female suffering and eat the bread of starving and education, an offering of a thing that is children." Food. Is alcohol a food? The question is touched upon by Dr. B. W. Richardson in his able article in this work. (See ALCOHOL, EFFECTS OF.) The subject is very thoroughly discussed in his celebrated "Ten Lectures on Alcohol" (New York, 1883, pp. 94-122). The fundamental considerations which must precede any inquiry are thus admirably outlined by him (pp. 95-7): "The carth yields spontaneously to man, either from herself directly or from the vegetable kingdom which lies between her and man, all the requirements for his existence. Whatever, therefore, man invents, though it may seem to be a great necessity, is not a necessity except to those who, being trained to its use, have been led artificially to believe it essential. Thus nature has produced water and milk for man to drink, and they are, in truth, all the fluids that are essential. This lesson, which nature treats by her rule of provision for the ne super-necessitous and in such wise a compliment, an indication of a desire or of willingness to be exceedingly hospitable. "All the evidence of a general kind which can be gathered from these observations points to the uselessness. for man, of such an artificial agent as alcohol." The main conclusion drawn from these "There general truths is no longer very seriously questioned among scientists. The claim is still championed that alcohol has some food value, but always cautiously and with material qualifications. Dr. William A. Hammond, as the result of experiments performed upon himself, says: are two facts which cannot be laid aside, and these are that the body gained in weight and that the excretions were diminished when alcoholic fluids were taken. These phenomena were doubtless due to the following causes: (1) the restoration of the decay of the tissues; (2) the diminution in the consumption of fat in the body, and (3) the increase of the assimilative powers of the system, by which the food was more completely appropriated and applied to the formation of tissues. After such results are we not justified in regarding alcohol as food? If it is not food, what is it?"1. Dr. Hammond's testimony that alcohol in a single case under certain conditions increased the weight of the body, of course has no decisive bearing; and even if it did have, it might be questioned whether the increased weight were not due to deleterious rather than beneficial action of the alcohol in arresting the legitimate decomposition of tissue. It is generally recognized by physicians that the apparently florid health of beerdrinkers is misleading. "The beer-drinker," says Dr. T. Lauder Brunton ("Book of Health," London, 1883), "has a tendency to become fat and bloated at one time, although he may afterwards become thin and emaciated, from his digestion also suffering like that of the spiritdrinker. Notwithstanding the apparent stoutness and strength of beer-drinkers, they are by no means healthy. Injuries which to other people would be but slight, are apt to prove serious in them; and when it is necessary to perform surgical operations upon them the risk of death is very much greater than in others." Among the most emphatic opinions concerning the nutritive properties of alcohol, that of the great German chemist Liebig is justly celebrated. "If a man drinks daily eight or ten quarts of the best Bavarian beer," said he, "in the course of 12 months he will have taken into his system the nutritive constituents contained in a five-pound loaf of bread." And again Liebig said: "Wine is quite superfluous to man. cessities of animal life, is supplemented by many other facts, each equally authoritative. There is ever before us the great experiment that all classes of living beings beneath man require as drink none other fluids except those I have named. We see the most useful of these animals performing laborious tasks, undergoing and of cold, and enduring work, fatigue and vicissitudes for long series of years, sustained by their solid food with no other fluid than simple water. We see again whole nations and races of men who labor hard, endure fatigue and exposure, and who live to the end of a long and healthy life, taking with their solid sustenance water only as a beverage extremes bearing vicissitudes "When we turn to the physiological construction of man or of a lower animal, we discover nothing that can lead us to conceive the neces sity for any other fluid than that which nature has supplied. The mass of the blood is com posed of water, the mass of the nervous system is composed of water. the mass of all the active vital organs is made up of the same fluid: the secretions are watery fluids, and if in any of these parts any other agent than water should replace it the result is an instant disturbance of function that is injurious in proportion to the displacement. "When we turn therefore to the use of such a fluid as alcohol under any of its disguises-as spirit, as wine, as beer, as cider as perry, as liqueur-we are driven a priori to look upon it as something superadded to the necessities of life, to look upon it, in a word, as a luxury. In such sense it has always been received amongst those nations which have most indulged in it. It is something added to the ordinary life, something unnecessary but agreeable. Wine, added to the meal, transforms the meal into a feast; it is supposed to make glad the heart, but it is never supposed