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The Washingtonian, or, Total Abstinence Advocate.
VOL. I.]
THE WASHINGTONIAN.
PUBLISHED BY JAMES McCAFFERTY,
TWICE EVERY MONTH.
Office on Macintosh street—ojrposite the Post Office.
TERMS.
For atingle copy, for one Tear, One Dollar; for six
copies, to one aildress, Five Dollars ; for ten copies, to
one address, Eight Dollars—nnd so in proportion.
(jQf- Payment in all cases to lie made in advance.
fjtj- All communications by mail,must be post paid,
to receive attention.
Morsels for Beer Drinkers.
We presume that most of our readers hate
heard of the celebrated law-suit between E. C.
Delevan, and the Albany Beer makers; but for
the benefit ofthose who have not, we will briefly
| state the cause.
In the year 1835, and while Mr. Delevan was
* Chairman of the Executive Committee of the
f New-York State Temperance Society, a physi
cian of respectability handed Mr. D. a written
I statement that certain Brewers in Albany used
“ filthy disgusting water for malting grain for the
purpose of making beer, of which the following
is an extract.
“ He states, that so long since as six or seven
years he was knowing to the fact of Fidlerand
Taylor’s and Robert Dunlap’s malting establish
ment, on the hill in Albany, being supplied with
water for malting from stagnant pools, gutters
and ditches, often in such a state as to be green
on the surface, that such water was collected for
several seasons to his knowledge. That he had ,
not only seen the water of this character collect
ed, but deposited in the malting establishment for '
the use ot malting. That no attention was even j
paid to cleanliness; the water was often taken
from puddles in which were dead animals.— i
When the water was low in the pools, boles were j
made, in which the pail was sunk; and he had
seen the sides of it come in contact with dead I
animals in a state of putridity; had seen water |
carried to the malt houses nearly as thick as [
cream with tilth ; saw last winter, water passing i
fc on carts coming from the direction ot some filthy !
pond, and taken to malt houses. There are sev i
oral malt-houses on the hill, all of which, he he- j
I lieves, rely on water taken ftom such places as he 1
described, occasionally. That the facts heresta- j
(ted, he believes to be known to hundreds residing
, in the neighborhood of the malting establish- j
merits. He states, also, that seven hogsheads of;
water are usually placed in a steep-tub at a time,
and it is then filled with barley; that he has seen
a deposite or sediment of from 10 to 12 inches of
the most filthy matter settle to the bottom from
* that quantity of water. This has been from wa
ter collected from the places described.”
This statement appeared in the Albany Even
ing Journal, and subsequently eight libel suits
were commenced against Mr. Delevan, for this
publication, with damages laid at $300,000, upon
which he was arrested and held to bail in the sum
0f540,000, In 1840, he was tried upon one suit,
brought bv John Taylor, damages laid at $74,-
000, whicK resulted in a verdict of sixpence dama
ges in favor of Mr. Delevan, which of course
threw the costs on Mr. Taylor. The other suits
L were never tried. I
To show our beer-drinkers what delicious soup
they have been guz/.ling, we submit the following
testimony given on the trial, by a man who had
been engaged in drawing water for the malt
house :
From how many places did you assist in draw
ing this water 1 I think 15 or "20. From what
places’? From the big pond; that was always a
* standing source; and then, after rains, from what
ever points were nearest the malt house. From
1 puddles on the surface 1 Yes, from puddles.
Get any from Poor-house creek ? Yes. Was it
below the bridge of Poor-house creek? Yes.
Get it ever from the vicinity of Jndson ; s[the name
not distinctly heard] slaughter-house? Yes.
Where was 'that looatal ? I think on Orange- j
street. North of the Schenectady turnpike?
Yes. Were there any puddles in front of the
srravc-yards that you got water from ? Yes. Any
thing offensive that drained into the puddles near
Judson’s slaughter-house? Part "f the offal of i
the slaughter-nouse drained into the pond from J
which water was taken, near the slaughter-house.
You drew water from the pond ? Yes. How j
long? Four or five seasons. The pond in the
vicinity of the malt-house? \ es. What was
the character of the water in that pond ? Very
bad. How so? Bad, from the fact that it was
receiving almost all the offal from the hill; dead 1
hogs, and dogs and cats; horses, all drawn very I
aear the pond; many in the pond, and with the I
■sun on them, making it exceedingly foul, so that |
in drawing it, frequently made me sick. On the !
banks of the pond, were there dead animals ?
