9. Temperance Tabernacles for 6. RELATION OF INTEMPERANCE TO CAPITAL the people, on the AND LABOR. Atlanta,Ill., plan. 10. Inducing State and County protection ballot TO CARRY ON THIS WORK. provide Superintendent Standing com- Superintendent Superintendent Superintendent Superintendent The above statistics are believed to be incomplete, on account of meager reports, or an entire failure in some cases to obtain any reports. The annual meetings of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union have been held as follows: The officers elected in 1882, were President-Miss Frances E. Willard, Evanston, Ill. Cor. Secretary-Mrs. Caroline B. Buell, 53 Bible House, New York. Treasurer-Miss Esther Pugh, 126 Walnut Street, Cincinnati, O. There were present 144 delegates from twenty-six States and one Territory. Among the notable workers in this organization, the names of Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton, Mrs. J. K. Barney, Mrs. Susan A. Gifford, Mrs. Mary A. Hunt, Mrs. Leavett, Mrs. L. B. Barrett, Mrs. E. A. M'Laughlin, Mrs. Johnston, etc., should be added to those already mentioned. A complete list is impossible. CHAPTER IV. THE BEER INVASION. WE have before alluded to some changes in the drinking habits of the American people, a vacillation of some in their devotion to the principle of total abstinence, and a tendency to the use of malt liquors. These liquors are now common in numberless saloons, and in social circles which once discarded them, and many gross exhibitions of this indulgence are daily witnessed. Specious pleadings have been made for beer, as promotive of health, constitutional development, and even of temperance; and the example of Germany, as a land of temperance fostered by beer, has been falsely and deceptively advocated. Many American people have easily yielded to these sophistries, and betaken themselves to beer-drinking, and new elements recently added to our population have helped along this tendency. (See pp. 570–576.) This comparatively new beverage has spread with great rapidity. Breweries have multiplied, and beer wagons, beer barrels, and beer bottles are all around us. The social drinking customs of the Germans have been transplanted to American cities. Beer gardens, with their foaming goblets and smoke and music, are already familiar. The "Commers" is not yet so fully known, but is being acclimated. Three conspicuous features of the German "Commers" are beer, smoke, and jollity. The "New York Times" humorously described it, illustrated in an 'entertainment given on the return of one of our ministers to Germany: The object is to drink just as much beer as you can hold, smoke just as many cigars as you can bite the ends off of, and see who can sit in his chair the longest. It is an institution worthy the gods. And, bless us, how the beer pours down! "It's up we all stand, and down she all goes;" and “Here, waiter, fill 'em up again." The man who can drink the most H is the best man. he can blow off the foam and have her filled up again? There is nothing to eat-and who would cat when * * * * * * The bill of fare was varied and extensive. Following is a translation: 66 The proceedings were begun with the singing of one of the songs, and at the conclusion, as well as at the end of every song and speech of the evening, the president arose and rapped three times loudly on the table. At this every body else stood up. Eins, swei, drei," shouted the president. Every body drank. "Eins, swei, drei," he shouted again, and five hundred glasses rattled and jingled on the table. "Eins, swei, drei," a third time, and every glass was held above its owner's head. "Eins, swei, drei," fourth and last time, and the glasses were pounded down on the table with a dull thud. We have had great changes in our population. During the thirty-five years ending December 31, 1881, 9,858,205 immigrants landed on our shores, of whom 3,052,881 came from Germany. Nearly five millions of people in the United States were either German-born or German in the second degree. The infusion into our population of so many Germans, and their natural increase, with their social customs and strong national predilections, particularly their national devotion to malt liquors through so many centuries, and their settling in large numbers in our cities and other localities, and maintaining the habits and ideas of the father-land, have produced, as might naturally be expected, a deep impression upon American society. Lager beer has come into a prominence never dreamed of prior to 1850, and every-where conspicuously challenges attention. In 1850 only 36,678,444 gallons of malt liquors were consumed in the United States, or one and two fifth gallons per capita. In 1860 the quantity had increased to 102,956,441 |