TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2017, 11 August 1880, Page 3

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[Edited by 0. M. Q.] GOOD TEMPLARY IN CHRISTCHURCH. The friends of peace and morality will rejoice to learn that the Good Templar cause is in a flourishing condition in this city. Not only do nearly all the lodges exhibit an increase in membership, but the interest evinced in the work of the Order is exceedingly cheering to those who are engaged in raising the fallen and keeping others from falling. During the past quarter, the “ open meetings " have been encouragingly popular. The lodges meeting in the Templar Hall have each been gratified at the increasing interest that has been manifested at these “ open meetings,” the hall, on nearly every occasion, being filled to overflowing. Several very interesting and instructive papers have been read in one of the lodges, and, in consequence of the attention and appreciation shown, it has been decided to have more during the current term. The lodges meeting at Sydenham, Addington, and in St. Andrew’s schoolroom have all been very successful in diffusing the principles and practices of Good Templarism. An especially cheering feature, that must not be forgotten, is the comparatively small number of “violations ” that have boon recorded; and the hope is exprossed'tbat as the public, as well as the members, become more conversant with temperance benefits and temperance facts, the per-centage of those who yield to the temptations that ever beset them in the community will ’ore long be materially lessened and reduced. With a view of extending the beneficial operations of the Order, it is proposed to plant lodges in the Heathcote and Bingsland districts. The foil >wing is a list of the lodges meeting in the Christchurch district, together with the number of members in each lodge : Dauntless, No. 7 ... ... ... 138 Hope, No. 8 ... 114 Southern Cross, No. 58 90 Pride of Sydenham, No. 200 ... 62 Pioneer of Addington, No. 9 ... 50 St. Andrew’s, No. 41 45 Total ... 499

WHY DR. RICHARDSON BECAME AN ABSTAINED. I came into the ranks of total abstinence from a purely selfish point of view. As a scientific man investigating the matter experimentally, I was led by my researches to recognise certain facts which I could not and dared not ignore, and which told me that the physiological action of alcohol upon man and the lower animals is contrary to that which is natural, and the use of alcohol is opposed to nature, and that its use must inevitably tend, if I continue it, to the shortening of my life, my usefulness and happiness. These are the three points I have come to in the course of my experiments. I look through the whole range of living creation, I look from the lowest to the highest forms of life, and I find alcohol has no place in anything relating to a living organism. Nature will not be crossed, nor can we with impunity attempt to make new bases for nature. This is the kind of feeling which came upon me as I traced out the action of alcohol experimentally. Then I turned to the action of it as shown by its effects, and a new field of light, of a pathological kind, came upon me. I followed up the changes of structure, and there came out the fact that just in proportion as this agent is used as it is said “ to support and assist the body,” so there is des.ruction of animal life and power, disease, and death. SIR W. LAWSON ON COMPENSATION. The cry now is, “ You cannot stop these publicans without compensation ” It would be pleasant to them to get it, and I am sure they will get it if they deserve it. But they must prove their case. They must prove that they had any understanding given to them that they had their licenses for more than one year. I don’t stop them till the year as up, and then I say let the public make the bargain again, or let the public say that they don’t want to mate the bargain again, and let the publicans retire with their profits. Perhaps they may get compensation when the thing comes to be settled, and I sometimes look forward to the pleasing eight of a retired licensed victualler. I fancy I see him sitting in a garden in his old age, with his little grandchildren playing around him. One says, “ Grandfather, what used you to do in former days?” He would say, “I was one of the graud army of licensed victuallers ; there were 140,000 of us.” She would ask, “What were you fighting about ? ” And he would reply, “ Ah, if you had read Mr Buxton, the great brewer’s book, you would have seen that we were carrying on the war of hell against heaven. We fought vigourously; great honor was paid to us ; princes and peers, and members of parliament used to attend our banquets; great monuments were set up in our honor — workhouses and gaols, and lunatic asylums—and wo did such a quantity of business that in one year wo disabled 350,000 people, and handed them over to the police to take charge of them. For there was a great army of police, who waited on our movements and attended our manoeuvres. The legislature was in our favor, laws were passed to promote the welfare of this great army, and nobody had any fault to find with us, except Sir Wilfrid Lawson, who condemned us; but nobody paid any attention to him, for he was a bad character, except the Good Templars, who were distinctly mad.” And then the little child would ask, “ How did it end?” And he would say, “ Oh, the Good Templar did not do us any harm. The nation got tired of us at last, but we were held in such honor and had done such good service we were entitled to compensation, and I got a handsome pension, and hero I sit in my own garden, under my own vine and fig tree, the very type and embodiment of ‘peace and honor.’ ”

Pbohibition in Illinois. —The “ National Prohibitionist ” publishes a list of seventyeight cities and towns in Hlinois where a majority of the people have recently voted against license, and for the prohibition of the liquor traffic. Among them are the cities of Rockford, with 15,000 inhabitants, and Decatur with 12,000. How these victories are received may be inferred from the following item, which we clip : —“ Delavan celebrated the election of the prohibition ticket by two brass bands, firing cannon, ringing the church bells, singing by the glee clubs, ladies’ choir, speeches, fireworks, and grand parade. The whole ticket was elected by sixty majority.” A Contrast. —An English exchange relates the following incidents :—On a recent Saturday, the opening of a metropolitan union infirmary was celebrated by a tremendous “ guzzling match,” the wine flowing freely ; and in spite of the presence at the festive scone of a live bishop and a minister of state, a most disgraceful scene of drunkenness —no, dipsomania, they were not so ill-bred as to get drunk —concluded the celebration. I quote from a local paper “ And thus ended the day of inauguration, which, beginning with a religious service, followed by an excellent luncheon,Jwas succeeded by a booze, after which an unseemly brawl, winding up with a slight touch of the Agapemone,” one of these model guardians having kissed the married daughter of a brother guardian, and when remonstrated with adding insult to injury by declaring publicly that the lady “ had given him warrant to suppose that his caress would be welcome.”

What a Glass of Wine Did.—The Duke of Orleans was the eldest son of King Louis Phillippe and inheritor of whatever rights his father could transmit. He was a very noble young man—physically noble. His generous qualities had made him universally popular. One morning he invited a few of his companions to breakfast, as he was about to depart from Paris to join his regiment. In the conviviality of the hour he drank a little too much wine. He did not become intoxicated, he was not in any respect a dissipated man ; his character was lofty and noble ; but in that joyous hour he drank one glass too much Bidding adieu (o his companions, he entered hii f a-riage ; but for that one glass of wiae he would have kept his seat. Ho leaped from the carriage ;■ but for that one glass of wine he would have alighted on his feet. His head struck on the pavement. Senseless and bleeding, he was taken into a bear shop near by and died. That extra glass of wine overthrew the Orleans dynasty, confiscated their property of one hundred millions of dollars, and sent the whole family into exile.—“ London Primitive Methodist.” The Sinews of Wab Wanted. —Every temperance worker can see that the temperance cause is limited by nothing except the temperance treasury. We are fighting money, and it is dollar against dollar, all the way through.—“Chicagoßibbon Beview,”