THE TEMPERANCE LECTURE.
The news that Nat would give a lecture on the subject of temperance soon
spread through the town, and both the friends and the foes of the cause
discussed the anticipated event.
"So it seems that Nat is going to preach temperance to us," said a
customer of Miles, the rumseller. "I should think the little upstart
thought he was going to reform the town."
"Nat is no upstart I assure you; but he is going a little too fast now,"
replied Miles. "He is young, however, and he will learn some things in a
few years that he don't know now."
"I 'spose every dog must have his day," continued the customer, "and so
it must be with timp'rance. It will have its run, and then die a nat'ral
death. But it makes me mad to see folks meddle with what is none of
their business. Just as if a man hadn't a right to drink when he is a
mind to!"
"It's a free country yet," answered Miles, "and all these reformers will
find it out before long. But shall you go to hear Nat lecture?"
"I go!" exclaimed the customer. "You won't ketch this child there, I can
tell you. Do you 'spose I would go to hear what I don't believe? It's
all nonsense, the whole of it, and it shan't have my support."
"I can't agree with you on that point," replied Miles. "_I_ sometimes go
to hear what I don't believe, and I guess _you_ do. I think I shall go
to hear Nat if I can leave. I want to see how he makes out!"
"You may go for all I care," added the customer, "and find yourself
insulted and abused as rumsellers usually are in such lectures."
On the evening of the lecture, Miles actually went to hear it, and there
was a good number of his customers present. Curiosity to hear Nat
overcame their opposition to the cause, for the time being, so that they
were drawn thither. A lecture by any one else would not have called them
out, but the attraction now was too great to be resisted. The hall was
crowded with the old and young, and there was not a vacant place for
another.
The subject of Nat's lecture was "THE FIFTEEN GALLON LAW,"
which was then agitating the public mind. It was a new movement by the
advocates of temperance, and its friends and foes were arrayed against
each other for a hard contest. Nat rejoiced in the movement, and
therefore prepared himself to defend the law. We will give, in
substance, his argument.
After portraying the evils of intemperance in language and eloquence
that riveted the attention of the audience, and confirming his
statements by unanswerable statistics, he proceeded to say:--
"That something must be done to stay this tide of evil, or we shall
become literally a nation of drunkards. It is vain to enact laws to
punish the drunkard, and still allow the vender of strong drink to dole
out his poison by the glass. For the poor, who need every farthing they
earn to purchase bread for their hungry families, will spend their wages
at the dram-shop, and leave their children to starve in poverty and
degradation. The 'Fifteen Gallon Law' is admirably adapted to save this
class. They are never able to purchase intoxicating drinks in larger
quantities than by the quart or gallon, so that this law will cut off
their supplies. It is true, another class, who possess the means, will
not be deterred from purchases by this law, but it is better to save the
poor than to save none at all. This appears to be the best thing that
can be done at the present time; perhaps sagacious minds will yet
discover a universal remedy for this mammoth evil. At any rate, we are
urged by the wants of suffering humanity to advocate this law, which
may redeem thousands of the poor from their cups and their misery."
The enemies of the law contended that it was introducing "a new
principle of legislation," and that while former laws had only
"_regulated_" the sale of strong drink, this Fifteen Gallon Law was
"_prohibitory_." To this Nat replied,
"That the legislature has power to restrain all trades which are
detrimental to the public welfare, and to regulate or prohibit them
according as the public good requires. Legislatures have always acted
upon this principle, not only in regard to other trades, but also in
respect to the traffic in alcoholic drinks. As long ago as 1680, when
the public attention was first directed to the evils of intemperance, a
law was enacted _prohibiting_ the sale of a less quantity than 'a
quarter cask,' by unlicensed persons. It also _prohibited_ all sales
after nine o'clock in the evening, and sales at any time to known
drunkards. By this law landlords were obliged to suppress excessive
drinking on their premises, and not to allow persons to sit in their
bar-rooms drinking and tippling. In 1682, intemperance prevailed to such
a degree among sailors, that a law was passed forbidding the sale of
liquors to this class, except on a written permit from the master or
ship-owner. In 1698, a statute was framed prohibiting all sales to 'any
apprentice, servant or negro,' without a special order from the master.
In 1721 another law was enacted prohibiting sales _on credit_ beyond the
amount of ten shillings; and the reason assigned for it was, 'for that
many persons are so extravagant in their expenses, at taverns and other
houses of common entertainment, that it greatly hurts their families,
and makes them less able to pay and discharge their honest, just debts.'
In 1787 this rule was rëenacted, and subsequently _all_ sales _on
credit_ were _prohibited_. Seven years after the adoption of the
constitution, a statute was passed limiting the sale to twenty-eight
gallons by unlicensed persons. The statute of 1818 prohibited the sale
of liquors 'to common drunkards, tipplers, and gamesters; and to persons
who so misspend, waste or lessen their estates, as to expose themselves
or their families to want, or the town to the burden of their support,
by the use of strong drink--or whose health is thus, in the opinion of
the selectmen, endangered or injured.' Here is prohibition with a
vengeance, going much beyond the provisions of the Fifteen Gallon Law,
and forbidding the sale to certain persons, and at certain times. A man
was even prohibited from asking for credit at the bar, and the landlord
could not grant it if he did, without violating a statute of the
Commonwealth. How, then, can the enemies of this measure be bare-faced
enough to assert that it is disregarding their inalienable rights? How
can they assert, with a shadow of truth on their side, that it is
introducing 'a new principle of legislation?' There is no other
principle involved in this law than that which is found in our statutes
controlling the shooting of certain birds, the sale of tainted meat, the
location of slaughter-houses, the existence of lotteries, and many other
things that might be named--all showing that the legislature has
authority to prohibit whatever the public good requires. That the public
good demands the suppression of intemperance, who can deny? It is the
greatest scourge of our land, and the world. It sends thirty thousand
annually, in our country, to a drunkard's grave. It tenants our
almshouses and prisons with its wretched victims, and causes three
fourths of all the crimes that fill the calendars of our courts. It
swells your taxes more than all other evils combined, and is the nursery
of blasted hopes and miseries that language cannot describe. If then,
the public good requires the suppression of any vice in our land, it is
this."
