The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-02-22
DRINK IN EARLY NEW ENGLAND.
Penalties Imposed Upon Drunkards in
Early Times.

imposed Upon
Early Times.
But though drinking was so general,
there was surprisingly little drunken
ness in Puritan days. Cotton Mather
complained that everv other house in
Boston was an ale-house; but New En-
gland throughout the seventeenth CEN
fury was sober and law-abiding. The
tavern-keepers-alw men of social
and political Importance, as the pre-
cedence lists" of Harvard and Yale re-
veal-were constrained to see to it chat
no man drank more than quart of
beer out of meal-timeS, that there was
no singing or dancing or gaming on
their premises, nor any smoking of to-
bacco. The minister the magistrate,
the deacons and the copStableS had an
unpleasant habit of publicly Gliding
the over-boisterous, or those who
tarried too long with the wine, and
the tithing man would force himself
upon the company of the stranger
in the inn, and sternly counter
mand his order for drink if it
seemed to him excessive. There were,
too, fines and Imprisonment, the
stocks, the pillory, the drunkard' s
cloak Ia barrel with holes for head
and arms, or the bilboes for the in
toxicated, and, for the incorrigible,
Acknowledgement and badge of shame.
We laugh at the sumptuary laws of
earlier times-the regulations for bak-
ers and -bed-makers, and al
most every other tradesman and every
laborer Some of them are ludicrous
enough; but it is not certain that in
small and isolated communities, in a
new country at least, they were not in
the main well suited to the occasion,
however it may have been in more
populous England, from whence they
We're brought. Even the penal
ty of fine, imprisonment, or
the whipping post, which await
ed the youth who persisted
in counting maid without the formal
consent of her parents, amusing though
it seems to-day, may not have been
unbenefcial in so primitive a society.
The New England settlers were both
cred with few theories of government.
The foundations of the republic were
laid broad and deep; but they were
concerned mostly with then daily life
and those about them, and they tried
to prevent wickedness and to punish it
in the way which seemed most simple
and most direct, and should best serve
as warning to others.
1t is well to bear in mind, however
since contrary notion has obtained
credence, that as compared with Europe
in their time they We're far from cruel
in their punishments, save only in
cases of offense against religion.
One of the hardest lessons we ourselves
have to learn is tolerance of
belief Two centuries ago the
necessity was never dreamed
of. Men who showed contempt for the
''word preached" were placarded and
publicly pilloried those who disputed
were Gagged in the market place and
there preached to; those who could not
be silen' ed were driven into exile. But
of actual bloodthirstiness, of the tor
lures which make the criminal history
of Europe so terrible, New England
knows little. Men were hanged-alas!
they We're burned, too-but not for
trifles; and their taking off was made a
public holiday. But incessant exhorta-
ton and public preaching to he con-
demned preceded their execution, not
the rack nor any other implement of
| physical torture. Weekly.