There were. In the water? Almost always |
more or less dead animals in the water. What j
dead animals have you seen while dipping, if
TOTAL ABSTINENCE ADVOCATE.
AUGUSTA. GA. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1842.
any? Seendeadcats—dogs. While dipping?—
Yes; and 1 think hogs: not sure, however. Seen
any dead cows or horses, thereabouts ? I have
seen horses up towards the glue factory. This,
while you were dipping? Don’t know that it
was exactly at the time. They were left there
to decay ? Yes. What time of the year did yon
usually commence dipping ? Commenced the
first cold weather; I think in October, or therea
bouts. These four or five seasons that you spoke
ot, about what time did you begin to draw watt r
for this malt-house? That f don't know; I
should think in the commencement ofthe season.
Os the malting season? In cold weather, lknow.
How long did this continue? As long as the
cold weather continued. They required cold
weather for malting?—Yes. How did you dip
water in the winter, when it was frozen ? Cut a
hole through the ice. What evidence had you,
it any, that there were dead animals there in win
ter? I have frequently seen them. They would
come to the hole from the wash of the water. I
have drowned eats in these holes myself. Was
it the ordinary way to drown cats in these holes ?
It was. Did they coine to the holes frequently,
so as to be troublesome? Exceedingly so. some
times.
Plaintiffs Counsel, —Came there so thick?
Not so thick.
Exn mini lion resumed. — [-low did you manage
it? Thrust them back. Did they come in con
tact with the pail while dipping that water ? Yes
sir, they did. Were these dead animals in a state
of putrefaction ? Sometimes they were.”
If any man can drink beer after reading the
above, without involuntary shutting his teeth to
keep rotten cats and dogs from slipping down his
throat, he, must have a greater relisn for such
nice things than we have. —[Columbia Wash
ingtonian.
From the Fountain.
Tlic Dram-Seller’s Soliloquy.
How hard the times! The like was never
seen, since I have been engaged in making
drunkards. Something must be done, or I great
ly fear my business will be ruined. Oh for the
return of the sunny days 'that arc past! Once,
when I unbarred my doors at early morn, my eyes
beheld a thirsty set of waiting customers, who
from their beds came to get their morning dram.
Yes, from morn till night, my shop was thronged
with red-faced, bloated, thirsty sots. Witb what
eagerness did they seize the glass, and pour down
their parched throats the blue ruin! ’Twas a
glorious thought, to know that drunkards left
their wives and children destitute at home, while
at my shop they spent their time and money.
Then, from their love of liberty , well did I fleece
their pockets. Poor fools! to give me their hard
earnings for rum! Yeti did not tell them so,
but made them believe I was their friend; though
when they became drunk, and moneyless, often
did 1 kick them from my shop, and send them
reeling headlong to the gutter. True, the deliri
utK tremens sometimes robbed me of a customer;
hut then I had this consolation, that while they
lived I got their money, and made their families
wretched.
But now, how changed the times! These
cursed Washingtonians haunt, me as Banquo’s
ghost haunted Macbeth, and goaded him on to
madness. So are the Washingtonians in my
sight. It makes me desperate to sec them now so
decently clad, spurning my shop and getting
away my customers. They rob me of my good
name, my honor, and my business—causing men
to leave iny “ Golgotha,” my “ Place of Skulls,”
where the strong arm of my poisonous mixture
has oft held them to the floor at night, causing me
to lock them in, or drag them forth and leave them
exposed beneath heaven’s broad panoply, to per
ish or crawl home as best they could. I have
raved and chrscd, circulated false reports, and
done all I could to stop this Temperance reforma
tion; as yet, however, it has done but little good,
for few have broken their pledge and returned
“ like a dog to his vomit,” after all my swearing
and my false reports. Now will I take another
course; what I can’t do by bare-faced impudence,
I’ll do by cunning. Like a snake in the grass
will I crawl quietly until I get them within my
power, and once more under my control. Now
will 1 treat resolution, and then commence my
plan of operations. • “ Chery Bounce.”
L/0! the Poor Indian.
Os the Indians at Tonawanda, N. Y. 250 had
signed the Pledge in July last, including all the
chiefs, Kiin number. The entire number is es
timated at 500. The white man may well take
example from this remnant of those who once
possessed this continent, and whose worst enemy
has been the ‘ fire water’ ofthe whites. If all our
chiefs would sign the Pledge what glorious re
sults we might boast of in a short time, through'the
impetus our cause would thus acquire.— [Organ.
