180 



The Grape Gulturist. 



for the excellency of his entertain- 

 ments, where choice wines flowed 

 freely — whenever a certain vote was 

 to be carried — every body shouted, 

 hear I hear ! all listened. 



In a short but eloquent speech, he 

 soon proved that drinking was the 

 cause of all the evil, vices, murders, 

 which could be witnessed — since the 

 fall of Eve through the apple juice — 

 everywhere in our otherwise quiet 

 and happy country, in this land of 

 freedom ! any day one chose to take 

 up and read a paper; that all the 

 adulteries committed ; all the divorces, 

 which followed ; that all the strikes, 

 the quarrels, the robberies, the spolia- 

 tions, the murders which constantly 

 took place — all, all — drinking was the 

 cause ; that there remained nothing 

 but to close all drinking establish- 

 ments — those of tea and coffee excep- 

 ted — all the distilleries ; to check all 

 importations of wines and brandies ; 

 and to forbid under the most severe 

 penalties the sale of alcoholic bever- 

 ages ; that this done, the world would 

 at once make a halt, and, instead of 

 continuing its Avay straight to perdi- 

 tion, would retrograde towards the 

 golden age ; a result likeh' to be 

 reached provided we took backwards 

 as many steps as we had taken forward. 

 The world is full of echoes, and par- 

 ticularh" legislative halls; well, on 

 that day there was an echo, and a 

 deep and sonorous one it w'as too. 

 It said : at last the time has come 

 when we should curtail that natural 

 liberty which the whole world admits, 

 even the greatest despots, I confess — 

 it is time that we should prohibit the 

 sale of the vile beverage under whose 

 influence laid the sood Noah when 



the posterity of Ham was cursed ; a 

 beverage which offered the friends of 

 Can a too much merriment at the 

 wedding ; in short it is high time that 

 we should put a stop to a trade which 

 all other nations appear anxious to 

 increase ; let us follow the commands 

 of .Jouadab to the Eechabites, and the 

 blessing of the Almighty will be 

 transferred upon us, we are the 

 chosen ones ! 



The House to a few exceptions 

 made itself the echo of the Echo, for 

 it is the unfortunate part of majori- 

 ties, even in our well ascertained free 

 country, to be nothing but echoes, 

 and I believed for a m-oment that they 

 would sing that good old song of 

 David : ^''Behold ! how good and how 

 pleasant it is for brethren to <n\'ell 

 together in unity." 



It followed that the majority became 

 of the opinion that all the robberies, 

 spoliations, strikes, adulteries, divor- 

 ces, murders &c. ; which were of daily 

 occurrence, could easily be traced to 

 liquor and to the noxious influence of 

 bad spirits, and as the}' had no real 

 spirit of their own, they passed a law 

 for the utter prohibition of alcoholic 

 drinks under whatever shape possible 

 except — mark the proviso, for medical 

 purposes I — 



The final result v,^as, that the sale 

 of liquors, wines &c., was transferred 

 from one class of citizens to tinother; 

 that a people hei'etofore healthy, 

 became quite sickly, and that wines, 

 brandies &c. were used as much if not 

 more than before, only under the plea 

 of "medical purposes," Mark the 

 moral. Dr. Ampelos. 



Golden Hills A'ixeyard, ] 

 Nauvoo, Ills. J 



