The Cecil Whig., 1886-08-07
KUN THEN, FUSIL OIL NOW.

RUM THEN, FUSIL OIL NOW.
Sam Jones it seems, is not to carry
Missouri for prohibition without hard
fight. The st. 10 Gazette is engaged,
with the support of several otherpapers
in arguing the defense of drinking. 1t
says:
LET the fittest survive. All the
warrior races of the earth have been
drinkers of alcohol. All the conquerlng
races of the earth have been drinkers
of alcohol. The stronger the alcohol
the more heroic they were. The more
memorable were the things that they
did. The more prodigious were the
labors that they performed. Without
rum it is doubtful if Washington would
have won in the Revolutionary war.
Next to good discipline, said Napoleon
Bonaparte, good ration of brandy is
fine thing for a soldier"
Attributing the heroism of the Revo-
lutlonary soldier to the inspiration of
Rum, is a travestie upon the accuracy
of history. 1t is true that spirtuous
liquors were furnished to the Revolu
tlonary army under the fatal delusion,
that they were of service in mitigating
the hardships to which the soldiers were
subject. The consequence was, that
at the close OF the war they were car
ried into communities and their use be-
came in q large measure habitual with
the men who had used them in the
Revolutionary army. From the habit
of intemperance formed during that war
very many of the soldiers became wan
dering vagabonds. So that for a gen.
Grafton after, if miserable drunken
beggar stopped at ones door he was
often alluded to as an cold soldier"
Ardent spirits, however, for other than
medicinal purposes were not used in
the settlement of this country. The
business of distillation first began at
Boston about the year 100, when West
India molasses was converted into New
England rum. BY the year 1894, dis
tilleries chiefly for grain had become
very numerous in the United States
particularly in Western Pennsylvania a
rich grain growing district. By 1915
the number of distilleries had increased
to forty thousands. They furnished it
was said a ready market for the surplus
grain, they gave new value to the Or
chard whose superabundant fruit could
at once be converted into brandy.
They brought ready employment to the
carpenter, the cooper, the teamster, and
furnished Rum which had been i'm
ported from Holland and the West In
dies at greater cost. At the close of
the first half of our national existence
about the year 1926, the use of intox-
icating liquors had become so prevalent
that more than sixty millions of gallons
of ardent spirits were annually con-
sumed. Everybody drank. The Elder
drank and the Deacon drank, and even
the Parson the good old man after fin
ishing round of social visits, not un-
frequently returned to his home "mel-
lowed" by the soothing influence of his
parishioners cordial" welcome. Phi
lanthropic men, however, began to see
that this prevalent use of lntoxicants
was prolific of an untold amount of
misery and crime, yet under the delu-
sion of the period, men went on drink
ing believing they were benefited by
their use.
But a revolution in sentiment was at
hand, and early in the present century
about the year 1873 began the great
movement in behalf of Temperance
Reform, which with varying results in
different localities has continued to the
present time.
We have referred to this history casu-
ally, simply to rebut the idea that be-
cause the use of intoxicants was general
in 1886, therefore there is no reason
why their use should not be equally
general in 1886. Leaving out of the
question the fact that the liquors used
then were unadulterated, and that
drunkenness did not then mean insan-
ity, there is no analogy whatever in the
argument, that the social habits and
customs that prevailed one hundred
years ago, would be sanctioned by the
best sentiment of society now. That
because the parson took his grog be-
hind the meeting house then, that his
reverent successors would be equally
justihable in doing SO now. There is
nothing in the assertion that the soldier
of the Revolutionary or any other period
was ever benefited permanently by the
habitual use of intoXicants. On the
contrary they have deranged and ex-
hausted physically thousands, who but
for their use would have lived to testify
by their prolonged lives the fallacy of
any such an argument.
Mrs. Cleveland's Latest.
Mrs. Cleveland is very diplomatic, and