SUBSTITUTES FOR GIN AND BEER.
"'fie third tea-party of the Preston Temperance Society was celebrated un Christinas-day, in the Exchange Rooms. The company amounted to about twelve hundred; the tea-kettle was a boiler containing two I uadred gallons, erected in an outhouse; and forty reformed drunkards officiated as waiters ! A band of music assisted ; two temperance songs were sung, and several addresses delivered. The Heemder of the Borough with a party of ladies ;tad gentlemen honoured the meeting with their presence, and pleasure and en- j,,yntent beamed from every countenance."—Presion Chronicle.
This all very well while the novelty lasts; but it must not
step hew, or the tea-kettle will again fade before the punchbowl, and the coffee-cup give way to the dram-glass. Wholesome luxu- ries and innocent amusements must be provided for the people. The tea-garden must realize its name; " the cups which cheer but Lot inebriate- circulate in its boxes and arbours ; the mechanic and his wire and family join in the dance on the grass-plot, or swell the chorus in the music-room ; the enjoyments that may be partaken of without excess must be shared, as well as the benefits that wait on temperance be felt, before the triumph of temperance is achieved. But, in the eyes of Magistrates, music and dancing are an abomination, when the working-man is concerned. News- papers and perwil,cals have beaten cards almost out of the field; and music and dancing would be more than a match for dram- drinking. The cry of "Baked taties, all hot !" which offended the ears of some silly persons in Surry, may ere long be varied by " Tea and coffee, all hot !" Many a penny that would have other- wise gone for gin has been spent on a hot potato. Why should not London have its peripatetic venders of coffee, tea, or lemonade, as well as Paris its " limonadiers?" A small cup of pure and strong coffee or tea, hot and clear, in cold weather, or a glass of lemonade in warm, would be found hardly less stimulating, while far more refreshing, than a glass of fiery spirit or of drugged beer; and might be purveyed as cheap. We throw out the hint to some of the numerous little capitalists who cannot pay shop- rent.
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