Year: 1876




For nearly half century the habit of
drinking alcoholic beverages has been
combatted by organized opposition. At
the beginning of this conflict the use of
such beverages had become almost uni
versal. They abounded in the work
shops, on the farm, in the store, in the
office, in the reception-room, and on the
dining-table. The neglect to offer them
in some form to the friend who had
called to spend social hour was an un-
pardonable breach of hospitality; and
to decline taking when offered was an
equally grave offense. They could be
purchased wherever family provisions
could, and the widespread and unchal-
lenged use of them is to US, of this pc
riod, a matter of astonishment.


But if we rise now and look over our
work, we see a very different state of
things. We find everywhere a senti-
ment more or less active, that alcoholic
beverages are to be regarded with dis
trust and apprehension; that they are
not the harmless stimulants our grand
fathers thought them to be, and that it
is quite as we'll to give them a wide
berth. This is very general feeling,
and it comes of the discussion which
has been had before the world through
all these years, and marks the gain
made by advocates against deep-seated
habit. AS a rule, these beverages are
not now kept unehallenged in house
holds, and made a test and sign Of
friendship. They do not adorn the
side-board to tempt the family and
their friends. The temperance organi.
cations, SO full of promise for good al
the commencement of the reformation,
hold the field yet, and in far more eff
cient form as they grow older. The
Order of G. r. G. is not so fully repre-
sented as is desirable, but we feel as.
sured that in time it will be success
both as temperance and moral Order
The Sons of Temperance and Coco
Templars, with their array of reliable
temperance men and women, are al
working and aiming for the same end


But alcohol and its friends still live
Those who advocate the manufacture
sale, and use of alcoholic drinks arC
numerous and defiant. UncounteC
millions of capital are invested in sucf
manufacture and sale, and they who op
pose US stand in formidable phalanx OF
their defense. This dread array doe
not daunt us, for we have the public
ear, and we will have the public heart
how soon, none can tell, for it is proba
BILE that the child is not yet born whc
will see the last of these beverages, bu
the conviction is spreading and deepen
ing among men and women that dIcho
hot is a poison, active and deadly, and
being such, is wholly unsuited to any
need of our physical nature.


While our membership is in many
places faithfully at work, by their ex
ample holding up to all with whom
they associate in the varied rounds o
business and general society the bene
fits of total abstinence from all that in
toxicates, we must not overlook tn
power which the press wields in form
ing public opinion in our age, and avail
ourselves of its aid in promoting ou
cause at all suitable opportunities. w
should patronize the publications whicl
are devoted to the circulation and de
fense of our measures, and first among
them stands the NEW NORTHWEST
coming weekly to our hearths ant
homes, the central organ of temperanc
and sobriety, and published by repre-
sentatives of the sex whose influence i
ever to be found on the side of right
1t is the only paper in our State which
boldly assails the wrong, wherever ex
istiDg.J AS such, 1t deserves the libera
patronage Of the public. Ae w.
| Albany, March 1876.