The Press., 1888-05-17

- MAI
 It is not necessary for me to say that it has required great deal of pressure to induce me. to deliver alectnre, here, this evening. Itis with the greatestreluctance that have consented to engage in this fool hardy enterprise. have been obliged, however, to yield to the popular clamor for my appearance upon the platform. To borrow familiar campaign Expression, l am now in the hands of my friends. Al though forgive these well-neaning peo- pie for their indiscretion in compelling me to round out this course of lectures, I am afraid that they will never forgive them selves
 I have been somewhat embarrassed in a subject for our consideration appropriate for the time and place, and one likely to interest the greater number of those here present. have concluded that 1t may be profitable for us to devote our attention to 8 substance that, very like ly, is not totally unfamifiar to some of us, and one that we have reason to believe is very dear to some of our fellow townsmen, who, I presume, are not with us this even- ing, on account of more pressing engage ments elsewhere. My topic, therefore,
 will be that aromatic, hmpid, innocent looking liquid imprisoned in one of the
 bottles uron the table, viz, alcohol. That mighty instrument of woe, that pro- life source of iniquity, that potent ally of
 the devil, so quietly reposlng there in it's
 transparent receptacle Lt is not my pur-
 pose to initiate temperance rally this evening. I cannot speak to you as @ re- formed drunkard; for l mnst confess, and
 I hope that you will believe me, that I
 have never been addicted 10 the excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, not
 withstanding that my appearance may in dicate the contrary. | have never return ed home in an inebriated condition, in the small hours of the morning, and beaten
 my wife, for a reason that you all can un- derstaud Even if that Hypothetical lady
 had any existence, 1 am not at all sure, if
 had ever attempted a pcrformance of the
 kind that I have mentioned, but that l should have been the person to receive the am aware that, after making tho SC admissions, cannot hope to be. come a popular temperance orator. My observation has taught me that the more dissOlute man has been, and the more his previous career, the more effective is his service in blue-ribbon I must, therefore, forego any ambition ill this direction, unless the fact that, on several occasions, I have attended Barnum's circus be sufficient to establish my reputation for depravity. do not therefore, to deliver a temperance lecture. I wish to give you practical talk about alcohol, considered from scien- tific standpoint But ! do not promise you that my discourse will not partake of the nature of temperance lecture for when ! experience sh6 hroes of literary Composition, aud wg wiah ihe pen, it is ysEy aansa sss zsenlt ll which I have asceFaed ths burden imposed upon me tonight, that ! be allowed to wander in any of the desions by-paths that fancy or cratic genius may incline me to take. e-'..
 The first question that we naturally ask ourselves in connection with our subject is, what is alcohol? I presume that we are all familiar with it's physical qualities. Many of us have investigated the proper ties of some of the compounds ill which it figures as an ingredient. Who discovered alcohol? whence does it come? how long has mankind been blessed or cursed with a knowledge of it? These are questions that may be worth our while to try and answer.
 Alcohol was probably unknown to the ancients, although they were quite famil- jar with it's effects, and the fermented bev- erages, of which it forms the most neces- sary part The oldest literature of the world mentions wine. The Old Testament alludes to it. Noah experienced its som- nolent effects, and4i Ham was made the ape-goat of his fathers transgression
 Homer mentions wine in his immortal epic, which he sung nearly three thousand years ago. The poetical literature of the
 world teens with references to it. The Greeks and Romans, in historic times, slaked their thirst with wine, or wine mix ed with water. The origin of the more plebeian beverage, beer, is lost ill hoary antiquity. The Egyptians understood the art of brewing. They, taught it to the Greeks; and so knowledge of the art passed into Europe. Tacitus, the Latin historian of the Germans, who wrote his account of that people 1n the first century of our era, informs us that their usual beverage at that time was beer. For eighteen centuries they have been faithful in their allegiance to the amber stimulant. No wonder that the Ienton of today takes to his beer-mug as instinctively as 8 dog to bone, or boy to 8 green apple. For nearly two thousand years his countrymen have been busy inherlting, augmenting, and transmitting to posterity an appetite for this, their native element. Believers in Darwin's theory of the inheritance of pa- rental characteristics, and the doctrine of the survival of the Attest, ought not to be surprised at the marvellous tales of bibulous endurance that are brought back to us by tourists from beyond the Rhine. The were the Germans of antiquity They taught science to many nations. As the students of the world resort to Ger many, today, for instruction in science, 80 the old Greeks went to Egypt to learn of it's older civilization. Hundreds of years before Christ, the makers of the pyramids were brewing their liquid refreshment, and the Greeks earned back with them to their little peninsula a knowledge of the art. fear that it would be dangerous to dwell upon this association of beer and science. am afraid that lover of lager might draw the inference that intellectual is only to be found at the bots tom of beer-pot. Such an one would urge, no doubt, that the Greeks first be- came power in the world, and began their ascent to the pinnacle of perfection that they afterwards attained in literature, philosophy and art. when they carried back with them from Egypt the receipt for making beer.
 Some of the ancient inhabitants of north ern Europe, like the Britons, prepared an intoxicating drink from honey, called mead. With the advent of the Roman I