The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-09-07
TEMPERANCE READING.
A PLAIN PRESENTATION.

An Appeal to German-Americans to Care
fully Consider the American Saloon
Question.
The following article is extracted
from a somewhat lengthy pamphlet
addressed to German-Americans by
Albert Griffin:
The practical question for German
Americans to consider is not: us the
drinking of German beer in Germany a
harmless indulgencesn but, rather: as it
necessary, or even entirely safe. to drink
American beer in the United Statesau
They are now in very different country
from the Fatherland. Our beer is a fourth
stronger, our climate is more exhilarating.
dryer and thirst-producing than that of
Europe, and our customs-notably that of
treating-great increase the tendency to
excess Let the situation thousands of
miles away be what it may, every UMPIRE
JUDGED observer knows that, in this coun-
try, the drinking of American beer is apt
to create thirst for more frequent pota-
tons or stronger liquors. or both. An oc-
casional glass does the drinker no appreci-
able harm if he does not acquire a
taste for it; but unfortunately, because
of the alcohol in it, the natural effect of
even moderate use of beer is to create
morbid appetite, to supply which the
glass day increases to pints, quarts and
gallons. Doubtless, some who are now
satisfied with beer would take whisky if
they could get nothing else, but it is prob
able that vastly greater number now
drink whisky who would be total abstain
ers il they had not commenced on beer,
supposing it to be harmless.
OF the thousands of millions of men.
women and children who fill drunkards'
graves, no one expected at first to lose his
or her self-control, but in every city. vii
lage and hamlet, and in every age and part
OF the world, portion of those who have
commenced in moderation have ended in
acknowledgement it never can be other
wise This dreadful appetite does not at
tack all alike, With some it increases
slowly, and with others rapidly. Now it
overcomes it's victim early in life, and
again develops with terrible suddenness
as he totters on the brink of the grave OF a
truth, nodrinker can ever truly say: I" 1 am
safe, until he is dead. And, be he living
or dead, the sins of every drunkard are
visited in suffering upon others, many of
whom are in no way responsible for and
have had no control over him.
But admitting for arguments sake, all
that is claimed for Germany, / put the
question uarely to each and every Ger
man-American. sDo you not personally
know fellow countrymen who, in this,
their adopted home, drink to excess9 In
deed, do you not know that there are
myriads of such?s' The census of 1880 put
the native population of New York City at
1872 and that of German birth at 1863, 49,.
More than two-thirds of the natives had
foreign-born parents, of whom forty per
cent were Irish, and even ''the simon
pure natives are here largely influenced
by the immense mass of foreigners they
mingle with. Nevertheless, the report of
the Board of Police Justices for 1886 gives
the number of commitments for in
temperance and disorderly conduct at:
Natives, 1857; Germans, 1907 Allowing
IL per cent. for increase of population, this
makes one case for about fifty-fve natives
and one for fifty EIGHT Germans. Do not
these figures demonstrate that there is
substantially as much intemperance
among the Germans who, it is as
serted, "are temperate people
because their chief drink is beer" as
among the natives who drink every thing?
Grant, if you wish, that those arrested
Germans would have continued sober had
they remained in Germany; does that help
the matter2 1t makes no difference how
their falling away from traditional So
briefly is accounted for, the significant
fact is that it is fact that, in this coun-
try, the drinking German, like the drinker
of other nationalities, is in real danger,
and, in lamentably large number Of
cases, goes down to ruin.
Assume again, if you will, that, unlike
Achilles, the native German has no vul-
nerable spot; how is it with his childrena
The German is remarkably rational race.
In the intellectual world it has no SUI.
perior, but, as proud as it may justly be
over its achievement in that field, its
browning glory, and the trait that gives
the surest promise of steady progress in
all desirable directions, is the strength Of
the family tie among it's MEMBERS
love they have for one another and the
sacrifice each is willing to make for ALL"
My loving German father and mother,
know that it is your hearts desire that
your children shall grow into sober, pros
porous and happy men and women, and,
therefore, not as controversalist, but as
humanitarian, who is anxious to have
every calamity averted from each and
every human being, and the largest posi-
BILE amount OF happiness poured into each
soul, ask you to consider carefully land
prayerfully, if you are Christian) the
influence that the drink habit and the
drinking saloon upon the American born
children of German parents Stop and
think before answering these questions:
Is it not true that they take less pride in
the Fatherland than in the Great Republic?
Are they not inclined to turn up their
youthful noses whenever it is intimated
that your birthland, or any thing con-
nected with it, is equal to theirsa And are
they not more inclined to pattern after
those of their companions who are their
own countrymen than after those who are
not! In short, do they not intimate in
words or acts: 81 don't care what they do
in Germany, for am an American
Go step further. In every community
and in every grade of society there are
two elements-the better and the worse
No one can tell exactly where the dividing
line runs but all thinkers know it is there,
and that it separates boys and girls as well
as men and women. What gives the child
its permanent bias! Sometimes inherent
qualities; but the children of all other
races are largely moulded by the doings
and teachings of those they associate with,
from the baby in it's cradle to the grand
father in his old armchair; but especially
by those of about their own age. Is not
this sos And are your children exceptions
to this universal rules Is it not then a
matter of momentous Importance that
your little lad or sturdy youth shall fellow
ship with those who will lead away from
instead of into dangerous pathsl Again,
other things being equal, boy is likely to
find the most of his companions among the
children OF those who belong to his
parents class, or element. or grade in
society. There are, of course, exceptions,
but this is the rule.
Among the divisions in society one is
year by year becoming more and yet more
marked. Indeed, every setting sun finds
the chasm broader and deeper than at
morn 1t is the line of demarcation be-
tween those who frequent and those who
shun the dramshop. Go through the saloons
of city and you will find some honest and
intelligent men, with most of the vicious
and reckless classes. Indeed, the more
upright the man the less likely is he to be
found there, while the viler he is, the
more certainly and constantly will he be