Daybreak; A Romance of an Old World

by James Cowan

  CHAPTER XXXI.

  WINE-DRINKING IN MARS.

  I went downstairs the next morning before the doctor was ready, and whenI met Thorwald I said, without thought: "A fine morning."

  "Yes," he replied, "all our mornings are fine. I do not mean that thesun is always shining or that we do not have clouds and a variety of skyeffects, but we know the clouds can be depended on not to give rain tillnight."

  "Do you not lose something by having a perpetual calm?" I asked. "ForI understand the rain in the night comes only in gentle showers. In ourrough world some of us enjoy the grandeur of the storm."

  "How about those who are exposed to its fury?" asked Thorwald in reply."I do not see how anyone can really enjoy what is sure to be bringingsorrow or even inconvenience to others. Could a mother take pleasure ina tempest if she knew her son was in danger of shipwreck from it? Whyshould it change her feeling to know her son was by her side and that itwas only strangers that were in danger?"

  "But," continued Thorwald, "are you and your friend ready for anexcursion to-day? If you are, I propose to give you a new experience."

  "We shall be delighted to accompany you, and as I see breakfast is readyI will go up and tell the doctor to hurry."

  "Oh, I wouldn't do that," exclaimed Thorwald. "You must try to learn tolive as we do, and you will remember I said the other day that we arenever in haste. If, for example, it were Zenith who was late, I shouldnever think of calling to her to hurry, for I should know she must havea good excuse for staying. Her liberty of action is as valuable to heras mine to me, and however long she might keep me waiting, I shouldfeel sure that her action was the result of right motives and correctreasoning. If the doctor does not appear, we can easily postponeour excursion to to-morrow. There would be no lack of occupation forto-day."

  "What a delightful feeling it must be," I said, "to be always free fromhurry. It is the commonest experience in our imperfect state for one tostart a few minutes late in the morning, and then be on a constant jumpall day to make them up. One of the evils of our driving age is thewear and tear of our nerves in what we consider a necessary haste to getthere."

  "Get where?" asked Thorwald.

  "To get anywhere or to do anything that we set out to accomplish," Ianswered.

  "I fear," said Thorwald, "that I have talked too much about Mars andnot insisted enough on hearing about the earth. Suppose something shouldhappen to break off your visit?"

  "You wouldn't miss much, Thorwald."

  "We certainly should regret exceedingly not learning many things thatyou could tell us," he said.

  "Yes," I answered, "but you cannot profit by our experiences, while weof the earth are in a condition where we need all the help and adviceyou have for us. If we ever return to our home we want to tell all aboutyour advanced civilization and how you have overcome the evils that vexour race. But I wonder why the doctor doesn't come. I think I will goand see, but I promise not to interfere with his liberty of action." Isoon returned with my friend, and we all went to breakfast. The doctorsaid he would not eat much, as he felt somewhat indisposed. Here wassomething new in the life of this household, and each one began toexpress sympathy and ask what could be done. The doctor was amused, andI said I thought a good, hearty breakfast would make him all right. ButThorwald insisted that something unusual should be done, although hisinexperience was so great that nothing feasible suggested itself atfirst. Zenith was in favor of all repairing to the library, huntingup the histories of the days when people were ill, and finding outthe proper remedy for his ailment. This would have been a logicalproceeding, but I thought to myself that they did not understand thevalue of time in such cases and that the doctor would probably eitherrecover or die while they were at work.

  As I did not appear to be any more alarmed than my companion was, theexcitement soon subsided. But Thorwald was not satisfied yet, and aftersome further thought his face brightened and he asked me if a glass ofgood wine would not be the thing for the doctor. When I replied that itwould probably not hurt him, Thorwald told his son to go and bring up abottle of the oldest wine in the cellar, and soon not only the patientbut the members of the family and myself were all partaking. No more washeard after this of the doctor's indisposition, and Thorwald no doubtfelicitated himself that he had effected a cure. The situation wasrather suggestive to me, and while we were drinking, and eating ourbreakfast, I could not refrain from saying:

  "If some of our friends on the earth could see us now, Thorwald,we would be discredited in all that we might say about your highercondition. It would do no good to expatiate on your ripe characterand on your attainments in knowledge and virtue. I fear they would notbelieve much of it if they knew that you not only drank wine yourselves,but encouraged its use by giving it to your guests."

