The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1908-02-01
OW near is a dry New
Years day?

/ HAENJ asking the question IN
l1@ accents &c Of dread.
3.-.----- The changed attitude
OF the nation on the question of the
liquor traffic has raised an issue that
once would have been thought beyond
the bounds Of possibility.
In the bygone, New Years could
without any disrespect be called the
day when all did reverence to Bacchus.
Men who, during the other 364 days
Of the year bore themselves with fit
ting propriety. and a stern regard for
the laws which forbid indulgence in
the wine when it is red, relaxed their
rules. Drink was prime feature, al
most the essential feature, of the days
celebration.
The custom of the New Years call
when carriage loads of we'll dressed
men moved from house to house to ex-
tend greetings, and to hope that in the
new twelvemonth might come moth
ing but joy and good fortune, was
merely a shifting from one glass to
another.
Everywhere was drink In the homes
of wealth the coming of a new Janu-
airy first was signalized by the popping
Of the corks that hold in imprison-
ment the costly bubbles Of France. The
middle class good cheer got it's inspira-
ton from port, claret or sherry, the
German put out his Rhine. wine, or
made happy on just plain beer. And
good old Pat, from Erin's shore, got
out the little black bottle, poured out
four fingers, and hoped that Mike
might yet delve as deeply in happi-
ness as he went to the bottom Of his
glass.
The open house of the clubs of New
Years day! Picture them with flow
ing pitchers of ice water taking the
place Of the punch, the mulled ale, the
claret cup, or the eggnog moved ahead
three months in advance of Easter.
What of the hot Tom and Jerry
which every Boniface must needs set
forth as soon as his calendar apprises
him that the month of December is
tottering on it's last legs.
Yet the end Of all this seems at
hand
The temperance wave sweeping ire
sistibly over the country will compel
mere man to revise his holiday OBJ
servances. Perhaps he won't wind so
much being abstemious on other holi-
days. Washington's birthday, July
Fourth, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiv-
ing day all have so many other fea-
lures that it will be no especial hard
ship to abstain then, but New Years
with the flowing bowl repressed, will
seem a strange New Years, indeed.
Yet this kind Of a New Years has
already dawned in, some sections of
the United States.
There are prohibition laws which
prevent the sale of liquor in all or
parts of Delaware, Tennessee, Florida,
Alamaba, Maine, Texas, Arkansas,
South Carolina, North Carolina, Vir-
ginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Vermont,
Massachusetts,, Iowa, Rhode Island,
Maryland, Michigan, South Dakota,
Colorado and Washington.
It has been estimated that in fully
e-half of the United States the once
filed bottle was empty on January l.
1908, and with the advance of the pro-
hibition spirit in every section of the
country-north, east south and west
it is difficult to tell what will be left
to the convivial spirit by the time
New Years day, 1910, has worked
around.
Rural United States is now in great
er part dry. Only in the larger cities
has what the white ribboners are prone