TEMPERANCE LECTURE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 198, 16 November 1871, Page 6

TEMPERANCE LECTURE.

{From the "San Francisco lfews Letter.") There is a large class of natural idiots in the world who think it their duty to reform the' balance of mankind.- We do.n&t refer .to priests and parsons, whose methodical madness has the merit of bringing b. ,re,ad to their otLerwise empty stomachs, but another class of voluntary maniacs, who feel themselves charged with the same responsibility, as to ihoir neighbours' bodies as do the preachers with reference to the souls. Of these, among the' most prominent are the temperance agitators. Not content with drinking- op. the sly, they must thrust -their spoon into everybody's mug, and by dint of agitation, and by misrepresentation of all physical and natural laws, frighten women and softminded masculines into the taking of solemn pledges to never, "so help them God," drink anything good that shall taste good . and make them feel comfortable. - If these reformers would simply not drink themselves, we should not complain, nor would we care how much- individual suffering they educed from this abstinatfon and violation of all sensible laws : but they are inflicting such permanent injury upon the community that we feel it a duty to put the .public upon their guard against the promiscuous teachings and hurtful example of such men as Dr. Gibbons and other of our-pro-iniaent temperance people! Does not Dr. Gibbons know^that John Bright, a perfect abstinence man, .has softening of the brain, for want of keeping up a stimulant sufficient to sustain his intellectual labour ? that those statesmen, Judges and Chancellors of England who have lived into the nineties have, for balf "a century, put their daily bottle of port under their belt ? the wine gives gout to the toes, but water gives weakness to the head ? Does he not know that Adam was (hy God) placed in a vineyard ? that the devil tempted -Eve with an apple, and not with hard cider ? that St. Paul ivcointnended wine for digestion ; that Christ, thinking wine so imperatively necessary at a. wedding performed a miracle to -supply it? that Dives lacked water in hell because he would not give Lazarus -wine at his feast ? 'that more men have - died by water than by ardent drink ? that no one could be, by auy possibility, -drowned if they would keep quietly in a wine cellar or beer garden ? that cold water will founder ft horse if taken when heated ? ' Wonder if it has ever occurred to Dr. Gibbons that every country that grows - the vine has a temnerate and sober people, and every country that does not raise grapes gets drunk ? that in Frauce, Italy and Hpain a' drunken man is rarely seen, j wjiile in Belgium, Sweeden and -England every body gets drunk ? that a vineyard is a better temperance agent •than an hundred Goughs? How often do we hear of a harvest hand drinking a glass of cold water and falling down dead ? Who ever heard of a man who had quietly sucked, a mint -julep through a straw dying from its effect? Men and women have .died in the bath, but never hi a champagne bath. Is it not notorious that temperance men are short-lived — let Dr. Gibbons go. to the grave-yards and read the inscriptions upon the tombs, ancl he will find the record of one hundred good, virtuous temperance men, and not a line chiseled to record that "here lies an inebriate who died of delirium j tremens." It is all stuff, this temper- j ance mania. The Germans are a great people, and they never drink water. Who ever heard of a. Christian or religious denomination taking communion in water ? Wfliei 1 is good for baptism, bathing, washing sheep ; it is good for dirty people and nasty child- j ren, but wine is good foe Christians I and gentlemen. Hood and Tom Lamb ! and Burns got drunk ; Byron drank j gin, Sheridan drank brandy. Cold I water poetry is stuff, ancl in spite' of Dr. Gibbons. we are determined not to j edit the "News Letter" upon lemonade or soda water.