The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1890-10-09

For, all that man can ever brew the victor!
palm must yield
To draught of cold spring water in a summer
harvest-ield.
Ernest McGaf1ey, in Judge.
THE DRINKING HABIT.
Two Questions Put by the Liquor Grove
Answered in the Right Way.
A correspondent at Clermont a.,
writes US as follows:
I um greatly interested in the brave ant
noble stand you have taken to ''Pulverize the
Rum Power" but, as this Temperance move
ment presses on towards it's final triumph, new
obst acles will be continually thrown in its way
Hero are two questions which have been pro
pounded, and would be pleased If you would
disc Iss them through the Blades columns
They say: How does it come, if strong
drin Ks a-e so destructive, that the Germans
who drink more beer and distilled liquors than
any other Nation, are the healthiest people
In olden times, when people drank more beer
and whisky Uhis was in Norway and Sweden)
the men we're giants in strength, and the PEG
pie we're stouter and heather than now?''
We infer that there is a general cir
culation of the statement embodied in
these questions throughout Iowa, Kan.
sas and Nebraska, as they have been
made to US before. 1t is hard to say
whether those who circulate them be.
lie1e them or not. Those to whom they
are propounded should at once pose the
questioner by asking for the proof, as
to the first question, that the Germans
are 1.-The healthiest people"-a state
ment untrue in fact; and regarding the
second, by asking for the proof that the
Scaadinavians of ancient times drank
either whisky or beer similar to the
beer of the present; for proof that the
mass of that people were either stouter
or healthier than nov; and that there
eyer was giant in strength among
them. You will he surprised to find
thai they can give no proof of any one
of these things. The reason is this:
They are not true in the specific sense
in which thew are asserted in these
questions. We challenge any one to
produce the proof of the truth of the
assertions in the questions submitted
by our correspondent.
Some general discussion of facts that
are often lost sight of by both the advo.
Gates OF Temperance and their oppo-
nents will be found useful in this con-
nection. First with regard to the
drinking habits of the people of Ger.
many. The Germans imbibe but COM
paratively very little of distilled liq-
uors; their drinks are beer and light
wines. They use them as we use tea
and coffee-drinking them with their
meals. and not taking them on an
empty stomach. They do not drink as
Americans do-swill down glass after
glass within few minutes. The drink
ing is moderate compared with that to
which we are accustomed in America.
As to the Scandinavians (the people
of Norway and Sweden). it is absurd to
quote the legendary stories of their
heroes of semi-historic period as
sober truths. The early history of all
nations shows the idealization that
seems inevitable in the process of hand
ing down stories of the prowess and
courage of ancestors. Such stories al.
ways increase in the telling, and never
diminish. The doings of brave man
are magnified in the course of genera
tions until they become impossible to a
man of ordinary strength and stature;
and then the enlargement goes on by
representing the hero as giant in size
and strength. Again, the old Scan.
dinavians knew nothing of whisky OF
any other distilled liquors. They drank
rude kind of beer, of which but two
things are certain: One, that it must
have been horrid slop, and tie other,
that it could not, from it's mode of man.
ufacture, have contained nearly as grea,
a per cent. of alcohol as modern NAL,
liquors.
The fact must never be lost sight of,
in mating the value of facts bearing
on the Temperance question, that the
climate of the country, the mode of life,
the occupations and surroundings OF
the people all have an important bear.
ing on the effect of alcoholic liquors
upon them. The people of a country
with cold, damp climate like that Of
Great Britain, Scandinavia and North.
ern Germany, can drink with less harm
fnl results than can the inhabitants OF
dry climate (such as ours) or of any
hot country. As regards occupation,
the backwoodsman, whose life is passed
In the open air, can drink for years a
quantity of liquor that would kill a CITY
resident His example is no rule for
the dyspeptic clerk whose whole life,
practically, is scent in-doors-the day
in store or Office, the night in his room
with lack of fresh air and &C Give ex.
ercise.
The point is settled beyond debate
that the use of rum in any form is, soon
or or later, harmful to the drinker; that
the harm in any liquor is in direct pro-
portion to the quantity of alcohol con-
tanned in it, and to the amount drank;
and that tho steady drinking of any al
coholic drink is even worse than period
ical drinking; that is, the man who puts
alcohol into his system every day BY
drinking beer. wines or any other form
of rum, does more harm to himself esah
year than the man who goes on pefjod
ical 'sprees," with intervals in which he
drinks nothing. The testimony Of the
highest medical authorities of Europe
and America is unanimous on these
points. and they may be Justly consid-
cred as so thoroughly esta blished that
controversy ovee.them is out of the
question. . -. .....
This being the fact, our correspond
emit. and any one else to whom such sill
~ arguments are advanced, need not
waste effort in controverting them. Our
dry. brilliant climate is against drink
ing. An Englishman accustomed to
drink on coming to this country finds
that he must diminish the size and FREE
quency OF his potations or he will be