442 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



used " ; that total abstinence is a regimen only to be pursued by advice 

 of a physician; that the vast majority of human beings can and 

 do partake moderately of alcoholic liquors, not only without injuri- 

 ous consequences, but with positive benefit; and that, as it is a source 

 of much enjoyment, and much discomfort often springs from its dis- 

 continuance, it is difficult to say why such use should be discontinued 

 under ordinary circumstances. Our youth will learn, too, that there 

 are many nations that thrive without alcoholic drinks — nations, for 

 example, professing the ]\tohammedan faith, to whom alcohol is for- 

 bidden by their religion; but that among them the use of stronger 

 narcotics, such as opium and Indian hemp, is extremely common, 

 and the exchange from alcohol to these narcotics can hardly be 

 looked upon as a gain. The result of this State instruction may be 

 confidently looked for, and can not possibly do harm. It is too early 

 as yet to procure data for discussion of the amount of good accom- 

 plished by this legislation. We must wait until the adolescent pupil 

 has grown to man's estate, to middle age, until his mortal change, 

 and search his record, and the record of the family he leaves behind 

 him, for the benefits of the paternal legislation. In short, it is ex- 

 ceedingly doubtful if data upon this subject, in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury at least, will ever be collected at all. It is noticeable, how- 

 ever, that in the States' scheme of education the peripatetic tem- 

 perance lecturer, with his lurid colored charts of the human stomach 

 in the horrors of suffering from what he calls " the flowin' bowl," 

 have no place, and no salary is provided for such " university ex- 

 tension " processes. A suggestion lately made in these pages that 

 temperance lecturers as w^ell as liquor dealers being obliged to take 

 out licenses (at least as caterers to the public amusement) is con- 

 spicuous by its absence from the educational plan. 



IV. Government Control of Traffic. — The idea of a gov- 

 ernment monopoly in liquor is from continental Europe, and, like 

 most ideas from that source, is paternal and monarchical pure and 

 simple. The idea reached perfection in what is known as the Goth- 

 enburg system, which, attracting considerable attention from stu- 

 dents of the liquor problem, was introduced into the statutes of 

 Georgia, where after a brief trial it was discarded. The State of 

 South Carolina, however, adopted its principal features, calling it 

 the " dispensary system," and is still maintaining it. 



The story of the Gothenburg system is as follows: Since the 

 days of Gustavus Adolphus III there had existed in Sweden and Nor- 

 way a policy making the distillation of a liquor called branxin, or 

 brandy, a right running with the ownership of land first, afterward 

 with a tenancy of land, and ultimately a right secured to tavern- 

 keepers. This brandy being distilled from grain or potatoes, and 



