The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-02-19
TEMPERANCE
HER TOPIC

Mems Research club at Punahou Hall
last evening. large and appreciative
audience was present. DIR. Smith pre-
sents her subjects in a forcible and
scholarly manner and is thoroughly
conversant with sociological questions.
Her lecture last evening was on
"Drunkenness-nnd Race Progress" She
said in part:
Stimulants have been used from the
earliest ages by all peoples; by the
Greeks and Romans light wines were
used very temperately, until the period
of decadence. The process of dstilla-
ton was not Known in Ell; ope till abou.
| the eleventh century, and the cordials
| made in Monasteries were used only
as medicines. The common drink
throughout the middle ages in Northern
| Europe was beer-practically synon-
| ymous then with ale. The Normans
acquired English habits of drinking ale
| after the conquest and the English in
| turn acquired much heavier habits of
drinking from the Dutch. In the reign
of Queen Elizabeth this fact begins to
be commented upon but 1t was only the
| upper classes who were addicted to
hard drinking of spirituous liquors.
Drunkenness among the upper classes
was never so general as in the seven
| teenth century Many public men were
| scandalously addicted to 1t, and by the
end of the century heavy drinking of
spirituous liquors was universal among
the upper classes and was considered
commendable.
Among the poor, however, at the be-
ginning of the eighteenth century, the
popular beverage was still ale. The
consumption was amazing. In 1868 1t
was eighty gallons per capita and one
third of the arabic land in England was
in barley. In 1859 distilling was thrown
open to English subjects. This meas
ure laid the foundation of the great ex-
tension of the English manufacture of
spirits and the passion for gin spread
with the rapidity of an epidemic. Field
ing declared that "If the drinking of
this poison be continued at it's present
height during the next twenty years.
there will be very few of the common
people left to drink it,
Various experiments in legislation
failed but the more moderate ones prov
ed somewhat of a palliative. BY the
end of the eighteenth century drinking
and duelling had greatly diminished
among the upper classes but drinking
was still excessive among the common
people. The Introduction of tea, coffee
and chocolate between 1652-1657 had q
remarkable refining influence upon So
ciety.
America was settled by two streams
of migration, the one OF Puritans to
New England, the other of Cavaliers
and adventures to Virginia and the
south. The Puritans, though consider
ed comparatively abstemious at home,
brought their drinking habits with
them. The manufacture of cider and
rum became very important CONNER
cially. These beverages We're served to
guests and on all public occasions. As
late as 1870 liquors were freely used at
Harvard commencements, Mt ordina-
tons and at religious councils. Public
men drank much and publicly; rum and
whiskey We're habitually used at train
ings, town-meetings, huskings and har-
vestings. The planters in the South
made apple-jack and peach brandy and |
imported foreign wines and liquors
In the nineteenth century an extraor-
binary change took place in public |
sentiment concerning drinking. The |
decline of drinking among public men. |
the regulation of the sale of liquors to
public dinners, the rules against drink
ing enforced among the employees of |
large corporations, the combining of |
excessive drinking to saloons and pri- |
waite bars almost wholly, all testify to |
n widespread change of habit in the !
United States. The United States has, |
in sixty years, changed from "a spirit to |
a beer drinking country; we drink less |
than half a much gniritc rar Al "a
and four times as much beer as we did |
in 1860. !
This change of public sentiment is |
due to a variety of causes: to "A wide |
spread religious and moral revival |
among the evangelical churches; to the |
modification of the English physical |
type into the more nervous, sensitive |
American by change of climate, to the |
Improvement of living conditions |
among the working classes, to the sub
stitution of tea, coffee and soft drinks |
for beer and wine. The increase in beer
drinking is due in great measure to the
large number of Irish and German i'm
migrants since 1850
At present, the per capita consump-
ton of wine and of spirits Is not in
creasing in any European state nor in
the United States. The consumption of
spirits is decreasing in Russia. Nor
way and the United States; while the
consumption of beer is increasing in
nine out of twelve countries.
Has Anglo-Saxon civilization develop
ed because of, or in spite of, drinking?
We may say certainly in spite of the
drinking of spirits. Looking pack over
this historical sketch we see that
drunkenness as national vice began
with the invention of splrltuous liquors,
producing an epidemic among the nobil-
ity of England in the seventeenth CEN
tury, among the common people in the
century, in Norway in the
century and reflected in the
United States.
The checks which have operated in
the past have been physical develop
ment among the Greeks and Romans,
expense and scarcity of production,