OR,
Open to All.
Some people have very funny notions of what
constitutes good Washingtonians. They seem
to have entirely trodden under loot the good old
rule, “ let. every tub stand on its own bottom,”
whether it be pine, oak, or cedar, and contend
that men may cheat, lie, violate the sanctity of
our firesides, and act perfectly reckless of every
fair and honorable obligation between man anil
man, and yet. be as good Wash ingtonians as the
best of us—that “all should be alike treated and
respected whosignthe Pledge!” Ifthisis Wasli
ingtonianism, it is certainly newfangled, and we
can safely assert that it was never dreamt of in
the philosophy of the ‘illustrious six reformers’
of Baltimore: it seems to have been “made to
order at the shortest notice,” for the especial ac
commodation of those whose interest it is to have
as little said about character as possible.
That it was the intention of the founders of
the Washington Societies to have them “open
to all,” cannot he denied, nor is its wisdom doubt
ed. The legitimate business of these societies is
undoubtedly to make men sober; though they do
not exart in their constitutions, a reformation but
in the drinking habits of their members, yet they
contemplate , and expect a reformation in other re
spects. The reasons given we hold good and
sufficient. “ A sober man is more likely to be a
good citizen than a drunken one,” “ A man’s
reformation from intemperance, places him in bis
original position.” “ When a man joins a Wash
ington Society, and is reformed— come to his nro
per senses and his conscience—no one can doubt
the eflcct his reformation will have on his notions
of other things. Cold water clears the head;
and though it does not regenerate, it greatly un
war|is the heart.” Such are the sentiments of
Mitchell and his compeers, and they meet our
hearty approval. To say that we are hound to
treat and respect as a brother, a man who has
robbed us, and will do so again if he can get a
chance,merely because he does not “drink spir
ituous or malt liquors, wine or cider,” strikes us
as bordering on the ridiculous; it is evidently a
false and dangerous doctrine. If a poor drunk
ard, who in consequence of intemperance has
committed errors, sign the pledge and manifest a
disposition to become a reformed man, we are in
duty bound to cheer him on as a brothei —but if
a drunken rascal sign the pledge, and becomes
merely a sober rascal, there is no part of the
Washingtonian creed, which requires that he
should “ be alike treated and respected” with ho
nest men. In this respect, men in our Societies,
(being “open to all,”)must be judged as in the
eommuntty —“ by their acts ye shall know them.”
A bad man can no more be a good Washington
ian, than he who is dishonest can be a good citi
zen.—N Y. Temp. Organ.
New way to give a Temperance Lecture.
A few days since, a stranger in our city, was
seen at noon-day, upon his back, reposing on the
side-walk, with his head pillowed upon a door
step —his mouth open, and his whole length
stretched across the pavement, so that the passers
by were compelled to step over him. Ladies pass
ed upon the other side; but in doing so, they lost
the benefit of a valuable caution, which appeared
in large characters upon his heart, in these words:
“ •ModeraU Drinkers! Mint are!!'"
After the poor fellow had slept off the fumes of
rum, and placed himself in an erect position, he
was kindly invited by some dozen of our cold
water boys, to sign the pledge—he accepted their
invitation, and they brought him to the temper
ance Rooms, where he registered his name a
mong the army of tce-totalers. Those who have
seen the drunkard in his worst’eondition can im
agine his appearance, when he staggereil in our
presence, to declare his wish to reform. He was
a loathsome being. He departed, and the next
Sabbath, sober and neatly dressed, he called at
the Temperance Rooms to secure a seat in a car
riage bound to Glcneo temperance meeting.
Columbia [Hudson] Washingtonian.
An Example, Worthy op the Imitation of
all. — One of our Washingtonians whose heartis
in thecause, but whose means are limited, fearing
that he might at sometime be out of employment
and unable to pay his dues, took the first oppor
tunity when he had incans, to pay up his society
dues for a year in advance. He thinks it the best
expenditure he ever made. What a contrast be
tween this man, and many who are well oft', who
bluster loudly at business meetings, and yet suf
fer their dues to go unpaid month after month.
[IV. Y. Organ.
Why don’t rumseliers have newspapers to de
fend tlieir traffic? Would’nt be funny to see
paraded about the streets, by a multitude of little
ragged urchins, the “ Rumseller’s National Ga
zette,and Tipler’s Universal Advocate.” Who’ll
start one.—Set Us down for two copies.
