The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1899-06-01

THAT intoxicating is the sum and sub

one and outlaw the other 2" Certainly
| not. Drunkenness is detestable, no
matter how caused, but any one with
sufficient self-control, such as is pos
sessed by the natives of all wine drink
ing countries, France, Italy, Austria,
Germany and the East in general, need
never get in that condition. believe
| if wine were drunk to the same extent
| in America as it is in the before mem
toned countries, whiskey and inebri-
ETY. would almost disappear from our
land. In European trip which l
made several years ago | saw only one
drunken mamie was in London.
It's perfectly right to close the sa-
| looms where the modern alcoholic
drinks are sold, for they are the pro-
Ilific cause of intoxication, small
quantity producing that effect.
RICHARD II. EARLE
Since writing the above, another ar
ticle, signed "A Reader" under the
title, "Christ on Trial. He is Accused
of Making Alcoholic Wine at the Mar
rage in Cana of Gallilee. Causing the
Wedding Guests to Become InSoxica-
ted, has appeared in the columns of the
JOURNAL. upon which l shall make a
few remarks, denying at the same time,
that I have expressed the opinion that
the wedding guests at Cana were ineb-
rated.
Reader" says sit is an indisputable
fact that many ways of preserving the
Juice. of the grape just pressed from
the cluster, were known and prac-
ticed at the time of our Savior. They
were made strong or thick by boil
ing, (as we make sorghum) using
"a little in the water. Another
way was to make the bottles
[skinsl air-tight by coating of pitch,
the contents keeping indefinitely.
Horace, born years before Christ,
speaks of these preserved wines as be-
ing like nectar, so delicious were they,
and perfectly harmless, not producing
intoxication, even one drank to excess
To which l reply, that the beverage
thus spoken of by Horace, was not
wine [vinum, oinos] at all, but must,
[mustum sponte defluens, antequam
calcentur uvae, Greek, prochuma,
prodromos, or protropos which was
one of the primary stages of the liquid
undergoing the process of chemical
transformation into wine. 1t bore the
same relation to wine [oinos] as beer
or low wine does to the finished pro-
duct. whiskey. See Horace, Excursus
8, p. 684.
DIR. Adam, in his "Roman Antiqui-
ties" PIP. 379-3SO thus describes must.
"The liquor which came out without
pressing was called Protropum, or
muslin lixivium. The must or new
wine" (Mustum) was refined by mix
ing it with the yolks of pigeons eggs.
The white of eggs is now used for that
purpose. Then it was poured into
smaller vessels, made usually of earth
hence called testae, covered over with
pitch or chalk, and bunged or stopped
up. Wine was also kept in leathern
bags From new wine book not ripe
for publication is called musteous liber
by Pliny. Ep s, 81" The last sentence
recognizes the fact that must, (mus-
tum, protropos) or new wine," So
called, is not wine (vinum, oinOs.)
Reader" says, Il am familiar with
the standard lexicOns from which you
quote, and could cite many more lexi-'
cal authorities in harmony with your
statement" and Subscriber" alleges
that 1T is live question, not q dead
one, and it can't be solved by modern
dictionaries of long-ago dead Ian
guages." All well-informed people
know that lexicons of dead languages
| are made, and have been made, since
i those tongues became obsolete, by men
| of the most scholarly attachments and
painstaking care, who, in order to ar
rive at the perfect meaning of words
in the languages of which they treat,
have covered the whole range of litera-
ture, sacred and profane, of the coun-
| tries where they were written and
spoken and by diligent comparisons of
the senses in which they are used, aid
ed by their pathological and etymolog-
ical relations, and noting the described
effect following the employment of any
particular word have been enabled to
arrive at its exact import. Does Sub
scriber" not know that this is the best,
and frequently only, method of critical
research, and that a language no longer
spoken, and, therefore, not subject to
change, offers the only perfect medium
for preserving, so that they can always
be understood, the ideas committed to
it?
No earlier than two centuries ago, all
great works such as those relating to
science, law, etc, were written in the
! i-oVih tOI tIllS very IcuSOIl
"Reader admits that the standard lexi-
cons of the Greek language define
"oinos" as an Intoxicating wine. The
Greek scholars have found that that
word as used by Homer, Xenophon
the New Testament, is, in the effects
described, following the use of the ar
ticle represented by it, indicative of in
ebriety. Reader" surely will not set
his or her judgment against this array
OF talents and learning extending back
to three thousand years ago. If the
wine made by Christ at Cana was must
or unfermented wine, the inspired
writer would have used the word "pro.
tropos." The words of the Greek Ian.
guage have long ago been fixed and as.
certained; "oinos" conveys as clear al
idea today, as to the nature of the
drink, as ''whiskey," brandy ,""beer'
or wine"
Il. H. +.
After delivering the foregoing to the editor
friend has given me paper containing al
article by Rev. T. W. Chambers. d. D.. paste
of the Collegiate Reformed Church, New Yorl
City, which is much to the point in thi
| controversy that cannot forbear renroducin,