THE PEOPLE'S FOE IN DISGUISE.
An enemy in ambush is more to be feared than one in the open field. Greeks in the wooden horse accomplished in a single day what Greeks in a fair siege failed to do in ten years. The hundreds of thousands of untimely graves; the poverty, shame, misery, and crime that mark the path of alcohol, prove it the people's foe. If this tyrant destroyer were to make its first approach in its true character, men would fly before its frightful mien. It must disguise itself. To do this, it assumes the mask of friendship; it steals the garb of a philanthropist. Beer and wine are the favorite disguise of alcohol. The brewers of the United States, in their “Essay on the Malt Liquor Question,” in 1876, state that “the percentage in our lager beer varies from four to seven.” The mean average would be 5.5. In 1876, nine million barrels of beer were manufactured. In this, at the ratio given, there were four hundred and ninety thousand barrels, or twenty-three million gallons, of alcohol. This amounts to one-half the quantity produced by the distilleries. Eleven per cent of absolute alcohol, or nineteen per cent by volume of proof spirit, are the highest proportions of alcohol produced in wine by natural fermentation, and are the standard of the strength of natural wine. This per cent, however, is in most wines much increased by artificial means. Thus beer and wine are the ambuscade of alcohol—an ambuscade planned with consummate art. The quantity of alcohol in these liquors could not be greater without betraying the artifice. It is great enough to accomplish its end. The physiological effects of alcohol in wine or beer are the same as those of alcohol in whisky or brandy. Once in the stomach, alcohol is instantly separated from the other ingredients of the liquor taken, and produces its well known results. The healthful properties which the other constituents may possess are more than counteracted by the deleterious effects of the alcohol. It is the exhilaration of the alcohol which makes these liquors popular, and to please the taste of the consumers, there has been a steady increase of the per cent.—Golden Censer.