that if the wine were not possessed the life would be shortened. When now we offer wine it is, by the effect of habit 1 Address before the New York Neurological Society, 1874. . It is constantly followed by expenditure of power." Yet Liebig was the originator of the theory that alcohol yields heat and force, and is therefore a respiratory food -a theory that has been the ground for much contention, out of which have been developed various other theories supporting the general claim that alcohol, in some way and to some extent (however limited), performs the part of a food, if only accessorily. These battles of the scientists, however, relate to theory far more than to practice. Even those who cling most tenaciously to earlier doctrines declare that the virtues which they still claim for alcohol are virtues only under certain carefully-guarded conditions. No reputable scientific writer ventures at this day to commend alcohol as a food with the confidence and positiveness exhibited when the belief in its powers was universal. The commenuation is now defensive and not aggressive. The practical experience of mankind demonstrates with constantly increasing impressiveness the negative of the food proposition. Whenever great feats of endurance, skill, resistance to cold or heat, etc., are to be performed as in pedestrian matches, billiard contests, Arctic voyages, labor in the tropics, etc.,-total abstinence from alcohol is found to promote success. Could this be the case if alcohol were a legitimate contributor to the better capabilities of the human body? With the verdict wholly made up against alcohol as a necessary agent for improving the welfare of the physical nature, the cautious defensive pleas against utter and indiscriminate condemnation of alcohol on physiological grounds are more and more regarded as belonging peculiarly to the domain of hypothetical discussion. Understanding, then, that the testimony of science sanctions (if it does not yet with undivided voice command) the entire abandonment of alcohol as an article of diet, the moral and other powerful reasons against indulgence in alcohol certainly urge with great strength the view that its toleration as a supposed food or food-adjunct has become altogether inadmissible. The acceptance of this view involves the responsibility of discountenancing by every means the use of alcohol for all the numerous pseudo-food purposes to which it is still applied by the credulity of the masses-especiaily of combating the fallacy (so widespread among the poor) that it gives strength to nursing mothers, of discouraging resort to it as a protection against cold, and of entirely banishing it from the domestic economy as a culinary agent. Foreigners. The foreign-born population of the United States has been regarded as the bulwark of the opposition to temperance reform and Prohibition. Well-nigh all the adopted citizens of this country come from nations where drink and the drink traffic are in no important respects discriminated against by public sentiment, by widespread organizations or by legislation. The masses of these people have acquired but little education, have no adequate perception of the unmitigated evil of drink, and are exceedingly jealous of their personal rights, real and supposed. Becoming residents and naturalized citizens of a country where the temperance reform is carried on with zeal and radicalism, they are not willing converts to a movement whose rationale is unfamiliar to them. It is natural for the large majority of them to support the liquor traffic when its right to exist is questioned; and this natural disposition is strengthened by the counsels and influence of the newspapers printed in their native tongues and of such of their compatriots as have mastered the practical methods of American politics. There are no official records of the numbers of immigrants arriving in the United States previously to 1820. The following table shows the yearly immigration from 1820 to 1889: YEAR ENDING IMMI-YEAR ENDING 8,385 1826 9,127 18:27 Імм GRANTS. 10,837 18.875 27,882 22,530 6,911 18:28 6,354 1829 1824.... 7,912 1830. 10,199 1831.. 22,633 1825... 23,322 Missouri River, where the foreign element was strongest; and similarly in Iowa, two years later, the river counties gave decisive majorities for the dramshop. On the other hand, Maine (containing a comparatively small percentage of foreign852,569 born people) showed but an insignificant 387,203 459,803 IMMI GRANTS. 89,724 89,007 174,524 193,195 247,453 1837 79,340 18665.... 163,594 298,967 282,189 anti-Prohibition sentiment. In Michigan 404,806 the majority for the Prohibitory Amend313,339 ment in 82 of the 83 counties was 16,664; 227,498 but the eighty-third county (Wayne), em141,857 bracing the city of Detroit with its immense alien vote, showed a balance against the measure large enough to neutralize this 16,664 and leave a majority of 5,645 603,322 for the saloon in the entire State. Rhode Island, which adopted a Prohibitory Amendment while the law restricting the right of suffrage among foreign-born citizens was yet on the statute-books, repealed the Amendment after that restriction had been removed. Equally striking instances might be cited indefinitely. 