Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-02-16
THE BEGINNINGS OF TEMPER
ANCE REFORM

When l first commenced my public
career (about 1925, intemperance vas
at a fearful height. The multitude,
with a few exceptions, drank rum.
Ministers drank, church members
drank, men drank, women drank, and
children, too. Every merchant. sold
it. 1t was a leading article of trade.
1t was the stimulus of the husband
man; his crops could not be gotten in
or out or off the fields without it. 1t
was as necessary for mechanical bust
ness as water or tools. No marriage
joys were complete without it, and no
funeral party could mourn if it were
wanting. 1t was as necessary to bury
the dead as a coffin or a shroud. No
favored parent could rejoice over a
newborn babe without plenty to
drink. No building could be raised
but by rum. 1t was al absolute ne
cessity at huskings, at cuttings, at
bees, and at parties of all kinds. 1t
was the sweetener of social inter
course and always stood upon the
social board. Such was public senti-
. ment, and who had the temerity to
oppose it, the h%ardihood to withstand
it? No mar was considered intern
peFate or intoxicated if he could get
home by holding on to the fence and
if not, his condition was a source of
merriment rather than regret. He
who could drink the longest was the
hero; and if a man, a young mar even,
declined for fear of being drunk, he
was held up to public scorn. This
was an alarming state of things
beggary,- pauperism, waste, dilapida-
ton, misery and wretchedness were on
every hand. Whole neighborhoods,
with few exceptions, were given up to
this foul demon. You could tell a rum
region in passing through it-chim-
neys, as though ashamed to show their
heads, had drawn themselves in; gates
demolished; barn doors had given
place to a few broken bars, and win
dows looked as though all the beggars
in Christendom had met and left their
rags.
How to Stop the Flood
Many saw the picture and trembled.
But how to stop the flood was the
question. Entire abstinence was not to
be thought of, and how to put checks
upon it puzzled the wisest heads. Min
listers were becoming drunkards; law-
yers and statesmen, and finally the
rich as we'll as the poor, the high as
we'll as the low, were becoming drunk
ards. What should be done? was the
anxious inquiry. Efforts were put
forth to throw restraints around the
evil, and moderation was urged. A
few societies were formed pledging
their members not to get drunk. Total
abstinence none thought of. A con-
vention of ministers vas called, some
where in Connecticut, to devise a
remedy; and after a mornings DELHI
Grafton they retired to the home of the
resident clergyman for dinner. Their
host brought on his decanters saying,
1--WE have worked hard; nov let us
take a drink" But it was oon found
that pledges to moderation, as long as
it was used at all, were like ropes of
sand. The picture, though startling,
has not been overdrawn. 1t was a
time of great darkness. So great was it
that many professedly pious Christians
urged the use of rum: at helped them
to enjoy their minds so much better"
At this stage of things a standard
was lifted up. DR.. Beecher, DR.. Fisk
and a few others had solved the ques-
ton, and an important one it was. The
remedy was simple, "Stop drinking,
abstain entirely" They sent out their
appeals; they spoke in eloquence thai
burns, in logic that withers. The
clergy, first in every good work, were
the first to move in this. Now the
wind began to blow from a healthy
quarter. Some ministers, to be sure,
were dismissed and others greatly
troubled for preaching temperance"
I think it was in the town of Hadley,
the aged and venerable clergyman
opened his battery on this evil, but
was soon waited upon by a committee
who assured him that if he did not
cease speaking upon this subject they
would be obliged to dismiss him. His
quiet but heroic reply was: well,
dismiss me, if o will. I will go
away and tell the world, old Hadley
has got drunk and dismissed it's min
ister.'" But the war went On.
Pledges were circulated to abstain
from all distilled spirits, and thou
sands signed them, and temperance
societies were formed in almost every
town. Town associations, neighbor-
hood associations, female associa-
tions, and young peoples and chill
dren's associations were organized.
One Preachers Share
At this point in the struggle, though
a young man, 1 girded on the ITEM
perance armor." / signed n of the
first pledges ever circulated in New
Hampshire. 1 gave some of the first
lectures ever given upon this subject
lalanata to tho fret stata