The Menace of Intemperance
By L. A. S.
With the beginning of the new year, a new temperance measure was put into effect in London, England, the extraordinary nature of which shows how desperate the temperance situation in the English metropolis is realized to be. The new measure, which is called the “licensing act,” provides that any person found drunk in any public place may be arrested and prosecuted, and three convictions within a year class an individual as a “habitual drunkard.” The habitual drunkard’s name is put on a black list, and the law prohibits him from buying liquor, or any person from selling liquor to him, within the space of three years. Any intoxicated person found in charge of a child may be punished by a fine of ten dollars or a month’s imprisonment, and habitual drunkenness is made a legal ground for divorce. In addition to all this, the law is retroactive; that is, it applies to past acts which would be offenses under it; and some individuals have already availed themselves of its provisions to secure divorces. If drunkenness in the world’s metropolis is not now speedily cured, it will certainly not be the fault of the law. It remains to be seen whether this extraordinary measure represents any real power in the possession of temperance people in London to elevate the city to their own level of living, or whether it represents the old effort of individuals to lift themselves up by themselves—the effort of the Ethiopian to change his skin, or of an evil nature to make itself good. It is one thing to enact laws, and quite another thing to carry them into effect. It is one thing to know that an act is evil, and quite another thing to have the power and the disposition to avoid that act. One thing is certain: the reforming power necessary to enforce the provisions of this law must come from outside the class of people whose intemperate conduct it is intended to curtail. It will not and cannot be furnished by intemperate persons themselves.7 In connection with this subject it is of interest to note some facts bearing on the question of the prevalence of intemperance among women in English-speaking countries. The editor of the Christian Herald (New York) has been investigating this question, having had his attention called to it by recent wide-spread assertions “in press and pulpit, that American women are becoming more and more addicted to habits of intemperance. Bishop Coleman and other men of prominence in public affairs,” he says, “have charged that the drinking habit is spreading at an alarming rate in American homes. It has even been asserted by statisticians that at the present rate of progress another decade or two would find us, as a nation, so thoroughly alcoholized that the very springs and foundations of our home life would be poisoned, and the physical and mental welfare of the coming generations placed in jeopardy.” To obtain information from sources considered the most reliable, the editor of the Herald addressed two leading officials of the W. C. T. U., one the president of the New York State society, Mrs. Ella A. Boole, the other the president of the Illinois State organization, Mrs. Helen M. Barker. “I am of the opinion,” Mrs. Boole said in her reply, “that total abstinence is increasing among the respectable middle classes, but that fashionable women drink more in public than formerly. The custom of flavoring food with wine, sherry, and brandy seems to be increasing, and this is bound to create a liking for the drink itself. Then these are strenuous days, and women as well as men live beyond their strength. The ‘social glass,’ so common in fashionable life, food flavored with liquor, and the secret use of alcoholics for home prescription, all contribute to the appetite for strong drink, and unless efforts are made to stop any and all of these things, drunkenness among women is bound to increase.” Mrs. Barker stated that “physicians tell us that society women are more and more using various nostrums, ‘headache cures,’ and all kinds of preparations, containing more or less of liquor, opium, cocaine, chloral, etc., as tonics, stimulants, and that among the ‘Four Hundred’ much fashionable drinking is common. This is not new, but it is dangerous.” The Herald also quotes from another authority, May B. Goudey, a temperance leader in Massachusetts, what it regards as a “still more startling statement,” as follows:— “I heard a public speaker, in whom I have great confidence, relate this truly appalling incident. He said that in a certain city in one of the Middle States (naming the city) an asylum had been opened for women inebriates, and that within ten days sixteen hundred applications had been received from husbands for their wives, and fathers for their daughters, until the asylum was filled to overflowing.” The Pittsburg Christian Advocate, of January 1, also calls attention to this spreading evil. “Comparatively few receptions or parties are now given among wealthier people,” it says, “at which strong drink is not literally forced upon the guests. It is not set out in bottles or decanters as of old, but is put into the lemonade or punch. Simple, wholesome lemonade has been tabooed on such occasions. It is quite too old-fashioned and tame. It must be fired up with claret or some other thing which has a twang to it. A lady who would serve plain lemonade now would be regarded as narrow and puritanical. And these fashionable dames and maidens have come to expect their stimulant at these gatherings, and have been known to turn up their fashionable noses in disdain when they found ‘only lemonade.’ So strong drink has come to be the order of the day. And it is often so strong in the open punch-bowl as to perfume the whole house. Not long ago a Christian woman of this city remonstrated with her caterer after her reception was over for having put spirits in the lemonade without her knowledge, when he replied that he would have been afraid not to do it when all other ladies ordered it. There is no mistake about it—this is the ruling fashion. Its effects may easily be known. Women are thus being trained to strong drink, and their sons and brothers will readily follow their example.” All these things point us to a dark prospect, but they also point us to a bright one. For as surely as they indicate that the foundations of society are giving way, so surely do they indicate that we have reached the final days of earth’s career, when the great remedy for every evil that has spread its blight upon creation is at hand; that is, the coming of Jesus Christ to set up his everlasting kingdom. We trust everything may be done which can be done by the creation of temperance sentiment and by legislation, to force back or hold in check the rising tide of intemperance; but our remedy is to proclaim with more zeal the everlasting gospel which must go to all peoples, and thus hasten the day of his glorious appearing, and the time when God’s will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.