[ Virginia Teetotaler.
Many Facts in Few Words.
A legal stone of fourteen pounds, or the eighth
ofan hundred in England, are sixteen pounds in
Holland.
The fathom, six feet, is derived from the height
of a tall grown man. A hand in horse measure,
is four inches.
An Irish mile is twenty-two hundred and forty
yards; a Scotch mile is nineteen hundred and
eighty-four yards; an English or statuie mile,
seventeen hundred and sixty yards; German,
eighteen hundred and sixty yards; Turkish,
eighteen hundred and twenty-six yards.
An acre is forty eight hundred and forty square
yards, or sixty-nine yards, one foot, eight and a
halt inches each way. A square mile, seventeen
hundred and sixty yards each way, contains six
hundred and forty acres.
1 lie Christian era was first used, in counting
time, at Rome, in 627; adopted in France, in 750
in Spain 1350 ; and in Portugal. 1410. The
early Christians dated from the accession of Dio
clesian,in 284.
The Persians give name to every day in the
month, just as we give them to days of the week.
A man is taller in the morning than at night,
to the extent of half an inch or more, owinir to
the relaxation ol'the cartilages.
The Esquimaux attain the height of hut four
feet three inches, and the Mongul Tatters hut
four feet nine inches.
The human body consists of two hundred and
forty hones, nine kinds of articulations or join
ings, one hundred cartilages or ligaments, four
hundred muscles or tendons, and one hundred
nerves, besides blood, arteries, veins, & c .
Riley asserts, that Arabs, in the desert, live two
hundred years.
The foot of the Chinese female, from the heel
to the great toe, is only four inches long.
I otal abstinence trom food abovo seven days,
is fatal to man, but there are instances of survi
ving after a longer period. A religious fanatic,
in 1789, determined to fast forty days but died on
the sixteenth.
I n marching soldiers take seventy-five steps per
minute; quick marching one hundred and tight
and hi charging, one hundred and fifty steps ’
The Hindoos have the art of personating death
so as to deceive able surgeons.
An elephant bred to war stands firm against a
volley of musketry, and thirty bullets in the flesh
will not kill him.
Fish are drawn towards a light; they assemble
to he fed hy the sound ofa bell, and are fond of
music.
A chesnuttrce on Mount ./Etna is one hun
dred and ninety-six feet round, close to the trunk.
Potatoes planted below three feet do not vege
tate; atone foot they grow thickest, and at two
feet they are retarded two or three months.
The mahogany troe is full grown in two hun
dred years. Cypreas tress are known to be eight
hundred or nine hundred years old.
There are no solid rocks in the arctic regions
owing to the severe frosts.
Fossil bones of the lizard, twenty-four feet in
length, equal to the dragons of antiquity, have
been found in Bavaria.
The surface of the sea is estimated at 150 000
000 square miles, taking the whole surface of the
globe at 197, 000, 000 square miles. Its greatest
depth is supposed to be equal to the height of the
highest mountain, or four miles.
Fresh water begins to freeze at thirty-two de
grees, called the freezing point; but salt water
does not freeze till thirty-eight and a halfdegrees.
Os one hundred parts into which the surface of
the earth may be divided, Europe contains seven
Africatwenty-one, Continental Asia thirty-three’
New Holland, &c, eight, South America fifteen’
North America sixteen.
A cylinder of water may be converted into ice
by placing it in five pounds of sulphate of soda’
and four pounds of sulphuric acid, at thirty six
degrees, well mixed. The ice is extracted for use
by putting the cylinder in hot water.
Extreme cold produces the same perception on
the skin as great heat. When mercury is frozen
at forty degrees below zero, the sensation of the
skin is the same as that of touching red hot iron.
The sound ofthunder may be heard for twenty
or twenty-five miles, or with the ear to the ground
much more. Lightning is reflected one hundred
and fifty or two hundred miles.— Saturday Chron
icle.
Beware of borrowing trouble; it will come soon
enough, without your taking the trouble to anti
cipate it. Things are never so bad but thev
might be worse, and when they have arrived at
the pleasant point of misery, they must take a
turn for the better, —at least so we heard our
grandmother say. Above all things keep out of
debt; it makes you a liar and a knave. And the
secret of keeping out of debt is to live within your
means, and to marry a girl who prefers a clean
cotton gown to a flashy satin or silk one.
[No. 11.