  "Why," said Thorwald, "you could tell them the wine was brought out tobe used as a medicine, and that the rest of us drank to keep the doctorcompany. But when you see your friends you had better tell them thetruth at once, that while we all take wine here frequently this is theonly instance where I have ever known it to be used medicinally."

  "They would tell us," said the doctor, "that you have made one mistakeat least, and that it is a dangerous thing to have wine in the house,and especially to give it to children."

  "He would have a very gross and imperfect conception of our character,"said Thorwald, "who should have the thoughts which you express. I canjudge something of the nature of the feeling which you say exists on theearth, however, for only a few days ago I was reading a full account ofthe different temperance movements on our planet. Few subjects in ourhistory are more interesting. Do not despise the temperance reformers,and if you think they are sometimes too radical you can afford to excusethat for the sake of the absolute good they accomplish. All throughthe early part of our career there was a perpetual warfare against thedrinking habit. At first wine was an ordinary article of food, and insome countries more commonly used for drinking than water. There wasmuch abuse of it, but in general people used it as a matter of course,without thinking they were any more responsible for the drunkards thanthey were for the intemperate in eating. But the evil of overdrinkingincreased, and some religious reformers found that the easiest wayto check it was to forbid all use of intoxicants. Here is an extremeexample that I have read of what one such reformer taught: 'If a singledrop of alcoholic liquor should fall into a well one hundred and fiftyfeet deep, and if the well should afterwards be filled up and grass growover it, and a sheep should eat of the grass, then my followers mustnot partake of that mutton.' Could any of your prohibitionists be moreradical than that?

  "In later times many kinds of strong and poisonous drinks were made,and untold harm was done by their use. Drunkenness was the most fruitfulsource of crime and misery; it, more than any other cause, filled thejails, the almshouses and the insane asylums; it kept men in povertyand squalor; it scattered families and changed men, and sometimes women,too, into beasts. No class or profession was free from the evil, forit disqualified the scholar and statesman for their duties just as itunfitted the laborer for his daily task. It helped to debauch politicsand public morals, while it brought disgrace and ruin to privatereputation and character. More money was lost by it than was spent toeducate and Christianize the world, and it cost more precious lives thanwar and pestilence combined. Being a crime utterly selfish and debasing,as well as extremely tenacious of its hold upon the individual life, itwas almost the greatest enemy to the spread of the gospel.

  "Was there anything in the way of good to be said of the drinking habitto offset all this harm? Men drank to be sociable and companionable andto please their friends, and when the habit was fastened on them foundthey had lost every friend of value. They took to their cups to drowntheir sorrow, and found a sorrow more poignant among the dregs. Theybegan the moderate use of stimulants to give strength to the body oractivity to the brain, and discovered when too late that their abusehad brought down in common ruin both body and mind. No, it is impossib
lethat anyone should ever attempt to make an argument in favor ofdrunkenness.

  "The more active the age the more prevalent was this evil, butthe greater, also, was the determination to overthrow it. When theconscience was quickened by the growth of Christianity and men's livesbecame more valued, many persistent efforts were made to stamp out thecrime of intoxication.

  "Numerous societies were organized and good men and women enteredheartily into the work. Every argument was used to show the danger ofthe drink habit and to teach the beauty and value of sobriety, appealbeing made both to the reason and the conscience. The power of the statewas invoked and punishment administered to the drunkards, while themanufacture and sale of intoxicants were restricted and sometimesprohibited. We see how firm a hold this evil had on all classes when weread that very often public sentiment would not permit these beneficentlaws to be enforced. In all great reforms the apathy of a large part ofthe people has been a most discouraging feature.

  "Of course it was never intrinsically wrong to drink a glass of wine,but in view of the enormous amount of sorrow and trouble caused byoverdrinking, can it be wondered at that many earnest souls came toabhor everything in the nature of intoxicating drink, and to practiceand insist on total abstinence? Oh, I can tell you if I lived on theearth now I should be a radical of the radicals on this subject."

  "Notwithstanding which," said I, "here you are sitting at your own tableand pouring into our glasses this delicious wine."

  As a smile passed around at this remark it was Zenith who said:

  "Do you see anything incongruous in that?"

  I paused a moment to choose a reply, when the doctor spoke up with:

  "Far be it from us, Zenith, with our earth-born ideas, to even seem topass judgment in this happy place, but I presume my companion was tryingto imagine what our temperance friends, who do not know you, would say."