4 Figures from 1820 to 1855 inclusive, are for all foreign passengers (including visitors, etc.) arrived in the United States; figures from 1856 to 1889 are for immigrants only. For six months ending June 30, 1866. The Census tables for 1880 show that the foreign-born inhabitants of the United States in that year were contributed by different countries in the numbers indicated below: Nevertheless much progress has been made by the Prohibitionists toward cultivating the favor of foreigners. The Prohibition tendency of the Swedes and Norwegians is markedly strong. Some of their representative newspaper organs earnestly advocate Prohibitory law; and 15,585 in the Northwestern States Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, etc., where the Scandinavians are most numerous, they 6,917 give exceedingly valuable support to the cause. In fact, it is commonly admitted that without the Scandinavian vote Constitutional Prohibition could not have carried in North Dakota. The English, Welsh and Scotch-Americans, coming from countries where the work of temperance education has long been carried on, exhibit considerable sympathy for the radical movement in this country. Among the Irish at large, Prohibition sentiment makes but slow progress; yet the aggressive fight against the liquor traffic waged by many eloquent and influential Irishmen, like Bishops Ireland and Spalding, T. V. Powderly, Rev. J. M. Cleary and Father Mahoney, and the educational work done by the Catholic Total Abstinence Society, are winning converts. The Hungarians, Poles, Italians, Bohemians, French and Jews seem to oppose the movement with vigor and practical solidity, although encouraging exceptions are to be noted. The Hol The aliens have showń decided preference for the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and California; and 85 per cent. of them have settled in the Northern States. An idea of the strong preponderance of anti-Prohibition feeling among nearly all classes of the foreign-born element may be obtained from a study of the county returns of elections on the question of Constitutional Prohibition. In the first Amendment contest, in the State of Kansas, the largest anti-Prohibition votes came from the counties bordering on the landers appear to take a friendlier attitude. Among the foreign-born citizens of the United States none have sturdier characteristics than the Germans. While giving credit without stint and most cheerfully and admiringly to the German people for all the many excellent traits that distinguish them, the Prohibitionists recognize that the GermanAmericans as a class constitute probably the most formidable anti-Prohibition factor that is to be contended against, save only the factor represented by the organized liquor traffic. The "personal liberty" argument is peculiarly a German's argument. The men who have established powerful German newspapers, like the New York Staats-Zeitung, Chicago Staats-Zeitung, Cincinnati Volksblatt, St. Louis Tribüne, etc., seem to consider it an essential and important part of their political duty and responsibility to share in the leadership of the anti-Prohibition element, if not to formally and persistently represent the dramshop interests. The brewers of the United States are Germans with but very few exceptions, and the proceedings of the brewers' conventions, as well as of many retail liquor-dealers' conventions, are conducted in the German language. The German vote being largely Republican under normal conditions, and being always ready to resent party concessions to the temperance people, it exercises a most important restraining influence upon Republican policy, especially in the States (like Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri) where the Germans are very strong. But there is a constantly increasing sympathy for Prohibition among those thoroughly Americanized Germans who give impartial attention to the merits of the question; and when Germans are converted to Prohibition ideas they become earnest and valuable workers. The English-speaking branches of the Lutheran Church rank with the most aggressive denominations. Several German newspapers, notably the Deutsch-Amerikaner of Chicago and the Christliche Apologete of Cincinnati, have espoused the antisaloon cause. The German-American Prohibition Association (Henry Rieke of Chicago, President) is one of the most active allies of the Prohibition party. It is an undeniable and very significant fact that the liquor traffic of the United States is almost exclusively in the hands of foreigners. Inspection of any representative list of brewers or liquor-dealers reveals a strong majority of foreign names. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is entitled to warm praise for the excellent work that it is doing in behalf of total abstinence and Prohibition through its Foreigners' Department, under the management of Mrs. Sophie F. Grubb. This and similar work must be relied on for winning the co-operation of our adopted citizens. Though stricter immigration and naturalization laws may be and should be advocated by every one who looks with concern upon the baleful influence exerted by the great mass of ignorant and objectionable foreigners, the genius of our institutions as well as the practical attitude of general public sentiment will not permit our Government to apply the radical remedy that is favored by some extremists. Incidental discriminations and not arbitrary and sweeping prohibitions against alien immigration and suffrage are the most that may be reasonably hoped for. JOHN SOBIESKI. Fraizer, Samuel. Born in North Carolina, April 19, 1808, emigrated on foot to Indiana in 1822 and settled on a farm in Marion