

JOURx\AL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. V. 



NOVEMBER, 1850. 



No. 5. 



One of the most complete and salutary re- 

 forms ever, perhaps, made in any country, is 

 the temperance reform of the last fifteen 

 years in the United States. Everybody, fa- 

 miliar with our manners and customs fifteen 

 or twenty years ago, very well knows that 

 though our people were never positively in- 

 temperate, yet ardent spirits were, at that 

 time, in almost as constant daily use, both in 

 public and private lifij, as tea and coffee are 

 now ; while, at the present moment, they are 

 seldom or never offered as a means of civility 

 or refreshment — at least in the older states. 

 The result of this higher civilization or tem- 

 perance, as one may please to call it, is that 

 a large amount of vice and crime have disap- 

 peared from amidst the laboring classes, while 

 the physical as well as moral condition of 

 those who labor too little to be able to bear 

 intoxicating drinks, is ver}^ much improved. 



We have taken this eonsolatary glance 

 at this great and salutary reform of the 

 habits of a whole country, because we need 

 something to fortify our fiiith in the possibi- 

 lity of new reforms ; for our countrymen have, 

 within the last ten years, discovered a new 

 poison, which is used wholesale, both in public 

 and private, all over the country, till the na- 

 tional health and constitution are absolutely 

 impaired by it. 



Vol. v. 13 



"A national poison ? Do you mean slavery, 

 socialism, abolition, mormonism ?" Nothing 

 of the sort. " Then, perhaps, tobacco, patent 

 medicines, or coffee?" Worse than these. 

 It is a foe more insidious than these ; for, at 

 least, one very well knows what one is about 

 when he takes copious draughts of such things. 

 Whatever his own convictions may be, he 

 knows that some of his fellow creatures con- 

 sider them deleterious. 



But the national poison is not thouglit dan- 

 gerous. Far from it. On the contrary, it is 

 made almost synonymous with domestic com- 

 fort. Old and young, ricli and poor, drink it 

 in with avidity, and without shame. The 

 most tender and delicate women and children 

 are fondest of it, and become so accustomed to 

 it, that they gradually abandon the delights 

 of bright sunshine and the pure air of heaven, 

 to take it in large draughts. What matter 

 if their cheeks become as pale as the ghosts 

 of Ossian ; if their spirits forsake them, and 

 they become listless and languid I Are they 

 not well housed and coriifortahle ? Are not 

 their lives virtuous, and their affairs prosperous ? 

 Alas, yes ! But they are not the less guilty of 

 poisoning themselves daily, though perhaps 

 unconscious of it all the time. 



The national poison that we allude to, is 

 nothing less than the vitiated air of close 



