Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-06-09
Intemperance in High Life.

Drunkenness is not exclusively a vice of the
so-called lower classes !" this fact is too
often overlooked in the current discussions
of intemperance and its remedies. We be-
lieve as fully as does DIR. Bartol or DIR.
Clarke in the principle of substitution, in
the New Testament radicalism of overcom-
ing evil with good. We have in these col
umns made frequent and earnest appeals for
such an enlargement of the methods of tenn
perance reforms as should treat the causes as
well as the effects Of the drinking habit,
and seek TO diminish the sale by stopping the
demand for it. We have no patience with
the assumption that society has fulfilled its
duty, or that reform has done its work, when
the sale or even the manufacture of liquor is
legally prohibited. Neither appetite nor ma
tive depravity will explain the intemperance
of the working and GLOVER classes" Go to
their wretched habitations,- learn the pow
erty of their lives, even greater than the pow
erty of their purses see how they work,
and eat, and sleep,-and you will begin to
understand that the delusive glitter of the
drinking saloon is an effect rather than the
cause Of their misery. They should be
helped out Of this condition, and fortified
against such temptations by every appliance
that Christianity can suggest or philan.
thropy devise. Fight the rum-shop with
the coffee-house, the tavern with the reading
and recitation rooms, homelessness with
evening homes, Ignorance with education,
darkness with light. But this is not enough.
Is drunkenness any less terrible when the
drunkard falls under mahogany table than
when he tumbles into the gutter when he
is sent home in hack instead of being
hustled to the station house2 Is it more
L.. f..I e h.. To-.
class to break his wife's head, than for a
drunken man of the upper class to break his
wife's heart Is skeleton in the closet
less ghastly than skeleton in the glare of
the living-room light ? If you do not from
your own observation know the widespread
and baneful effects of intemperance among
the well-to-do and wealthy classes, your ex-
perience of life must be very limited. Ask
the physicians, ask the ministers Of the city,
and they will tell you whether the excessive
use of strong drink is chiefly the vice of the
working people. There is scarcely family
undefiled, in some of its connections, by the
demon-touch of intemperance. The saloon
is pitfal; but so is the club. The bar
room is the DEVILS camp the side-board is
his ambush. Whiskey is debasing; but
French brandy is warmed with the same
fire of hell. A "drunk" is not made in
nocuous because it costs three dollars instead
of ten cents. Calling alcohol by fine names,
and drinking it with that kind of moderation
that stops just short of total intoxication,
doesn't change its nature or avert its effects.
| With all our boosted advance in culture and
civilization, drunkenness still remains the
monster vice of society. Aud the unwise
methods of any of the advocates of temper.
ance, whether demagogue apostles or sincere
fanatics, does not absolve any Christian
teacher from the duty of placing the en-
phasis of his utterance upon the policy of
abstinence.-Go Rule.