The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-02-10

wAoEMA, WAoEnA COUNTY. MINNESOTA.
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TEMPERATE vs. TEMPERANCE.
TO the Editors Of the N. P. Farmer.
lam sorry to learn that your CORES
pondent D. has had such hard time
of it lately; really those *>geuteel
tramps' must have seriously disturbed
ihis equanamity to induce him to rush
into print again.
For some cause D. evidently does
not care for chair splitting bubbles
about the meaning of language,
in fact, he seems to have a supreme
contempt for the meaning of language,
perhaps it is caused by *'defect of
spirit in the daily food, " or perchance
an excess Of said article in the daily
beverage. It must be something SER
;ious certainly; can it be those ''gen'
'teel tramps,'' or those 'wishy washy
:songs!" If so they must be ''prohib-
ited'' at once. But seriously Mr.. Ed.
itor, compare the following two SEN
tences,-both from the pen of d.
:and then tell us-if you can-which
is at fault, b. language or my logic.
Jan. l3, D. says:--"When I was a
boy, down east everyone used spirits
daily, like those Germans, and there.
fore were temperate. But Maine laws
made them drunken
Feb. Sd, he says:--'I certainly did
not mean to say there were no drunk.
Ell people in New England until the
Maine laws made them drunken.
Maine was the most drunken part of
,the New World a generation ago."
What in the name of common sense
docs d. mean, anyway! Are we to
understand that this is a fair sample
of Temperate Temperance logic?
What will the classical scholars of
England Prairie say to such logic!
Certainly d. cannot be ''blind lead
er of the blind, ''-for if the printers
devil has not been fooling us,--he
must see double.
The main part of DIS first article
was an attempt to prove the failure
of the Maine law; the burden of proof
resting on Gov. Garcelon,-a man who
but recently won the contempt Of the
whole nation, by his atte mpt to cheat
the people of his own State out Of the
Legitimate result of the election. In
my reply to said article I noted the
opinions of men of, to say the least,
equal respectability in unqualified ap-
>proval of the law. I also attempted
to show the unreasonableness of his
clamorous against the Maine laws, be-
cause it did not entirely suppress the
drunkenness.
In DIS last article he quietly ignors
the main question at issue, and flies
off at = tangent, with \ set of new
propositions, if possible, more absurd
than the former. He having evident.
1y given up the argument respecting
Maine laws, it only remains to sound
some of what d. is pleased to term
''Plain Facts.''
He says "after the mothers milk,
wine is the most acceptable of all hui.
man food, - and he goes on to assert
that only those nations that use it
freely and regularly are strictly tenn.
perate, citing in proof thereof such
nations as Mexico, Spain, Portugal,
Southern France, Syria, and Persia.
d. certainly is unfortunate in his sup
rorters. At one time he challenges to
his aid a renegade politician, and now
he marshals before US 3 whole string
of dead and dying nations, SOCIAL, po-~
litical and commercial nonentities,
and holds them up As an example Of
the great and grand effects Of a,nlimit,
ed wine bibhing. It may he ,,e,cs to-
some, as it certainly is o>we, to hear
that Ill these nations are strictly tem, ;
peratc, but. perhaps D. will tell us in ;
bis next that he did not mean to say