Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-07-11
TENLpEEANCE ARROAD.

Interest in the modification of the
drinking customs of the people is having
increasing development in countries
where it has been thought by many that
the indulgence results in no particular
harm. There is not yet any general
agitation. so far as know, in behalf of
total abstinence: but growing convic-
ton among the best thinkers that there
is to free Indulgence in alcoholic beVer-
ages for the good of the people and the
welfare of the state. y commission of
the French Academy of Medicine has
recently condemned in strong terms the
present abuse Of absinthe, vermouth,
noyan. chartreuse, and other sO-called
cordials. 1t is felt that the vitality of
the nation is suffering decline on this
account and that these liquors are sap
ping the physical and mental power of
the population to degree that calls for
earnest effort to counterfeit the prevail
ing customs, and rescue the ignorant
and the careless from impending
destruction.
Some of our readers may have read
the story by Marie Corelli entitled
"Wormwood," in which this subject of
the degrading, debasing effect of the
absinthe habit is presented with high
degree of power and vlvidness. The
| Judgment of this medical commission
appears to sustain the representation In
| the novel in all essential respects. The
present alarm is occasiOned by cOnvic-
ton that the French people are turning
from the use of light wines, which have
not been considered especially injurious,
to this concentrated baneful liquor.
whose effects are worse and much more
rapid. 1t appears to operate on the men.
tai and moral state much as opium does
and the habit once formed Is not easily
broken away from.
a prominent physician of Paris, In a
communication to Paris journal, calls
this class of cordials "murderous
liquids" and declares that their con
sumption has grown to such proper.
tions, even among women and children
that it has become absolutely necessary
to check the evil. He thinks the time ha;
come when Frenchmen must consider
whether 1t is not better to forego al
revenue derived from these drinks rather
than see the profits expended, as they
must be. in the construction of asylum:
for the mad, hospitals for the diseased
and prisons for the criminals. OF
course, he does not mean that the take;
shall be removed in order 10 make the
liquors less expensive, and therefore
more popular; he means that the manu-
facture and sale should be prohibited
All the sad results of this Indulgence
he declares, are not comperhended in
the diseases indicated above. $40 these
consequences of alcoholic abuse may be
added diminuton of the birth rate, al
increased infant mortality, and swell
ing of the number of idiots and cripples
children of drunkards, the falling of OF
the nations wealth in its work-people
and the growing prevalence of consump
ton, of which alcohol is one of the
principal factors"
In Germany the temperance reform
takes on another aspect. The Emperor
Is on record as having expressed the
opinion that beer drinking is INDUCED
in to harmful extent. This Is de
cded change in his views, for it is no
long since the time when, on the &C
casion we believe of his sons matrlcu
lation at the university, he spoke il
terms of laudation of the student bee
drinking, seeming to think 1t was |
token of manliness to be able to drinl
immOderately. This is not the onl,
matter In which he seems to be acquir