The Liquor Question. 143 



modes; for they consult when they are not able to dissemble, and de- 

 bate when they are not likely to err." He further says: " The liquor 

 commonly drunk by them is prepared from barley, or wheat, which, 

 being fermented, is brought somewhat to resemble wine. * * * 

 They satisfy their appetite without deserts or splendid appendages. 

 The same abstinence is not observed with regard to the bottle, for if 

 you will indulge them in drunkenness to the extent of their desires, 

 you may as effectually conquer them by this vice, as with arms." 



All accounts agree that both the higher and the lower classes, 

 the religious and the indifferent alike, were debauched by drink. 

 A story is told of a German bishop, that, being exceedingly fond of 

 wine, it was his custom to send his valet forward with instructions 

 that he should taste the wine at every place where he stopped, and 

 write under the "bush " (a bunch of evergreens hung up over the 

 entrance of houses where wine was sold), the word " est," if it was 

 tolerable, and " est, est/' if it was very good; but where it was in- 

 different, he should not write any thing. The valet arrived at Monte 

 Fiascone, and so much admired the wine that he wrote up " est, est." 

 The bishop soon followed, found the wine so palatable that he got 

 drunk, and repeating the experiment too often, drank himself dead. 

 His valet thereupon wrote his epitaph, as follows: 



Which may oe rendered : 



• 'Tis, 'tis,' from too much ' 'tis/ 

 My master dead 'is.' 



But it can scarcely be necessary, before this audience, to produce 

 any extended evidence of the wide-spread and far-reaching habit of 

 intemperance from the earliest times, nor to prove by the facts of 

 history that it has continued with unabated zeal to the present time, 

 among the nations of the earth that can claim any approach towards 

 "civilization, ancient or modern." 



While in its character, extent and effects we are confronted with 

 little that is new, or different, from what has passed before our time, 

 essentially the same means have been adopted from the earliest times 

 o prevent and counteract its evil effects. Personal penalties, as a 

 punishment for intoxication, license, regulation and prohibition, as 

 well as the non-enforceable character of contracts with reference 

 thereto, are nearly as old as history itself, and yet neither the experi- 



