Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1882-04-27
The Golden Mean.

"Puck," which is continually acquit-
ting itself of very clever cartoons, has
one in the last issue of that periodical
that has reached Los Angeles which
depicts a pleasant, prosperous looking
man-one of the kind that Caesar loved,
and who sleep o'nights-seated at a
table, with mug of foaming beer be-
fore him. On one side of this winsome
picture is the effigy of a blear-eyed
drunkard, with the label "Intemperate
Drunkard;" and, on the other, coun-
terfeit presentment !" of clergyman OF
the Reverend Stiggins type, with the
superscription, Incorporate Teetotal-
ler.n Our comfortable looking friend,
upon whose face sobriety and moderate
enjoyment are written-such enjoyment
as Christ sympathized with when he
turned the water into wine at the mar
riage feast of Canals honored with the
legend, "True Temperance. This
wholesome looking fellow is represented
as saying, in the letter press beneath the
cartoon, 81 don't want to have anything
to do with either Of you"
We refer to this pleasant pictorial
fancy in order to adorn moral of special
interest to all inhabitants of a wine
growing country. In our opinion, Los
Angeles, as all other wine-producing
California counties, is destined to be a
powerful agency for good in the temper
ance cause, through the production OF
pure wines and brandies. All history
shows that the moment you reach the
stage at which people drink wines and
beers you have attained the highest pos
sible standard of true temperance which,
we need hardly say, means sobrlety 1t
is of record that one may travel for days
through France, Italy and Germany with
out encountering a drunken man; while,
ON the other hand, when the countries
where whisky, rum and gin are drank are
reached, intemperance becomes chronic.
Anyone who cares to examine the sta
tistics of either the Bordeaux region,
in France, or Bavaria, in Germany,
cannot fail to be struck by the almost
total absence OF intoxication III
those countries. 1t is true that, i'll
both, the people are of highly san
guine and gay temperament, but any
thing like an excess, whether the tipple
be wine or beer, is as rare as angels
visits amongst religious devotees. The
tables both of mortality and longevity in
such regions shyw equally gratifying re-
suits.
1t is just at the stage in which Los
Angeles county is making its appearance
as large producer of pure wines and
brandies and wholesome beers that we
are confronted by a pseudo temperance
crusade which, if successful in its first
foray, would have very serious repres-
sive results upon the very wholesome
era which is now setting in. The at
tempt to give vitality to an obsolete
sumptuary law has thus far proved a
most conspicuous failure III Los Angeles
county, 1t has had but one practical
result, viz, that of adding to the bur-
done of the taxpayer. When it comes
to 'sinching' the property holder there
is indeed malign efficacy in this move
ment; but the holder of real estate, who
thus finds himself "between the devil
and the deep blue sea, does not relish
the process. 1t is quite likely that the
Board of Supervisors, as representa-
tives of the common sense of this COM
munity, will put a stop to the useless
multiplication of costs which is mere
indulgence of the fanaticism of small
portion of our people. We beg to sug-
gest to District Attorney Brown that he
will do the publica service, and approve
himself personally sagacious, by block
ing, hereafter, as far as lies in his power,
splenetic and feverish programme
which will accomplish nothing, as the
HERALD said at the start, except de-
pleting the county treasury.
The sensible people of Los Angeles
county are in the exact humor of
ePuck." They desire to be delivered
both from incorporate drunkards and
Incorporate teetotalefs. They don't
want anything to do with either, espe-
cially in pecuniary sense.