The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-04-14
WADENA, MIMI, THURSDAY, APRIL H. 1884,

system, and the spirit will be ab"
sorbed by the brain and nervous tls-
sues, which will receive exactly the
same renovation gradually, which
they would receive instantly if that
grape juice was changed to wine, and
swallowed at a gulp. Any one whose
digestive organs are healthy, may
satisfy himself that the spirit pro-
duced in his own stomach, is identlc'
al with that from the disti)lery, by
this simple experiment. Let him
chew up sugar, starch or fruit, till 1t
is saturated with saliva, and spit it
into dish instead of swallowing it;
add little pepsih, and keep this at
the heat of the stomach during the
time required for digestion. and the
fermentable food will be changed in.
to spirit. Strain or decant out the
'lees,' and seperate the water by
freezing it. The liquid remaining is
alcohol, the spirit of wine, the same
spirit that temperate people use with
their food. totalists use with their
drugs, and drunkards use without
either food or drugs. Millions of
men make all their free spirits in
this way, except that they do not
freeze out the water.
When food contains the elements
of spirit II. eacess, and the brain work
is limited, intoxication may be pro-
duced by the vintage in the stomach,
and it will reject all free spirit.
When food is defective in the ele.
ments of spirit, as animal food is. the
demand for free spirit becomes i'll
comfortable. The former is the con-
dition of the people in wine countries.
The latter is the condition of flesh
eating savages, and those who sub
sist upon totalist food. Thus science
and observation combine to show,
that the appetite for spirit is as ma
tural in man, as that for crude food,
or for the conjugal relations. That
the licensing, or the freedom Of the
liquor traffic, does not produce this
appetite, but that license is one of
the many efforts of society to restrain
it's abuse. That no human law can
quench this appetite, or annul any
part of nature; but a competant k7owl-
edge will enable us. as it does others,
to crafty this appetite with pleasure
and profit. This knowledge will
teach us to supdue the appetite for
spirit, by improving the quality of
the food and the condition of the
stomach, instead Of trying to prohib-
it the use of all free spirit, and elm
mating it's elements from our crude
food.
Your correspondents, Viola Cole,
and w. S. H.. caused me to review
this whole subject carefully, with the
conviction that the rapid increase of
intemperance and crime. which fol-
lows the abstinence reform. has been
suffered long enough in silence, and
that the public discussion of the situ-
alton will benefit temperance and
morality. But it's discussion thus in
the FARMER, is so broken and discon-
nected, that the fore-end would be
lost before the last of it was reached.
For these reasons, I propose the
public exposition of this problem of
temperance in Peake's Hall. or the
school house in Wadena. W. S. H.,
and his associates may state their
theories one evening, and will state
mine the next; and so alternately. till
the subject is investigated, and bet
ter understood. I will pay rent,
lights, etc. on my evenings, and the
crusaders will pay on theirs, and y
condensed report Of each will be fur
nished for publication in the FARMER:
1 will appoint W. J. Whipple, of
England Prairie, to arrange details
for me, with the agent of my oppo-
nent: only STIMULATING that the dis
cussion take place as early as cOnven.
lent. and before the evenings will be
otherwise employed. Yours, ID.
Now is the time tor our farmers to
begin looking after their. machinery,
seeing that everything is in running