Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-03-30


more pathetic than the story of the last
days of Egypt or of that great Roman EN-
pre-, when its women were vying with the
men IN drunkenness and dissipation, and
when its troops had become so demoralized
and besotted that it had to substitute bar
barian hordes for its protection.
All these examples show how terrible the
offense Of drunkenness was in the ewes Of
the nations existing in ancient days. Per-
haps these examples may be pointed to as
showing the futility of Prohibition even
when the death penalty attaches to it for
violation. To this suggestion will in this
lecture simply say that what these examples
really teach is the futility of any effort,
ness, SO long as drinking at all and the
manufacture of drink are permitted. Jap
plause. To my mind it is the most strik-
ing evidence of the master-power of alco-
hol to deceive that it is first in compare
lively modern times that we have practic-
ally come to recognize that drink itself is
the cause of drunkenness, and that drunk.
enness is the effect of drink! Laughter
and applause. All these DEGREES were
powerless because they dealt with conse-
quences and not witlIe causes; because
wherever the drink itself exists men will
take it, with the result that there will be
S>AAAASAAAASo0
horrible consequences, no matter what laws
may be provided against it. No laws made
or enforced by man can overthrow those
eternal laws by which men are made sub
ject to the consequences of their own acts.
Applause
1t is we'll known that Mohammed. fear
ing that his followers would be destroyed
by wine, absolutely forbade use. Some
OF his successors, notably Amurath and
Mohammed tie Fourth, launched severe
edicts against wine drinking. The latter
commanded indeed that all who had wine
should destroy it, threatening death as the
penalty for disobedience of this mandate.
He also declared that it was an invention
of the devil for the destruction of mems
souls, for the confeunding of their iudg-
ments, and for the wreck of states. But
as Mohammed's injunction was against
wine only-that being the only intoxicating
drink which he knew-the Mohammedans
soon learned, when other liquors came up,
how to use them, and when we further
more consider their inveterate smoking
habits and their INDECENT, sensual way Of
living, we can easily understand that these
are some of the chief reasons which have
made. them SO degenerate. The fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries mark new de-
parture in the worlds history, largely due
to the great inventions and discoveries
which by and during that period were
spreading and powerfully influencing all
human thought and action. These opened
many avenues for interchange in the worlds
of thought and commerce, removed many
of the superficial barriers between peoples,
modifying individual prejudices, and po-
] itlcal, religious and social intoleran ces,
and could not but tend increasingly to the
spread Of general education and community
of ideas, and to approximate concurrence
in general principles Of action.
| LICENSING THE TRAFFIC..
About that time governments also made
new departure in dealing with the traffic
by resorting to licensing it. This was
done from many motives, but chiefly for
regulating it and for obtaining revenue
from it. The latter part they have sue
ceeded admirably in, but have utterly
England, in the more than four hundred
licensing laws now upon the statute book.
Until the commencement of the sixteenth
century the efforts to prevent drunkenness
and secure abstinence originated, as have
stated. with sovereigns or lawgivers, or
here and there with influential individuals.
These efforts were in the form of despotic
DEGREES or friendly admonitions. Those
DEGREES by the rulers were ftful in their
character and occurrence as the whims of
the monarch issuing them. Their observ-
ance depended chiefly upon the
loyalty y,,oa; of subjects, 80 usually on
and they contained no element of reform,
philosophers, and physicians sounded dis
tinct notes of warning. On finding that
laws availed little or nothing, it is not sur
prising that the people should have suf-
fered them to fall gradually into desue-
tude. The power Of the monarch became
less despotic, and hence those in high sta
ton, gaining more influence as the mon
arch's power waned, began to feel their
responsibility toward this great evil, and
in the sixteenth century there began to be
formed in Germany noblemen's modera-
ton societies. One by one these were dis
solved, the pledges Of moderation being
found impossible to keep. Meanwhile the
science of distillation was spreading, and
by the close of the last century the use of
distilled liquors had become prevalent.
But the more rapid and violent effects of
distilled liquors led to special agitation
against them; also at about the same time
there began to be agitation against the use
Of any kind of intoxicating liquors.
Thus from the beginning of our century
we may fairly claim that another new de-
parture has been made in regard to the
drink problem. for although the efforts in
the beginning Of the present century were
very sporadic and limited, yet they were
distinctly the result of
POPULAR FEELING
on this question. There was also con-
centration on new basis of the various
efforts marking this great struggle in the
past. Some agitated for moderation in
the use of distilled liquors and the free use
of fermented liquors; others tabooed the
distilled and recommended the moderate
use of the fermented ones; others urged
that abstinence was the only safe course.
And some believed in the special guard
ianship of the sale and manufacture Of
distilled liquors, but in. the free sale of
fermented ones; others held that both
should be restricted; yet others-but these
were very few-advocated the total prohi-
bition of the traffic. This period was also
characterized by individual efforts to dis
criminate in the matter of drinking, to re-
strict the amount, or to refrain altogether
for examples sake. Society more and
more discountenanced drunkenness and
ceased to ridicule abstinence; that most
mischieyously vague theory of moderation
was varyinely entertained; many public
banuuets and festivals were given without