The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1882-11-08
Aawaiiatr 6azrtte.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1852.
mo Temnernnoe Qnestion.
HoNoLu1r. Oct. 2sLb, ESP

the meeting Of the Y NJ. G. A., that until th
new Liquor Law came into operation, during
the whole of his professional career at tn
islands be had never had Hawaiian come in.
to his Office the worse for liquor, but sine
that several had done SO, following the plar
of an occasional white patient of simplifying
themselves with liquor before putting them
selves under the hand Of the dentist. DR.
HYDE at the same meeting has collected I
considerable amount of information, showing
that the opening of the liquor saloons wal
doing mischief to many.
The Editor expressing regret to have TO pu
such things ON record says very properly
What remedy then, is available to check
+" evils which may flow from this new liberty
a to use intoxicants, which has been conferred
con the Hawaiian race Pr He replies, We
"have the same answer for this question that
eve should give if asked what will prove the
"potent method Of persuading white men to
"be steady in their habits.
That method is good as far as it goes, but II
has never been found sufficient to save CON-
st,urities of white men, though no doubt it has
saved individuals
So far as past experience teaches there is
nothing but total abstinence that can or will
save communities. Some will be found in
every community who cannot resist the temp
tation offered by the love Of strong drink, and
it does not seem likely that abstinence will be
generally practised by any people unless 1t is
enforced by prohibition.
This is objected to by many as interference
with personal freedom. 1t is so certainly, as
we'll as every other prohibition, which is JUS
tilted on the ground Of being a public good.
The statistics of the British Isles, and of the
United States, show Enthusiastically, that three
fourths Of all the pauperism and crime Of
these countries, peopled mainly.by the Anglo
Saxon race are caused directly or indirectly
by the incorporate use Of intoxicating drinks,
and corresponding proportion of all the ex-
penses for pauperism and crime in these
countries, besides more than5 the thousand
million of dollars annually paid for the in
toxicants-is chargeabe to this source, and as
rule, must be paid by the temperate and
prosperous.
This is only the money side of the question.
The more important one of the human misery,
in the sgudlor poverty and suffering which
would be saved is the one which more earnest
ly appeals to the human heart and calls for
relief ! opened my last paper and read:
WHEELING, W. Va, Oct. 2d.-A special TO
the IntellgeHoer says: most bloodhound
ling homicide occurred about fourteen miles
from Clarksburg this morning at about one
o'clock. John r. Bogges Jr. killed his wife
and daughter Of thirteen years old while in
a fit of mental arrangement, induced from
strong drink. He attacked his wife while in
bed. She called on her daughter, who came
and assisted her mother to get loose from the
grasp of her father. They then fed from the
house, and be grabbed large iron poker and
followed. 0yertaking his wife he hit her two
blows, the last Of which proved fatal. 1t
seems the daughter had then come up to help
save her mother, and with one blow he killed
her also. The other children had fed. When
found the mother and daughter were lying
together in the road near their home, dead.
Bogges was found in the house in a state Of
intoxication. He denied the killing or know
ing anything about it. He was well-to-do
farmer, of an old and respected family. The
occurrence created great excitement, and is
without parallel in this section.
And perhaps no city or rural paper reaches
us from the farther lands which has not
something Of the kind to narrate growing out
of the use Of intoxicating drinks though not
often as tragical. Do not the money and the
misery to be saved justify most amply any
restriction Of personal indulgence which pro-
hibition may call for here or elsewhere.
Of the right of people to .legislate for the
general good-says an able American writer
and good man, though not prohibitionist
Worse foe 10 American institutions than
superstition, with all its power; worse foe to
American institutions than ignorance, with all
its capabilities of being misled and used by
designing men, is intemperance; and in some
way, by some method, we must learn how to
solve the problem TO mako our nation intelli-
gent, and to make our nation temperate. We
shall not solve that problem by prohibition
hold, indeed, that it is the right Of the COM
munity TO do everything necessary for its own
self-protection and its own perpetuation.
There is absolutely nothing that the commun-
ity may not do in its own self-preservation.
When the war cloud rises in. the horizon, the
nation comes into your homes; it lays its hand
upon your husband; it drags him away from
your roof; it puts him in the tented field
against his will and against yours. AID it
has right to do it for its own protection and
perpetuation. I.-hold that the nation has
riE6t 10 shut up any shop, to interfere with
siny industry, real or imaginary, to stop the
wheels of any business, to do whatsoever it
will to protect itself from destruction; and no
man hdo u iiBut W oeouu uP ohN ooy N
rights are interfered with.
/ have said that total abstinence was hs
only preventive and the only safe guard ofany
community against the terrible evils Of intemper
ance, and that the only way to secure total alb
stinence was by prohibition, whether for
European or Hawaiian. l well know that
where the people rule, prohibition cannot be
enforced by minority. But am encouraged
by the growing sentiment in its favor in both
Great Britain and the United States. | be-
lieye that the curse, the evil, the misery
growing from intemperance in the use of
alcoholic drinks will come to an end and by
prohibitory means. / may not see it. do
not expect to. l rejoice in the belief that my
children will, and that it will greatly increase
the sum Of human happiness.
have done business in this land and with
Hawsiians more than forty-hve years, but
never till since Oct. LIST has my House sent
out for native help and had sent to it in re-
Spouse Hawaiian so intoxicated as to be
entirely unfit for his duty. 1t is not singular,
but it is sad. 1t is singular that with the
largest petition before the Legislature for
prohibition that ever came before q Hawaiian
legislature for any object, signed by five
thousand Of all classes and races they should
have passed law opening wider than ever
before the door of supply.
So. far as it may prove the curse which it
unusually has done, and the destroyer Of the
race Hawaiians alone are responsible.
Whatever ruin it may bring upon them, they
will bear testimony that as a legislator and
citizen, 1 have ever raised my voice against it.
The following statements from the pen of
Gen'l Neal Dow Of Maine will encourage those
who look earnestly for the day when the
blight of intemperance will no more rest upon
any land, and that in the nature of things pro-
hibition must be the great instrument TO usher
it in.
They will feel that the agitation persevered
in, will ultimately be crowned with happy
result. Men whom highly esteem, feel as
do, the evils spoken Of, and will equally
rejoice in such result even if not reached by
their methods, even as l shall if reached by
different ones from my own.
Gen'l Dow writes: Temperance workers,
the world over, are now addressing themselves
to the solution of this most important ques-
ton as never before, and everywhere they
look upon prohibition as the only remedy for
the tremendous sin, shame, and crime Of
drunkenness. By other methods, intemper-
ance may be diminished aud temporarily |
checked, but no permanent reform in this |
matter can be obtained except by putting |
away temptation to indulgence in strong |
drink. Such, ] think, is the current Of belief |
among intelligent temperance workers every |
where. In the United Kingdom aud its de- |
tendencies, as well as in this country, tenn
perance work is carried on with the same
system and persistence that are seen in the
conduct Of the foreign and home missionary |
work, and everywhere its friends regard pro-
hibition as the only possible permanent rene
dy for the horrors Of intemperance.
Father Mathew, after having almost entirely /
changed the habits Of his countrymen as to