The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-08-27

A system of higher licenses will not
affect the quantity of liquor sold nor
decrease the number of drunkards. II
merely throws the business into the hands
Of smaller number of dealers, and COM
pels the habitual drunkard to pay for the
license in every drink he takes. Such
system will of course increase the reve-
nue. of the town or city and enable the
corporation to afford better protection
against disorder and riot, but it does not
stop nor even diminish the sale of liquor.
Temperance societies effect very little
good. They commence with misnomer.
Temperance is derived from the Latin
verb "temperars," to mihgle, to mix, to
moderate or modify, and its application
is to be found in the ancient custom of
mixing wine and water together, 50 as to
reduce the Intoxicating power of the
beverage. All the nations of antiquity
were temperate, as compared with the
moderns. The Egyptians were q sober
people. They had barley wine for the
poor, and the fine grape wines of the
district of Fyoum for those better off.
These wines were both abundant and
cheap, and when too strong were mixed
with water. The Jews had two kinds of
wine, fermented and unfermented. The
former was the cheaper of the two, and
was that in common, use among the
people;H hence there were occasional
instances of excess in drinking. The
unfermented wine was preserved by boil
ing, and was used by the higher classes
and upon all religious occasions. The
Greeks and Romans mixed their
fermented wine with water, and they
both understood the art of preserving
unfermented wine by boiling, which they
probably learned from the Jews. When
3 Greek or Roman drank unmixed wine
they.were said to drink like Scythians, or
Thracians Russians or Romelians. The
Arabs drank wine in moderation. "Their
most iliustrious cavaliers cultivated their
gardens with their own hands" The
season of the vintage was tavorits time
with them, "when the fruit of the' grape
not abused to the injury of mans power
we're gathered into their garners."
(Conde's "Arabs in Spain.") All these
nations practiced temperance, but the
modern zealot is intemperate in his total
abstinence.
Wollaston's Religion of Nature" tells
us that temperance permits us the use OF
drink for thirst and as an "innocent cor.
dial against The evils of life," and some
times merely for pleasure"
The total abstinence men proceed upon
q wrong principle, If they desire to
improve the health and morals of the
people they should direct their efforts
towards masses of human beings and not
towards Individual delinquents. The
reforming of drunkards is not the high
est aim of the true philanthropist.
"Prevention is better than cure" In
order to deal with the enormous evil of
drunkenness the true reformer must
address himself to men as God has made
them. The pledge of the habitual drink
er is too often "like dicers' oaths," made
only to be broken, and to his fearful
crime he too often adds falsehood and a
total indifference to the obligation of an
oath.
The only feasible cure for drunkenness
is to direct the natural taste for stimulants
into harmless channel. We must fur.
nish men with something which, while
supplying the demand implanted by God
into the nature Of man, will not prove
injurious to his health or morality.
This great desideratum is only to be
found in an abundant supply of cheap
and good wine.
In the South of Europe, where pure
wine is cheap, drunkards are seldom
seen.
Among the ancient nations, who had
wine in abundance, excesses IN drinking
vas very rare. -,
If men must have stimulants, which
seems the universal rule, surely it is
better to use swine which maketh glad
the heart of man. than to consume those
strongly alcoholic liquors which contain
over so. per cent. of that dangerous
spirit, or to follow the example OF the
four hundred millions of the yellow
races who besot themselves with opium.
cannot understand how any believer
in revealed religion can condemn the
moderate use of wine. The Jew cannot
say grace at his dinner table without
thanking God for the "fruit Of the vine"
He cannot marry without wine. He
cannot initiate his infant son into the
covenant of Abraham without wine.
He cannot celebrate the anniversary OF
the Exodus without wine. The conclud.
ing words of his most solemn fast, on his
great day of atonement, are as follows:
SGo, eat thy bread and drink thy wine in
peace, for thy God hath forgiven thy
transgressions."
The Christians cannot partake of the
communion table without wine. The
pages of the New Testament are full OF
evidence that the moderate use of wine
was sanctioned by Him who has left to
all men the most perfect epltome OF
prayer and the Sermon on the Mount: :,
Both Jew and Christian regard the Old
Testament as diyinely inspired. Yet in
its sacred pages wine, and fermented wine
too, is not only permitted, but advised as
beneficial to man.
Wines, when NOT adulterated to suit the
vitiated tastes of English topers, con-
tain not over an average of 10 to ~ per
cent. of alcohol. For those who do not
desire any alcohol at all very good infer
mented wine can be had, such as is made
for medicinal and sacramental purposes.
The light wines of Europe contain very
litthe alcohol. l have recently seen an
advertisement of Heidsick champagne,
guaranteed to contain not over 10 per
cent of alcohol. OF such wines as these
does the Rev. Adam Clarke say: "Wine
in moderate quantity has wondrous ten
dency to revive and invigorate the human
being"
"Ardent spirits exhilarate, but they
exhaust the strength, and every dose
leaves man the worse. Wine, on the
contrary, exhilarates and invigorates. 1t