The Portland daily press., 1883-07-18

natics ana extremists, because they maintain
that in total abstinence from alcoholic liouors
lies the only safe road to health and happiness.
They are frequently censured for holding to
this opinion with such tenacity, and persons
VINO have not given the subject intelligent
thought will argue, with great seriousness, that
THIS position. is wrong one. The amount OF
alcohol in beer is so small it seldom, If ever,
ntoxicates. Give the people beer, and drunk
enness viii be diminished; give the people the
right to sell beer, and the consumption of the
stronger liquors will be less, they say. Prof.
.. N. ID. Fry gives the result of his observa-
tion IN London, to prove that cheap and mild
alcoholic beverages increase rather than dimin-
ish the evil. He says There is in London
every opportunity to care drunkenness, with
cheap drinks. The facts are, that il we want
to multiply diseases, poverty, crime, Incidence
and all the stages of idiocy and drunkenness,
AND THE CONSUMPTION OF THE STRONGER
DRINKS, we have only to introduce more mild
drinks, and make them cheap" DR.. Har-
greaves says, sit is great mistake to think
that malt liquors are less injurious than brandy
or whiskey. What malt liquors lack in alec
holic strength, is made up by drinking a larger
quantity While the drinker would be content
with gill of spirits, he will drink quart Of
ale or beer and not feel satisfied; and thus he
will drink more alcohol than if he had taken
brandy or whiskey Drunkenness by beer is
worse than by ardent spirits, and there are
more malt liquor drunkards than whiskey
drunkards."
In 1880 an act was passed in the British Par
lament, which permitted the sale of beer and
cider by retail. The Times voiced the gener-
al disappointment of the supporters of the bill
when it said, the result of this experiment did
not confirm the expectation Of its promoters
The sale of beer was increased, but THE SALE
OF srIRrTUoUs LIQUORS WAS NOT DIMINISHED.
Sidney Smith, who was among its supporters,
within a fortnight wrote, the thew beer bill
has begun its operations, everybody is drunk
The sovereign people are in a beastly condi-
tion." This theory of free beer was tried in
Massachusetts, in 1872 Beer shops sprang up
rapidly all over the State, and the increase in
crime and drunkenness became marked. The
first year there was an increase in the con-
sumption of 100000 barrels costing SIS COO 900,
an increase of 24SS persons committed to the
city prison in Boston, with the same ratio else
where.
II il an incident of considerable significance
that the Home Life Insurance Company of
New York, have considered it necessary. from
pureH business considerations, to reprint q
leafiet from the Pacific Medical Journal strong
~ condemning the custom of beer drinking.
But it is of Germany that the beer advocates
boast az the country of true temperance. DR..
Sanger, Berlin writer for Scribner's Month
~, says, If the school of social philosophers,
who argue SO pleasantly about the influence of
wine and beer in making people temperate,
will visit few of the most notorious beer and
wine cellars of the German metropolis we viii
guarantee change of front in their position
in regard to this momentous question:" Elk
Gov. Dingley wrote of student life in Heidel.
burg as he saw it:-So far as we could judge
these seekers after knowledge spend more time
In beer saloons than they do in study these
red and bloated faces, blood-shot eyes and
sleepy manners indicate that beer is slowly
brutalizing and supplying German young
men,"
1t is significant fact that an inebriate asy-
lum has been recently founded in Germany,
and that other institutions have virtual be-
come such. One which was established fof the
reception of discharged prisoners, was not
intOuuc0 ioA uIuukdIuS, put Oh Tue 4fU men
who have found refuge there 301 have been re-
ceived ON account OF mania for drink. In
view OF these authenticated statements, we
must conclude that with the brewers and their
customers has originated the claim of sheer as
te mperance beverage"
Notes.
G. f. Drury, Esq, magistrate, Shotover
Park, Oxon, says:
1.-THE Beer Bill has done more to brutaIize
the EOQliRh lahnraF fak ia irof h;c
family and hreside into the worst associations
than almost any measure that could have been
devised. 1t has furnished victims for the jails
the hulks, and the gallows, and has frightfully
extended the evils OF pauperism and moral de-
basement" The Reverend Chancellor Raikes
said at a public meeting: He had seen its
(the Beer-shop Act effects spreading like q
blight all through the country; villages which
formerly were like the creation of romance
80 beautiful were they-had become the scene
of every evil"
Well might Rev. DR.. John Todd, though
summoned by the license party to testify for
them before the Legislative committee of 1867 /,
say OF the beer-drinkers OF Pittsfeld:
81 wish to say in regard to beer that, while
think 1t is not as intoxicating as other drinks,
1t demOralzes awfully. We have a large
population OF foreigners with us, and beer is
their chief drink. 1t makes them besotted. 1t
makes them cross. 1t makes their bones NJ
civilization. IL shuts them out from the in-
fiuence OF everything that is ennobling."
The Bavarians drink annually about 1471
gallons OF beer per person; the annual outlay
for 1t is over $50, 100000. In Nuremberg, the
average for each inhabitant is 212 gallons; in
Munich, 248; and in IDgolstadt. 528 gallons!
The consul at Barmen, Germany, tsstifies
that:
"A fruitful Cause Of want and ruin among
the laboring classes is the enormous increase
or the drinking-saloous and dancing-halls, and
the complaints are universal as to the DISPOSE
ton OF the laborerH TO indulge in excessive
drink"
From Dresden:
The cost OF living to the laboring classes al
most invariably goes pari passu with their
wages They seem to be generally improve
dent and regardless of the future, and spend in
Deer-drinking, dancing and idleness all ia sy
earn. Sunday is always remarkable for the
croWdstf people moving in all directions in
pursuit OF pleasure, such as beer-drinking,
dancing, concert music, excursions by boat
and rail. The same love of pleasure and the
same indifference to labor seem TO animate all
classes of society"
OF Wurtemberg:
1.-The condition of such hard.working VIC
men is made still worse by the fact that in
many, II not In most, of the larger German
towns, nearly every fifth house is place where
intoxicating beverages of some kind are
abundantly sold. 1t there is anywhere a class
OF persons who can justly complain If hard
lot In life, 1t Is the poor laboring women in
Germany.
Portland Cadets.
What can be more enjoyable than beauti-