736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with natural agents, is also doing an immense amount of good. By- 

 far the greater portion of those who thus succumb to alcoholization, 

 and to the deadly practices that usually accompany it, are thieves, 

 thugs, prostitutes, gamblers, sharpers, ruffians, and other members of 

 the criminal and quasi-cr'vcamdl classes, upon whom whisky accommo- 

 datingly performs the office of judge and executioner, cutting their 

 careers off at an average of five years, where, without this interposi- 

 tion, they would be extended to possibly twenty or thirty. The cer- 

 tainty and celerity with which it ferrets out and destroys these classes 

 recommends it strongly over the ordinary processes of justice. 



It was exceedingly unfortunate for the community that all the 

 leaders in the James gang were strictly temperate men. Had it not 

 been so, their career, instead of extending over twenty terrible years, 

 would have been cut short inside of five. Uncontrollable predilections 

 for whisky and the society of strange women brought about the de- 

 struction of nearly all of the band, who from time to time were slain 

 by each other's hands or those of justice. Temperance and chastity 

 in a rascal of any kind mean an immense amount of mischief to the 

 community. Fortunately, they are quite rare. 



During the ages of terrible oppression of the European people, 

 which culminated in the French Revolution, the main amelioration of 

 the hardships endured was found in the vices of the oppressors. The 

 sword of the duelist, the picturesque horrors of delirium tremens, and 

 the loathsome mal de Naples, continually swept away hecatombs of 

 tyrant lordlings, and frequently obliterated whole families. In fact, 

 no aristocratic family ever withstood these adverse influences very 

 long. Extinction came as promptly and as certainly as the curculio 

 to the ripening plum. 



The student of French and English history is continually aston- 

 ished at the brief time in which noble names remain in view. They 

 rise to dazzling eminence on one page, and on the next go down to 

 oblivion. One rarely finds a name of a century or two ago mentioned 

 in any of the European news of to-day. Mr. Freeman, the eminent 

 English historian, shows conclusively that, in spite of the perennial 

 vaunt of ancestors who " came over with the Conqueror," and of Ten- 

 nyson's musical mendacity about the " daughter of a hundred earls," 

 the families who can trace back to even so recent a date as the reign 

 of the Stuarts are quite rare. Idleness, luxury, and more or less fla- 

 grant debauchery have done their appointed work in removing the 

 deteriorated forms of human life from the world, that their room 

 might be had for more acceptable growths. 



Society has been most aptly likened to a vat of good wine, which 

 is all scum and froth at the top, dregs and sediment at the bottom, 

 and good, pure, clear liquor in the middle. Vice does admirable work 

 in skimming away the supernatant scum, and in drawing off the dregs 

 and settlings. Unceasing fermentation seems to be a condition neces- 



