WINE AND BEER DRINKING AND DRUNKENNESS.
DR. FELIX L. OSWALD, in Popular Science Monthly, says:— "It is, indeed, a remarkable circumstance that in the home of the best wine grapes, in Greece and Southern Spain, drunkenness is far less prevalent than in Scotland, or in Russia Poland, where Bacchus can tempt his votaries only with nauseous vodka." And commenting upon this statement, the Santa Clara Valley (Cal.) says:— "To this very significant observation, from a great authority, it may be added that intemperance, in all grape-producing and wine-drinking countries, is far less than in the non-grape-producing, and rum, whisky, and gin-drinking countries. Therefore, all rational temperance men, like those of France and Germany, should advocate wine as a beverage, to the exclusion of distilled alcoholic liquors; and, like them, whenever it may be necessary, pledge the people against their uses in social life, as prone to lead to appalling abuses, such as now disgrace, in many nations, including our own, the civilization of the age in which we live." The same claim is made for beer, namely, that it promotes temperance; but it has been shown time and again that the claim is equally fallacious in both cases. Alcohol creates an appetite for alcohol, no matter in what form it is taken, and it is for the alcohol which wine and beer contain that people drink them. Palestine is a wine-producing country, and for years the statement has been persistently peddled that "Palestinian wine is so pure that it does not produce intoxication." Of course this statement is utterly absurd, for any wine which contains enough alcohol to prevent its souring will produce intoxication. Selah Merrill, D. D., LL.D., says:— "While living in Jerusalem I observed this matter closely, and made many inquiries of persons who ought to know the facts, as physicians and officials of various kinds, and my conclusion is that, outside of the Mohammedan population, the use of liquor, in some form, is almost universal, and that among the Mohammedans themselves the evil is spreading rapidly. In America people drink liquor in places where it is sold, and go home drunk. In Jerusalem people buy liquor, go home sober, and drink in their own houses. A banker who had lived all his life in Jerusalem, and who had special opportunities for knowing the habits of the citizens, told me that two-thirds of the people of the city went to bed every night under the influence of liquor." This, be it remembered, is in a country where "great quantities of wine are produced" not only for home consumption but for export; and there is good reason to believe that the people of Palestine are about as temperate as they are in other wine-producing countries. Indeed, it is highly probable that they are more so than the people of France or of the wine-drinking countries cited by the Santa Clara Valley. France consumes annually nearly thirty-nine gallons of wine per capita—very much more than any other nation, and drunkenness is increasing so rapidly that even her wine-soaked law-makers are becoming alarmed, declaring it a "public danger that demands attention." In 1830 England tried the experiment of substituting beer for stronger liquors. Many thousands of beer shops were licensed, and an effort was made to induce the people to leave off drinking gin. The result was a larger consumption of spirits and a fearful increase in drunkenness and its attendant evils. Sidney Smith was a supporter of the bill, but after it went into operation and he had had opportunity to observe its practical workings, he wrote: "The new beer bill has begun its operations. Everybody is drunk; those who are not singing are sprawling. The sovereign people are in a beastly state." And so they are likely to be in every wine and beer-drinking country. The claim was made years ago in California that the production of wine and beer would have a tendency to decrease the consumption of the stronger liquors, but who does not know that such has not been the case? Wine and beer drinking foster, or create, rather, an appetite for other and stronger liquors, and this is just as true in California as in any other country. Intemperance is on the increase in our State to-day, and it will continue on the increase as long as wine and beer are common beverages. The experience of Switzerland is another case in point. That is one of the greatest wine-producing countries, but drunkenness was increasing so rapidly there that the Government found it necessary some two or three years since to enact very stringent prohibitory laws for the purpose of checking the evil. Belgium is one of the greatest beer-producing and beer-drinking countries in the world, and it is the very head-center of drunkenness. The popular drinks are beer, wine, and gin, and there is one dram shop to every forty-four of the population. San Francisco, in wine-producing California, comes second in the shameful list, with one saloon for every sixty of her population; while the State at large has one place in which liquor is sold for every ninety inhabitants—men, women, and children. And wine production in this State is only in its infancy. If the evil continues unchecked, how long will it be before drunkenness will be as common here as in Belgium? Dr. Oswald's statement quoted in the outset of this article may possibly be correct so far as Russian Poland is concerned; but even if it were correct as to Scotland also, it would indeed be "a remarkable fact," for, in that case, Greece and Southern Spain must be exceptions to other wine-producing countries, and the sobriety of the people must be due to some cause or causes other than the fact of their being wine countries. Californians see millions in the wine business, and a great many people regard as enemies of the commonwealth all who say aught against the wine industry. But a besotted people have never yet been a wealthy and a prosperous people, and, in the very nature of things, never can be; and while a few may grow rich by making their neighbors drunken, the State at large must, of necessity, grow poorer as drunkenness increases, as it is sure to do just in proportion as the production of wine increases. The real enemies of our noble State are these who for a little present gain are doing all in their power to reduce her to the condition of besotted Belgium.—Pacific Health Journal.