  "As for us," said Thorwald, "I trust we shall be justified in your eyesat least, before we are through, but let us inquire about those whom youcall your temperance friends. I suppose they would have a poor opinionof a man who was loud in his public advocacy of temperance and yet drankwine at home."

  "I think," I replied, "that I have heard some such term as 'hypocrite'applied to men of that class."

  "And yet," continued Thorwald, "they would think it perfectly proper fora man to keep razors away from his children, but at the same time haveone or more concealed about the house somewhere for his own use. Itmight very easily be argued that razors were dangerous things under anyconditions; the children might find them by accident and do great harmto themselves or others; the man himself, though accustomed to theirmoderate use, might, in a moment of overconfidence, go too far andinflict a serious injury on himself or even a fatal one; and, further,it might be said that razors are of no real use to men, for nature knowsbest what is needed for protection, and if hair on the face was notnecessary for the well-being of man it would not grow there. Thisargument could be pushed until, under an awakened public sentiment, themanufacture and sale of razors might be prohibited.

  "I have said this to introduce a plea for tolerance of opinion. You werecreated, I have no doubt, as we were, with different temperaments andinclinations, which, with various kinds of education, produce differentopinions. You cannot all have the same mind on any given subject, norall approve of the same methods of reform, but you will make but littleprogress in true temperance until you can bury minor differences andall work together. You must learn that everything that has been made,whether produced by the direct hand of God or through the agency of man,has its proper use. Do you say that some people would express the wishthat everything intoxicating could be destroyed from the earth, ashaving no proper use? All the evil in it will surely be removed, but thegood will remain. At present it is one of the stubborn obstructions inyour thorny path. If your way were to be suddenly made smooth and easyyour race would never learn self-denial, the only road that leads to ahigher state. Your present imperfect life is a daily conflict, and it isonly by battles won and temptations overcome that you will ever be builtup into virtuous and God-like characters.

  "I said you must be tolerant. I can conceive that a man might feelperfectly safe in the use of wine and have no scruples of any kindagainst it, and yet be sincere in urging people in general to totallyabstain from it on account of the harm some might receive. This man mustnot be denied a place in the temperance ranks. Another might think it asin to touch a drop. One might believe the only right way to deal withthe subject would be to prohibit the sale entirely, another would thinkmore might be done by some other method of restriction. All that I haveread of our experiences goes to prove that the people of the earthwill never drive out this evil till all shades of temperance people getChristianity enough into their hearts to unite on a broad platform andwork as one army with a single purpose."

  "Will you not tell us," I asked, "how the reform was finally effected onMars?"

  "Like all other true reforms," replied Thorwald, "it came about throughthe sanctified commonsense of the church of God, not suddenly by anymeans, but gradually and only after many years of severe struggle.A combined effort of all good people, especially women, working withspiritual as well as moral weapons, produced an impression which waslasting. When men were taught from their childhood the dangers whichaccompany the drinking habit; when one class of people denied themselvesall indulgence for the sake of the class who were weak; when drinkingbecame a disgrace, and those who could not keep sober were taken incharge by the state and permanently separated from the rest of thecommunity; when the church awoke to its full duty and the rich pouredout their money; when men and women forgot fashion and pride and castein their love for the practical work of Christianity; when the power ofthe gospel had strengthened men's will and had begun to plant inevery heart a love for something purer than fleshly appetite; when thespiritual part of our nature began to gain the ascendency and to occupythe place for which it was made; then intemperance loosed its hold andsoon disappeared, never to trouble us again.

  "You see it was a long road with us and I have no doubt it will proveso on the earth, but do not on that account lose courage. And let mecounsel both of you to join the ranks of the reformers when you gethome.

  "Although intemperate drinking has long been unknown among us, as wellas all other gross imperfections of character, we still make good wine,and no more danger is felt in drinking it than in using milk. Everybodycan have all he wants of it. Our tables may be supplied with theluxuries of every clime, but we have learned that it is best for us tobe temperate in both eating and drinking. I am sorry your temperancefriends, as you say, would not approve of us, but when you see themI trust you will do what you can to let them understand that suchtemptations as this of which we have been speaking belong to thechildhood of a race, and that the people of Mars have long since passedout of infancy."