The morning call., 1894-05-27
A QUESTION OF DRINKING.

Miss Henrietta Brown, secretary OF the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
read a paper on Thursday holding the
Christian missionaries responsible for the
spread of drunkenness in the heather
world. The lady did not positively say
that the missionaries made the heathens
drunk in order TO convert them. But she
did say that Christians send to foreign
ports missionaries and liquor in the same
vessel, and that of the four great religions
of the world Christianity is the only one
which seems TO protect the liquor traffic.
Of course the simple fact about this is
that merchants send to foreign lands such
goods as they can sell to the best profit,
and missionaries take passage on such
ships as are going their way. There is
also sometimes the fact that missionaries
redeem heather people from savagery, and
so open their countries to trade, of which
liquor-dealers take advantage. That is all
there is in the cheap talk about mission
aries and rum"
All nations have their vices in the shape
OF stimulants or narcotics. Almost all the
peoples with which we are acquainted
were familiar with the use of distilled or
fermented liquors long before the time of
Christ. The Egyptians were beer drinkers;
the people Of Israel were given to wine
the prophet Amos says that ordinary
glasses were not big enough for them;
they drank from bowls" and the women
clamored for new wine" Later on the
use Of wine as an iutoXicant was familiar
TO the Greeks and Romans. Alexander the
Great was drunk when he killed Clitus,
and the Romans Of the Augustan era
thought nothing OF fuddling themselves
till they could not stand. The Gauls and
Germans were addicted to beer drinking
till their reason was overpowered. The
Walhalla witnessed orgies at the close of
which the warriors were carried out on
shutters.
Miss Brown and other speakers who
followed her contrasted Christian drunken
ness with Mosem sObriety, to the dlspar-
agement of the faith we profess. A good
deal of misrepresentation prevails on this
subject. The Koran fOrbids wine drink
ing, but this is one OF its injunctons
which is often honored in the breach.
There are not as many drinking places in
Constantinople or Alexandria as there are
in San Francisco. But there Is no diff
Guilty in obtaining wine or even whisky
straight at either place. Turks Of rank
always have champagne on their tables
a large proportion of the followers of Mo-
manned. perhaps an eigh b, belong to the
sect of Shi-ites. and among them drunken
ness IS quite common. They show their
respect for the Koran by abstalning from
the manufacture of LIQUOR. That branch
of industry is left to the Jews and Chris
tians; but when the deadly intoxicant is
made. they drink it without compunction.
The appetite for alcoholic stimulants is,
however. more conspicuous among Euro
peans and Americans than among Oren-
tals-why, it were hard to say. Taste
varies with fashion. In China ana India
the natives smoke opium, in Persia they pre-
fer hashish. Climate and race have much to
DO with stlmuants. Statistics show that
the largest per capita consumption of
spirits in the world is in Denmark and
Scotland, yet neither the Danes nor the
Scotch can be called a people of
drunkards.
1t is a curious fact that the people which
conquer the world and hold on TO their
conquests are hard-headed drinkers. They
do not conquer because they drink, but
there seems to be something in the conquer
ing blood which demands the pleasures of
the flowing bowl. Because of this it does
not follow that the religious militancy Of
these people should be held responsible
for their political and commercial mill
fancy,