Thus he disposed of this plea of the rumsellers, to the happy surprise
and satisfaction of the friends of temperance. He discussed other topics
connected with the law, and which we have not space to consider. For an
hour or more he held his audience in breathless interest, by the strain
of argument and oratory that he poured forth from his fruitful mind and
earnest heart. A more delighted audience never listened before to a
temperance lecture. Its depth, power, and compass were more than they
expected. A round of hearty applause told plainly how it was received,
as Nat uttered the last word, and took his seat.
"There, Nat," said Marcus to him on the following evening, "you did more
good last night than all the temperance lecturers who have come to
town."
"How so?" inquired Nat, not understanding his meaning.
"They say you fairly convinced Miles, and he is going to stop selling
liquor."
"How do you know?" asked Nat, with a very incredulous look. "I shall
want pretty good evidence of that before I believe it."
"He has told a half dozen people so to-day, and one of his best
customers among the number."
"Who is that?"
"It was Johnson, who pays him as much money in a year as any other man.
Johnson got excited, and denounced him and all the friends of temperance
in strong language. He called you a 'fool,' and Miles cracked you up in
return, and so they had it for a while rather hot, much to the amusement
of Mr. Fairbanks, who happened to hear it."
This was gratifying news to Nat, and to all who sympathized with him in
the temperance cause; and it needs some further notice. This Johnson
was the customer with whom we became acquainted in another place, a
bitter opponent of the "Fifteen Gallon Law." Curiosity, as well as
appetite, led him into Miles's shop on the morning after the lecture,
for he wanted to hear about it. He had learned in some way that Miles
went, as he intimated to him, and therefore it was a good place to go
for information.
"So you went to hear Nat last night?" he said to Miles, as he entered
the shop. "Did he make a temperance man of you?" meaning this inquiry
for a jest.
"Nat spoke real well," answered Miles, "and his arguments were so good
that I can't answer them. He's a mighty smart chap."
"What did he harp on last night?" inquired Johnson.
"The Fifteen Gallon Law; and he showed how it would remove the evils of
intemperance, which he described so correctly and eloquently that I was
astonished. I don't see where he has ever learnt so much."
"Larnt it!" exclaimed Johnson; "he larnt it where he did his impudence.
I see that he has pulled the wool over your eyes, and you are more than
half timperance now."
[Illustration]
"All of that," replied Miles, coolly; "I am going to quit rum-selling at
once. If I can't get my living in an honest way, then I will go to the
poor-house."
"I hope you _will_ go there," answered Johnson, starting up from his
chair under great excitement. "A man who has no mind of his own ought to
go there. I----"
"I thought you was going to say," interrupted Miles, "that I ought to go
there to keep company with the paupers I have made. I am pretty sure I
should have you for a companion before long, if you don't alter your
hand."
"I never thought you was overstocked with brains," continued Johnson;
"but if you will be hoodwinked by that fool of a Nat, you have less than
I thought you had. It is great business for a man of your age to give up
beat to a boy, and that is all Nat is, though he thinks he's a man."
"Boy or not," answered Miles, "he spoke better last night than any man I
ever heard. He is a first-rate orator, and his defence of the 'Fifteen
Gallon Law' was unanswerable."
"A feller ought to speak well who has studied as much as he has," said
Johnson. "He hain't earnt his salt for two or three years, 'cause he's
too lazy to do any thing but look at a book."
"I don't care how much he has studied," answered Miles. "If I had a son
who could speak as well as he does, I should be proud of him, though he
had done nothing but study for ten years. Your talk is very
unreasonable, and you know it; and for that reason, it will not change
my opinion of Nat."
"Run arter him, then, to your heart's content," said Johnson, turning to
go out, "and be a timperance man if you will,--it'll take more than this
to make you decent;" and with these words he left the premises in a
rage.
Mr. Miles carried out his determination to cease the traffic in strong
drink, and engage in some more honorable business. His unexpected
espousal of the total abstinence principle, and the closing of his
dram-shop, offended many of the rum fraternity. It was a signal
achievement for the temperance cause, however, and for the welfare of
the village.
The lecture of Nat won for him an enviable reputation, not only at home,
but abroad, and he was soon invited to deliver it in the neighboring
towns. Wherever he consented to give it, it was received with decided
favor, and the anticipations of hearers were more than realized.
Subsequently he delivered other lectures on the subject of temperance in
his native village, and the people soon learned that no lecturer called
out so large audiences as he. There was always a desire to hear him; and
his sonorous voice, bewitching eloquence, and sensible thoughts, never
failed to entertain his auditors.