The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1898-09-30

ihahlhS ~ StIoIISef anu pFOnlDlG-
i've; while the anti-temperance
partiSans, with characteristic in
sin ccrity and contradiction, main
tain that because the government
has not been able to totally sup
press drunkenness by police regu-
latlOn, the proper thing to do is
to repeal the law and let the traf-
tic be unconfined by any sort of
control or limitations. We are
all familiar with the argument;
and we also know that the same
attitude towards every species of
lawlessness would abrogate the
penal code and resolve society
into its original chaos Of barba-
rlsm and anarchy. But the Rus
sian government seems likely to
| ignore this highly democratic no.
ton Of organized civilization, and
tie chances are that the car will
give the world the benefit of an
example of prohibition, pure and
simple, enforced by the mandates
OF autocratic authority Of the
most rigid kind. 1t will be an in
tercstlng experiment, and our
friends who think "prohibition
does not prohibit" and that the
best remedy for drunkenness lies
in q absolute "a abandonment Of all
legal restraints, will have an op-
pOrtunity to witness an up to-
date trial Of despotic control over
the Worldwide evil Of liquor sell
ing and liquor drinking. In
France the movement has as
sumed @ tone Of intellectual theO-
rizing III Keeping with the acute
and ingenious methods Of the peo-
pie. The literary men and the
sociOlOgists have taken up the
discussion, and some interesting
questions are being presented for
solution. The general decadence
Of French morals, manners and
intellectual vigOr has become q
matter for universal comment,
and the truth of their degeneracy
seems to have struck home
to Frenchman themselves. la
searching for the causes of this
melancholy decentralization Of the
mental capacity and social purity
Of the nation, some of the wiSeSt
men in France, do not hesitate to
ascribe it to the prevailing intem-
perance of the people-not to gen
eral drunkenness and debauchery,
of which there is more than
enough, but to the polite habit of
Wine-driniIing as a social habit
among all classes. This comes
peritOpsly near to attacking the |
citadel of the respectable apollo |
@lst for intemperance, whose !
chief argument is that "moderate
drinklng' and eight wines" do
not harm any one. A celebrated |
French writer, NJ. E. Demoulins,
in his latest work, "rhe French
man of Today discusses analyt-
ically and keenly the predomi-
nant vices and weaknesses of the
French character-thelr inSta bill |
ty, their incapacity for self-gov-
eminent, their want of dignified
self-restraint, and their universal
tendency to hysterical and NOR
bid ScnSa tionalism-and comes to
The conclusion that the vineyard
is the root of all these evils. Lis
ten to this cruelty accurate dis
section of the Frenchman of
today:
The Frenchman has no taste
for work, is devoid of energy, of
initiative, incapable Of daring en-
terprlsc and continued efforts. At
once an advocate of routine ard
constant change, he is equally
poWerleSs to direct his own course,
and fractions under all discipline.
In public life he has no choice but
TO submit to the state, whose
power he recognizes while rebel
ling against it; he leaves all anne