EDITOR'S TABLE. 



109 



politicians have been called upon to 

 suppress them. Much good may have 

 been done ; but drinking habits are still 

 prevalent, and rum-shops still abound. 

 The temperance reform, from this point 

 of view, has been a failure, if by suc- 

 cess we understand the eradication of 

 the evils of intemperance. This failure 

 has been, we think, at least partially 

 due to the refusal of the master-minds 

 of the movement to study the various 

 ■ways in which partial advantages may 

 be gained. Those who view the sub- 

 ject practically maintain, for example, 

 that much benefit to the community 

 would result if the weaker liquors 

 could be generally substituted for the 

 stronger, as wine and beer for distilled 

 spirits ; but this notion has been stern- 

 ly resisted by the great mass of ardent 

 temperance reformers as sacrificing first 

 principles. All alcoholic liquors, they 

 maintain, are poisonous, baneful, and 

 to be equally condemned, unless, indeed, 

 the weakest are not the most danger- 

 ous. To which the reply is, that these 

 extreme views are self-defeating ; that 

 they have been preached imtil the com- 

 munity is wearied with it, while the 

 liquor traific still flourishes, and that it 

 is the part of wisdom to check, dimin- 

 ish, and circumscribe an evil where it 

 cannot be wholly removed. Some- 

 thing might, therefore, be gained, they 

 maintain, by substituting wines and 

 beers, containing five or ten per cent, 

 of alcohol, for whiskey and rum con- 

 taining forty or fifty per cent. 



However this may be, of one thing 

 there can be. little doubt, that to substi- 

 tute the use of tea, coffee, and cocoa, 

 for spirituous liquors, would be a great 

 gain. In the literature of teetotalisra 

 thus far there has been but one dieteti- 

 cal alternative to alcohol, and that is 

 water. With curses upon alcoholic 

 drinks, the temperance lecturer has 

 interspersed copious praises of " clear, 

 cold, sparkling water." In practice the 

 abandonment of alcoholic stimulation 

 has been often accompanied by a resort 



to the stimulations of opium and tobac- 

 co — a change which has in it but few 

 elements of reform. As an ultimate 

 fact of man's nature, he is so consti- 

 tuted that he seeks stimulus of some 

 kind — some method of breaking the 

 monotony of the feelings and getting 

 contrasts in the psychical life. This may 

 be wrong, and water may be the drink 

 that should be exclusively patronized 

 by everybody; but that consummation, 

 whether desirable or not, is undoubted- 

 ly remote, very remote indeed. Mean- 

 time, there would unquestionably be a 

 great gain in substituting tea, coffee, 

 chocolate, and cocoa, for alcoholic li- 

 quors. 



Accordingly we are glad to see that 

 a vigorous movement has been set on 

 foot to fight rum-shops with coffee- 

 houses. We have received a very inter- 

 esting tract from Mr. Charles Collins, 

 describing the results of experiments 

 made chiefly in Liverpool, to maintain 

 a system of " public coffee-houses " and 

 " cocoa-rooms " for the use of English 

 laboring men. There is a society in Liv- 

 erpool for the promotion of this object, 

 and the pamphlet before us is made up 

 from its reports. 



It appears that twenty-nine places 

 under the denomination of " cocoa- 

 rooms " have been opened in Liverpool 

 under the auspices of this society, by 

 the employment of a subscribed capi- 

 tal of $100,000. So successful has been 

 the enterprise, not only in its favorable 

 influence upon the habits of the peo- 

 ple, but also pecuniarily, that ten per 

 cent, profit on the investment was dis- 

 tributed to the stockholders last year, 

 and it is now proposed to increase the 

 capital of the association to $200,000, 

 in order to still further extend its op- 

 erations. The following are some of 

 the most important suggestions of the 

 company in regard to the management 

 of such places, as arrived at by their 

 own experience : 



" 1. It is necessary to provide accommo- 

 dation for the ■working-classes, men and 



