The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-05-19

No! He will simply pay the fine and
then resume his business. Very little
good, if any, would be accomplished
even if prosecutions should be had until
screens should be utterly annihiated,
and no minor ever be able to''.buy a
drink. The foodgates of intemperance
would still be open. It would be equiv
alent to stopping up the spigot and
losing at the bung hole" This is tho
true reason why such violations 20 I'm.
punished, and it is not because public
| opinion is not sufficiently strong against
the license system. Let the law provide
punishment that is calculated to stop
| the evil, and numbers Of men will be
found in every community who will en-
force it. BY public opinion is meant
nothing more than the views of the ma
jority. If prohibitory laws are passed
against the wishes Of the majority, yet it
would not be impracticable; for the
minority, backed up by the machinery
of the government. could and would
overcome all opposition and enforce
them.
Mr.. Brown suggests that the Legisla-
ture should tax the sale of etrong drinks
severely, and encourage in those who
will drink the use of light beverages
such as ale, beer and wine-as means
of lesseniDg intemperance. This is no
new suggestion. 1t has been thoroughly
tested, and as an argument against it We
will see how it has worked where it has
been tried. "California," says Commits
sioner Wells, with her cheap wines for
temperance, i'll the year ending June 80,
1867, sold fourteen times, per head, as
much alcoholic stuff as Maine did, and
more than any other State" A. conyen-
ton of the friends of temperance, of the
same State, in October, 1866, resolved
against wine growing. Conventions of
congregational ministers and lay dele
gates, same month, reached the same
result.
Now, let us look at the facts concern.
ing domestic wines and their influence
upon drunkenness in the countries where
they are raised and made. It Is stated
that in Paris, the city of wine, where
more wine is consumed than in any
other city in the world, in 1868, there
was consumed seven gallons distilled
spirits for each man, woman and child
that she produced 1,Os6,OOO,O 900 gallons
of wine in 1865, and yet consumed more
brandy and other distilled liquors per
head than any other nation on earth.
This indicates that wine does not ,yeap
men from strong drink. Our author,
J. Fennimore Cooper. says: II have
been more struck by drunkenness in the
streets of Paris than in those of Lon
don." Horace Greeley wrote from Paris
that "wine sciH intoxicate, does intoxi-
cate; that there are confirmed drunkards
in Paris and throughout France, is noto-
rious and undeniable.'' Hon. Caleb
Foote, of Salem, Mass, writing from
Paris, after large investigations, denies
in toto the theory that the people of the
wine producing countries are sober"
Rev. =. S. Lacy, of San Francisco, six
months in Switzerland, a vino growing
section, says: "Here more intoxication
was obvious than in any other place it
was ever my lot to live in" Cardinal
Acton, Chief Judge of Rome, says:
Nearly all the crime in Rome otigi-
mates in the use Of wine."
Ijhope the day will never be reached
in South Carolina when our Legislature
and our people will encourage the use Of
vine as d substitute for liquor. The in
ebriate will still revel in his drunken
ness, and the young be beguiled into
habits of intoxication, for in almost
every case the thirst originates with the
wine cup. You might as well speak of
quenching fire with Gil, or of saving q
mans life by killing vcnomous serpent
that is about to attack him, and leaving
on his body innumerable teaches. You
save him from instant death, but leave
him in condition where death Is slow
but inevitable.
Prohibition has fewer plausible obiec-
tons than any other remedy. 1t will
. stop three. fourths of the drunkenness
and nearly all the crime. Let its friends
be bold and persevering, yet courteous,
for it is not war against Individuals
and ere long the banner of victory will
proudly wave over the ruins of the enc.
my. III. q. SCUDDAY.
- Thirteen Indian mothers in Alaska
confessed to missionary that they had
kiilati thpir 0ir1 ha - a,,o a. - g.