BUSINESS AND CHAMPAGNE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4591, 7 December 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

BUSINESS AND CHAMPAGNE.

(From the American Bedew.) Temperance principles are making way in every department of life in this country. A very notable instance of this amongst merchants , has just occurred. A week or two ago the National Board of Trade held their annual Convention in Philadelphia. Leading merchants from all the principal cities in the United States were present, discussing matters of interest to commercial men. A dinner was given them by the Philadelphia Board of Trade and the Commercial Exchange. The dinner was an elegant and expensive affair. The tickets were £5 each, and of course wines and liquors of the finest brands flowed freely. The next day the Maritime Exchange took them on the Delaware river, on board one of the river steamers to Chester and back, visiting, the shipyards, grain- elevators, &c., from noon until near dark. A handsome dinner was set out with an abundance of the choicest eatables, with coffee, tea, and lemonade, but not a drop of wine, liquor, or beer of any kind. The company on hoard was made up of the National Board of Trade, together with the members of the Maritime Exchange, and some two or three hundred invited guests, among whom were many bank directors, railroad dii'ectors, underwriters, bankers, Congressmen, and merchants. Repeatedly during the afternoon the Committee of Arrangements were congratulated upon the great enjoyment of the party, and particularly upon the bravery they manifested in bringing such a party together -without providing wines and liquors for the table. The President of the New York Maritime Exchange expressed his approbation of that feature in very marked terms. Only the day before, at the dinner at the park, he stated that the champagne had got into the heads of the party so effectually that they became noisy and garrulous, preventing the audience from hearing the speeches. “ The fact is," says one of our commercial newspapers, “ some of the leading merchants in the Maritime Exchange are Christian men —some of them elders in churches. Such men should always throw their influence on the side of temperance. One example like this is worth a hundred pamphlets and platform speeches for the cause. The merchants from Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Charleston, and elsewhere will not fail to tell how we entertained them, and it may be the example of our Maritime Exchange will be followed on similar occasions in other cities.”