount of one thousand millions of dol
lars of ales and wines and whiskeys.-
Yea, it is the Anglo-Saxon race which
has invented and uses to this day, whis-
key the strongest, coarsest, most fiery of
all drinks which can be procured to slim
ulate and craze the human frame:
We do not wonder therefore that
statesmen and philanthropists are being
aroused in the mother country as never
before, and that since the overthrow of
the Beer and Beaconsfeld" government
the subject has gained the first time in
many years the respectful hearing of Par
lament. After pretty thorough study
of English society and close observation,
we came to the conclusion that the chief
peril of England was not Russian aggres-
sion in India, but the
Aggression of the Ale Tankard.
Saturday nights in the city of London
seemed to be an occasion for universal
spree for women and men alike. Never
was our heart so saddened as by the sight
OF scores of women of the lower and ap-
parently well-to-do classes entering sa-
looms and drinking at the bars as if it
was thoroughly woman-like action.
To US it was an amazing and fearful nov
city! We turned away murmuring doubts
as to Englands future in the thought of
the blight which must already be upon
English womanhood when it could stoop
as low as that What hope for the tenn
perance of England s sons when her moth
ers set such an example? Travelling
over Great Britain we saw everywhere,
at every station some one in an intoxica-
ted condition, requiring to be helped on
and off. Up in the Lake Windermere
region-among the beauties of Words
worths Home and Rydal Water-the
scene around the railway station at which
we fingered moment was peculiarly
offensive. 1t was Saturday afternoon,
and workmen dismissed from the weeks
labor were celebrating it with drinking.
Many were already staggering about in
maudlin condition. An English lady in
the same compartment turned to me and
half apologetically said, "The mastering
out of the militia makes travelling un-
pleasant" Madame" replied 1, "they
must have been mastering out militia for
the last three months everywhere in Great
Britain, for this is the sight have seen
during that period everywhere" There
is no doubt that the evil has assumed
alarming proportions in the old country,
and is now engaging unusual attention on
| the part of statesmen and ministers of
the gospel
A just comparison, am convinced, of
our own country with England will dis
close the fact, that in despite of our in
heritance of this bias toward drink, and
in despite Of our oxygenic climate which
predisposes to the use of stimulants, we
are
The more Temperate People of the Two.
But the evil is great enough in all con-
| 0NlOhOO hOlS' IlOW Sudll we meeU IL ana
strip it Of its chiefest terrors? In many
States of the Union great faith has been
shown in the policy of violence. They
would shut up drinking places by law.
If the demand cannot be extinguished cut
off the supply. If the tempted cannot
abolish the tempter, dash the cup, shut
the inviting door by the strong arm of
the law. This is the argument. But
why has the policy of suppression been
so futile in the past? Because it has not
taken into consideration that a voice of
nature no more than virtue of nature
cannot be violently exterminated The
attempt to suppress nature in any form,
If it be nature, is impossible. The old
proverb, Drive out nature at the door
and she will come in at the window" is
true for all time. Nature will have her
way, if not by one channel then by an
other. She will plunge underground and
come up in unexpected spots. Cunning
will come to her assistance. She is sly
and swift and ubiquitous. She is a Pro
teus, capable of taking on every shape.
Refuse her whiskey and she will take to
opium, morphine, ether, in quantities
equal to the stimulus desired. You fancy
the community becoming temperate in
one respect and find it becoming intem-
| perate in another Opi,7ro oo4ara ,,,14;