Sword and shield., 1885-10-24
MISS W1LLARu AT PHILADELPHIA.

spoke September "a at the Centenial
Temperance Conference, in Phila-
deIphia, on "a Century's Evolution
of the Temperance Reform She
said:
The words Temperance" eli
cense' and the pledge, do not once
occur in DIR. Rush's Essay on the
Effects of Stimulants on the Human
Body and Mind" although that doc
ument, containing seventeen pages
gave rise to this Centenial. The
words were then in current use, but
all of them had different meanings
from those worked with them by .
hundred years specifc agitation.
EVOLUTION IN THE DICTIONARY.
Language does furnish more sa-
lient instance Of metamorphosis,
unless in the word 'let," which
means to hinder, in King James's
version of the New Testament. The
dictionary as well as the scientific
treatise and the statute book, ought
to take cognizance Of the new def
nitions wrought out by so much toll.
Impressed by this consideration, the
speaker had written to the proprie-
tors of Webster's Unabridged, +"
and had received encouraging assur-
ances of added definitions which
should express the advance of
thought along the three lines indi-
Gated. For it was claimed that the
words mentioned incarnate the his
tory of temperance reform up to to-
the present time. Temperance"
to DR.. Resh meant moderation in all
things; TO US it means total aost;-
nence from ali alcoholic stimutants
and to wear its badge means 0to give
up not the abuse of a good thing but
the use of a bad thing.
The ''pledge," as now defined in
Webster means the drinking of an
others health, and its use is illustrat-
ed by Cowley's line:
.'Pledge me my friend, and drink till thou are
wise.''
Thus the word was at first purely
convivial, and to pledge" was to
drink first in token that a poisonous
draft was not being offered, and to
pass the cup with the sword hand
in proof THAT the pledger was not
not going to stab the ''pledgee. !"
Even the first temperance society,
founded in 1903, went no further
than to impose 25 cent fine for
drinking, and so cent fine for be-
ing drunk but the slow march of
experiment and the steady logic Of
failure educated US up from to the
sievelike instrument of the past to
the present ''ironclad pledge, which
"holds water" and nothing more.
WHAT LICENSE MEANS.
Now we take the word ''license.'
It was once used in a sense almost
purely restrictive. The first ''act''
is dated 1862 and begins thus: "An
act for keepers of ale houses, to be
bound in recognizances, and giving
| the justices power to close ale-hous-
es in such town or towns as they
shall think meet and convenient.
But three centuries OF experience
have so revolutionized the meaning
of the word that its restrictive sense
is lost and temperance men see in
the license system a national com
pact with iniquity, while saloon
keepers look upon their license as q
permit to sell, which gives them 9
legal status, and, by making the
Government a partner in the pro
ceeds Of their sales, makes then
respectable me1 of business. Thus
in the development of the temper
ance reform the personal question
''How much may | drink ?" has al
ways been but one half of the equa
ton to be offset by the legal ques
ton, GLOW much may you sell?
Hence, unlimited drinking had al
its natural philOsophic Offset un
limited sale; moderate dinking hat
license, or an unsuccessful effort a
moderated sale, while we have now
as the final analysis, no drinking
Offset by no permit to sell. Havini
thus stated, in general terms, tn
unfolding Of the reform, its vas
development was traced as resul
Of the demand made for clear brail
and steady nerve by modern lomo
motion-swift trains and steamships
also as a result Of life-insuranc
} studies, statistical research, physi
cal culture, manua, training, tn
scientific spirit, the growth OF by
genie, psychologist and psychic. stuC
les and it was claimed that philan
! thropy in all its branches dlrectl
helps the people in temperance n
form, for philanthropy deals wit
the defective, dependent, and delir
ouent classes. all of whom becom
: such more as a result of the drink
: ing habit and the liquor trafi
: thar from any other cause. The
the immense social evolution of th
reform was passed in review, an
declaration cited of that distinguish
ed European traveller who, on r.
t turning from America was aske
:. it's leading characteristic and repliet
sThe wineless dinner-table."
The relation Of Civil Service an
! the labor reforms to the temperanC