Drunkenness in Heathendom.
DRUNKENNESS is largely a vice of so called "Christian nations." The Mohammedans and Hindoos are kept from it by their religion; the Chinese are not addicted to intemperance, and many of the uncivilized people knew nothing of alcoholic stimulants until "Christian nations" brought them. Some of the heathen nations could teach the conceited sinners of Christendom very useful lessons in sobriety and abstinence. "In Burmah, according to the statement of a correspondent of a Liverpool paper, strong drink is condemned. The laws of the country provide somewhat stringently against the evil. A man convicted of drunkenness is, for the first offence, paraded through the streets with his hands tied behind his back, and this exposure to the public gaze has generally a good effect. When he is found guilty a second time he is beaten severely. Is he found guilty of drunkenness a third time? Then he is beaten still more severely—sometimes even to death. Taking it all in all, it may be said with safety that drunkenness is a very rare thing in Burmah, and the country people there are among the soberest on earth. It will please the temperance people to learn that the prime refreshment among the Burmese is pure water. It matters not where one goes in Burmah, along the roads and all over the country, there is everywhere to be found the little shed with a drinking fountain within it, and an adjoining seat for the weary traveler to rest."