The Wine Question In Society

ble and candid peopla that drunkeuness is the great curse of our social and national life. It is not characteristically Aincrican, for the same may be said with greater emphasis of the social and national life of Great Bvitain ; but it is one of those thing about which there is no doubt. Cholera ond small-poz bring smaller fatality, and almost infinitely smaller sorrow. ïhere are fathers and mothers, and sisters and wives, and innocent and wondering children, within evory circle that embraesi hundred lives, who grieve today over some hopeless Tictim of the seductive destróyer. In the city and in the country - Itorth, East, South and West there aro men and women who can not be trusted with wine in their handa - men and women who are conscious, too, that they ars going to destruction, and who have ceased to fight an appetite that has the power to transform every soul ond every home it occupies into a heil. Oh, the wild prnyers for help that go up from hundred thousand despaiihig alavés of stroug drink to-day ! Oh, the shame, the disappointment, the fear, the disgust, the awful pity, the raad protests that rise from a hundred thousand homes! And still the gmoke of the everlasting torment rises, aod still we discusa the " wino question," and the " grape culture," and live on as if we had 110 shaie in the responsibility for so much sin and sUame and suffering. Society bids us fumish wine at our feasts, and we fumish it as generously as if we did not know that a certain per centage of all the men who drink it will die miserable drunkfirds, and inttict lives of ' pitiful uffering upon thoso who are closely associated with them. There aro literally hundreds of houBands of people in polite life in America who would not dare to givo a dinner, or a party, without wine, notwithstanding the fact that m niany ingtances they can select the very guests who will drink too much on overy occasion that gives them an opportunity. There are öld men and women who invite roung men to their fcasts, whom they kii'S'W can not drink the wiue thoy pro pose to furniah without danger to them eelves and disgrace to their companions and frieuds. They do this sadly, of ten, but under tho compulsions of social usage. Now wo unuerstaad the power of this influence ; and" overy sensitivo man must feel it keenly. Wine has stood so kng as an omblem and representativo of good cheor and generous hospitslity, that it seem8 Btingy to shut it away from our festivals, and deny it to our gucsts. Thcn again it is so gonerally offered at the tablea of our friends, and it is so difficult, pparently, for those who aro accustorced to it to make a dinner without it, that we hesitate to offer water to them. It has a niggardly - almost an unfriendly - seeining ; yet what has a man to do who wishes to throw what iufluenco he has on tho sido of te:aperance ? The question is not new. It has been up for an anawer every year and every moment since men thought or talked about temperanco at all. We know of but ono answer to make to it. A mau can not, without ntultifying and morally debasing himself, iight in public that which he tolerates in private. Wo havo heard of such thing3íis víritingtempeiünce addresses with a demijohn uuder the table; and society has learned by heart the old talk against drinking too much - " the excess of the thing, you know " - by those who have the power of drinking a little, but who would sooner part with thoir right eye than with that litrla. A m.in who talks toincerance with a vriiig glass ia hú liand is simply tryi'iij to&raoe hiuaselí 00 that Lo can hold it without. We do not deny that many men have self-control, or that thoy oan drink wina through lite without suffcring, to theinselves cr others. It uiay seein hard that they shuuld be deprivod of a comfort or a pleasure because others m-e less fortanate in thoir temperament or their power of will. Bilt the question is whethur a mau is williug to sull his power to do good to a great multitude for a glass of wino ut dinner. That is thu quostion iu ita plair.tst tensa. If he is, thon ho has very little bcnevolonce, or a Tery inadequate apprehensioa of the ovils of iLo;i]p."';'!r:u(;. What we need in oar nietropolitan society is a docitration of independenco. There aro a great many good men and jTomen iu York wto laiucnt the drinking habita of society niest sincerely. Let these all declare that they will naaister no longer to the social altars of the great destróyer. Lot them declare that the indiscrituinate ofïer of wine at dinnors and social asóerablies is not only criminal but volear, as it undoubtedly ia. Lcl the-.a declare tUat for xhe sake of the young, the weak, the vicious - for the 6ako of personal character, and familypeace, aud social purity, and national strsngth- they will discurd wine from their feasts froui this time forth and forever, and tho worlt will be done. Lut them declaro ihat it ühall bo vulgar - as it nndeniably is - for a man to quarrel TV-ith his dinner because his hQst fails to furiiish vine. This can te dono ov, juú it needa to b dono nmv, for it is becomÍB8 BTery day nore difficult todoit. The it&bit of wiue-drinking at dinner is quito preTülout nlroady. Kuropean travel is doicg much to mako it universal ; and if fre-igoon exteudiugit at tho present rute, we shall Koon arrive at the Europoan indifferenco to the wbulo subjíct. There are inany clergyrnen in New York who tííivo wine upon thoir tablea uiid-who furnish it to their guests. We keep no íuan's conscience, but w are compellud to say that they solí iníluonce at a shamefully cheap rato. AVhat can thoy do iu the great iight with this troint-ndous ovil'r 'Cböyoair lio nothing, and are counted upon to do nething. If the men and worcen of good society wish to havo lena drinking to excess, let thein stop drinkimg moderately. I? thej are not v.illiug to break off the indulgence of a feeblo appttito for the sake o: doing a great good to a great many peopie, how can they e;cpect a poor brokendriwn wretch to deny an appetite that is etrongor tlmn tho love of wife and children, and even Ufo itself '? The puniahzuent for the faüuie to do duty ÍTiíhUbusinefs is nickening to coutomplate. The sacrifice of ufa and peace aud wc-alth wül go on. Every year young men will ruh ■wildly to tho devil, njiddifl-agd men will booze away into apoplexy, and cid inen will swell up with thü sweet poison and become disgusticg idiots. What will be oemeof thowoici'u ? Weshonldthiuk that they had auffered enough frota this evil to hold it umlor evoiiastiiift ban, yet thoro uro druuken women as wellfiBclergymen. Sooioty, bowever; ítas a great advantagn in the fact that it ia TulgM foi a wouiau to drink. Thorc me somo tliiniíB that a aroman may not do, and maintain her sccial standing. Let her not quarrel with the faot that society demanda moro of hor than it doos of man. It is her aafegmrd in umny wnyti.- J. O. Holland, in 8erSn M'jntb1;