TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1975, 23 June 1880, Page 3

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[Edited bi C. M. Q.] INTRODUCTION. The primary object of this “Temperance Column ” is the dissemination of information bearing on the evil effects of alcoholic liquors, and the benefits to be derived from a total abstinence from all that can intoxicate. The information will consist principally of interesting items culled from the leading temperance journals of the day, and will be in advocacy of total abstinence from ell intoxicating liquors as a beverage ; and the creation of a healthy public opinion on the subject, by the circulation of truth in all forms known to an enlightened philanthrophy. FACTS BEFORE OPINIONS. The National Deink Bill toe 1879. — The Excise Returns, giving the consumption of intoxicating liquors for 1879, have just been published, and show that the amount of money spent upon British and foreign spirits, wine and beer in the United Kingdom during the past year to be £128,143,861. The consumption for 1878 amounted to £142,188,900, showing a falling-off of £14,045,036, or 9-8 per cent. During nine years, from 1871 to 1879, the sum expended on strong drink in the “ Christian” British Isles was as follows : 1871 £118,906,066 1873 131,601,490 1873 140,014,712 1874 141,343,997 1873 142,876,669 1876 147,288,760 1877 142.007,231 1878 142,188,900 1879 128,143,864

Grand total ... £1,234,370,689 Dedicated to thb Chabitable Aid Boabd.—At a temperance conference held at Glasgow in March, Lord Provost Collins said : —" Only within the last month I learned what to me was a most interesting fact. At the last annual meeting of the Royal Infirmary I was able to state that within the last six years the consumption of stimulants within the institution had been diminished not by onefourth, but to a fourth of the amount that was previously used. I think in the year 1874 the expenditure upon stimulants such as wines, spirit?, porters, »nd ales, was £750. In two years the amount had been reduced to little over £3OO, and last year the total amount for stimulants, although the number of patients was fully as large as in the previous year, had fallen to £156. I do not know any fact whioh could testify more as to the opinion of medical science on this question. For you must recollect that that was not the result of the operations of any teetotal physician, but was rather the result of the operations on the aggregate of all the physicians, so that the general practice must have been all in the same direction." Setting thbib House in Obdeb—The Chancellor of the Exchequer having, at the annual dinner of the Exeter Licensed Victuallers, on Tuesday, pointed out the importance of temperance, and advised them to show by their conduct that they were not insensible to the existence of the evil, representatives of the trade have held a conference in that city, at which several speakers admitted the importance of making their houses victualling establishments in fact as well as in name. It was remarked that public-hou3es possessed every facility for providing whatever refreshments customers might prefer. The following resolution was unanimously passed :—" That in the opinion of this conference it is highly desirable that Licensed Victuallers should be impressed with the necessity of making the sale of victuals and non-intoxicating liquors, suoh as milk, tea, and coffee, a leading feature of their business." It is understood that a resolution in this spirit will be proposed at the annual conference of the Licensed Victuallers next month. Sacbambntal Wins.—lt has been determined to use unfermented wine for sacramental purposes in the Gilfillan Memorial Church, now presided over by the Rev. David Macrae. The number of members on tho church roll is 1100.

Nativb Wins. —Speaking of a proposal to encourage the making and drinking of native wine in California, the " Bescue" Bays :—The bloated visages of wine makers who use their own wine in its purity, the besotted condition of those who work about the wine cellars, and those who drink pure native California wine to any extent, tell a tale that carries its own moral. We heard it stated in a public meeting not long since, on the authority of a County Judge, that from one small county in this State six wine makers had been consigned to the insane aßylum in one year, made insane from drinking their own pure wine. We used to live in El Dorado county, and in that county grapes grow to perfection, and are made into wine. The wine makers themselves used to drink it, and in one month six of them became insane from its effects, and were sent to the asylum. Even now an old friend, living in that county, a member of one of the moßt highly respected families, is ro ported as becoming insane, and is supposed to be past recovery. He has been drinking pure native wine for some years past, has the largest and finest vineyard and winery in the oounty, and made the fatal mistake of using himself the temperance drink he had prepared for others. Thb Champioh Shot.—Sergeant Okey, the champion for 1880, at the banquet given in his honor, said—" Perhaps it would not be out of place if I were to say a few words as to what should tend to make a man a good shot. In the first plaoe, he mußt be Bteady. There is no use in taking what is now in these decanters before us. lam one who can say that I have never drank a glass of liquor in my life, and I consider that it is owing in a great measure to that fact that I am the winner of the belt. There is another thing that tends to make a man nervous, and that is smoking. If a man tries to win the belt he must not take anything which will make him nervous. He must be temperate in eating and in everything else. I think Dr. O'Carroll will be able to explain that to you much better than I can." A correspondent says—" Okey is a young fellow about twenty-five years of age, who has been bred a Band of Hope boy, and is now a Good Templar. All his family are teetotallers, and have done useful work." Toasts -without Alcohol—The " League Journal" says Principal Pirie gave a breakfast to the magistrand students of Aberdeen University, in the Palace Hotel, on Saturday morning, according to what is now his annual custom. The Principal presided, and there were also present—Professor Cossart Ewart, Professor Pirie, Professor John Fyfe, Dr. Webster of Edgehill, and Misses Pirie and a number of other ladies. About eighty magistrands were present. The toasts were drunk in the usual breakfast form, no spirituous liquora being used. INTERESTING. Dr. Craigie, of Edinburgh, says out of thirty-one deaths from fever in his ward only two ooourred in temperate persons. We are informed, says an English exchange, that the two gentlemen who were firat and seoond at the late skating race at Hendon for the " amateur championship of the world for fast skating," are both strict total abstainers. " It is not enough to ereot a flag ahead to mark the spot where the drunkard dies. It must be planted at the entrance of his course, proclaimed in waving capitals—" This is the way to Death !" Over the whole territory of " prudent use "it mußt wave and warn ; for if we cannot stop men in the beginning, we cannot separate between that and the end. He who lets strong drinks alone before they are meddled with is Bafe, and he only. They should be in every family a contraband article. They should be labelled as we label laudanum; and touoh not, taste not, handle not, should meet the eye on every vessel which contains them." —Dr. Lyman Beecher. Dr. Ohyne said that should ten young men begin at twenty-one years of age to use but ono glass of two ounces a day, and never increase the quantity, nine out of the ten would shorten life more than ten years. "I want a clerk." "Do you?" "Yes; do you know of one?" "Yes." "What can you say of him ?" "He has been a teetotaller for five years." " Send him in." So he was sent in; and he has been "in " ever since. For many years a good old lady drank her port wine. " I could not do without it," she said. Well, she felt the claims of our movement, and thought she would try milk. Wonderful ! She was as well as ever, and has never taken port wine any more. Who will be the next to try milk ? A gentleman has told me this—" lamin a house of business; we have a good many young men there, and I have known six of them come in drunk on a Sunday night." Fathers, sign the pledge, and keep your bodb away from the drink.