County, eight miles northwest of Indianapolis. He was one of the earliest pioneers of temperance and total abstinence in the West. In 1830, he married Martha, a daughter of Enoch Evens, and in 1834 he and five of his neighbors organized a total abstinence society, thereby pledging themselves not to have any intoxicating drinks at their house-raisings, log-rollings and other gatherings. Out of this organization grew a strong temperance society, which exerted a great influence for good throughout that region. Soon after the formation of that society Samuel Fraizer began to preach and lecture, and devoted nearly 40 years of his life to the cause of temperance. He was an eloquent speaker, a man of fine presence and goodly countenance, a bold and energetic worker, and wherever he went he shed the light of the gospel of temperance. He was for years what might be called a temperance circuitrider, going everywhere in spite of bal weather and bad roads, to lecture and circulate total abstinence pledges in the worst neighborhoods he could find. He had a fine voice for singing, and an important feature of his work was to teach children to sing temperance songs from books which he always carried with him. He was also a very good composer, and composed both the words and music of several of the best temperance songs published at that time. Of these, his favorite and one which he always sang with great effect, began with the words, "Touch not the cup! It is death to thy soul!" In 1859 he removed from Indiana to Jasper County, Ia., where he began anew his pioneer work in the cause of temper ance. From this time his field of labor really extended from Iowa through Illinois to his old home in Indiana; and there are now living thousands of young and middle-aged men who signed the pledge for the first time in response to his teachings. In 1875, advancing age compelled him to rest from active labor, and he died at Monroe, Jasper County, Ia., on Jan. 15, 1887. His funeral was attended by an immense concourse of people, and the text of the funeral discourse, "I have fought a good fight," might well have been chosen by the patriarch himself. W. T. HORNADY. France. The history of the progress of intemperance in France during the latter half of the 19th Century strikingly illustrates the fallacy of the High License project, as well as of the idea that the alcohol vice can be eradicated by the promotion of education alone. With a thorough system of free parochial schools and the enormous circulation of popular newspapers, the population of the larger French cities is, on the whole. better instructed and certainly less illiterate, in the book-reader's sense of the word, than that of any other portion of the civilized world. Yet, as an American reformer well observes: "Education is the cure of ignorance, but ignorance is not the cause of intemperance. Men who drink generally know better than others that the practice is foolish and hurtful. They drink because appetite, when stimulated by temptation, is stronger than reason." In the absence of Prohibitory laws, the mere restlessness of discontent (incident to personal misfortune or public calami ties) may fatally strengthen the seductiveness of the poison vice, and it is a suggestive fact that in France the epidemic increase of intemperance dates from the decadence of national prestige. During the golden age of French literature, up to the death of Louis XIV, the French nobles were less addicted to alcoholic excesses than those of any other part of contemporary Europe. The gross intemperance of their eastern neighbors was a topic of constant raillery to the upper classes of a nation which, partly by favor of climate and partly by the instinct of refinement, had learned to dispense with the revels of the taproom. During the prime of the 1st Empire Frenchmen were intoxicated with military glory, but like their idolized leader they detested drunkenness; and the phenomenal increase of alcoholism dates only from the middle of the present century, when despotism and the enormous increase of taxation began to foster a spirit of dissipation which has exploded in numerous more or less successful attempts at political revolt, but in the meanwhile has begotten disposition to drown its disappointments in the Lethe of the poison vice. The humiliating results of the FrancoPrussian War have done much to increase that tendency. The crushing burden of the national debt, the rapid increase in the price of all necessaries of life, the failure of colonial enterprise have all co-operated to stimulate the fierceness of industrial competition to an unparalleled degree and have driven millions to seek refuge in the delusive enjoyments of the rumshop, through want of leisure for better recreations. If evils of that kind could be checked by High License the experiment ought to have triumphantly succeeded in Paris, where liquor-vendors have to pay an exorbitant tax, or rather a variety of taxes, under all possible names - tax for the liquor itself, for the right of selling it to customers who drink their drams at the bar, for the privilege of selling spirits with other refreshments, for the permission to attract guests by musical entertainment, etc., etc. Yet the number of those poison-dens steadily increases, as well as their power for mischief, for it is a curious fact (conclusively refuting the sophistry of the advocates of the milder alcoholics) that in the land of cheap and abundant wine, strong beer |