Belmont Chronicle

Horace Greeley's Temperance Habits

In a late letter to the Gymnast, Mr. G. says:

"Liquor and Tobacco were almost always in my father's house, and the former dispensed freely, though moderately, to all; but in my fourteenth year I formed myself, for want of associates and sympathizers, into an individual temperance society, and have not, since I was cured of the ague, thirty-three years ago, tasted ardent spirits. Wine, I was coaxed to try when horribly sea-sick on my first voyage to Europe six years ago, but I neither liked it, nor did it seem likely to overcome my nausea, as sour cider to some extent did; so I did not swallow quite half a wine glass of it. Tobacco I have always loathed, before the selfishness and bad manners of its votaries taught me to detest it. Strong beer or ale I may have drank twenty times during my greener days, but never since I came to the years of discretion. Lager I never tasted; and I gave up coffee and tea about twenty years ago. Few have liked coffee better than I did; but I caught my hand trembling one morning, and immediately called up my favorite indulgences in review to ascertain which was the Jonah. I was not long in detecting the culprit, coffee; and immediately put him overboard. My nerves have not quivered since.

"I am very often asked, I hardly know why, if I eat meat, and surprise is expressed on ascertaining that I do so. I once dispensed with the use of animal flesh almost wholly for two or three years; and it is, as it long has been, my deliberate judgment that in the torrid zones, where a great abundance and variety of vegetable food is easily procured, a diet which includes no flesh meat is preferable. If I were to live leisurely as I should choose, I would say, give me the best productions of grains, of fruits, with abundance of milk, cream, etc., and let me never again see animal flesh presented for human food. Not having time nor means to make a world myself, I try to accommodate my habits to the world that is, eat meat which is often the best food within reach."