EDWARD C. DELEVAN.

About the year 1835 the character of Albany ale and beer was scathingly exposed by Mr. E. C. Delevan, and the wealthy brewers brought an action against him for the injury he had inflicted upon their business, claiming damages to the amount of three hundred thousand dollars. The trial attracted much attention all over the country, but Mr. Delevan was triumphant. He fully proved that the pond from which they drew their water for brewing was a common receptacle for dead animals; that it received the drainage of slaughter houses and a glue factory. A map exhibiting the points where particular things sworn to by witnesses occurred was indicated by figures, and used in the trial before the jury. At point No. 6 were decayed swine; at No. -, dead dogs were floating; at No. lay a decomposed horse, etc., etc.

A pamphlet, containing the report of the trial and the maps, reached John Pierpont, and he was inspired to compose a satirical poem, entitled "The Lament of the Albany Brewers," from which we select a few lines:

Thou ponderous porker, who wert numbered six,

Upon the map in Delevan's report !

Who didst sink into our Albanian Styx,

And rise again before the Circuit Court;

Like sightless Samson, there thou madest sport

For temperance Philistines; but 'tis clear

The very place for thee was in our mash;

Why should not we, who have, from year to year,

Our beer in hogsheads put-put hogs' heads in our beer?

"Ye murdered dogs, who, when ye had your day,
Were wont by moonlight o'er yon graves to howl;
Who from cash customers would walk away,

But at the ragged ones would turn and growl;
Though round our premises no more ye prowl,

Against the loafer to keep watch and ward,
Still do ye serve us, though reformers scowl;
For since ye dangled in the strangling cord,
Ye've helped make a lout as tipsy as a lord.

"Bullocks, who bellowed just before your blood

Was, for our benefit, poured out like water,
Dreamed ye, as erst ye lay and chewed the cud,

That from yon house where ye were led to slaughter,
There would drain down for many a blowzy daughter,

Of our good city, who sits guzzling ale,

Such real stuff? Our trial now hath taught her,

(Grew she not, as she read it, very pale!)

That from your horns and hoofs there hangeth quite a tale."

It is worthy of special mention that, in the year 1838, Edward C. Delevan, of Albany, who, at that time, for a period of ten years, had been zealously engaged in promoting the cause of temperance, contributing large sums of money to help it forward, visited Europe, chiefly for the purpose of extending the influence of this great reform. It was emphatically a missionary journey, and, at every step of his progress, he looked for opportunities to put forth his efforts. On his outward passage, on the "Great Western," he instituted measures for reform on that steamer, obtaining the names of fifty-seven passengers to a memorial to the Directors of the Great Western Steam Navigation Company, praying that intoxicating liquors be no longer furnished at the table, but be kept only by the steward for the use of persons calling for them. On his arrival in London, he made provision for the circulation of three thousand temperance documents among the influential classes, and held interviews with the chief officers of the British Temperance Societies. He visited Paris, and was introduced to Louis Philippe and his son, the Duke of Orleans, by Hon. Lewis Cass, then U. S. Minister to France. The subject of conversation, at this interview, was the question of temperance and the drinking habits of the French nation. He proceeded to Rome, and had free conversations with influential men in that ancient city, to whom he explained the principles and the progress of the Temperance Reformation in America, and from whom he gathered many facts illustrating the connection between pauperism and crime and the use of even the

mild wines of Italy. Mr. Delevan left a good impression behind him, and returned home laden with valuable information.

TEMPERANCE PERIODICALS.

During the years 1838 and 1839 sixteen temperance newspapers were published in various parts of this country, all committed to the most advanced abstinence ideas:

"The Journal of the American Temperance Union," Philadelphia; "The Temperance Gazette," Augusta, Me.; "The Temperance Journal," Boston, Mass.; "The Temperance Herald," Providence, R. I.; "The Temperance Star," Montpelier, Vt.; "The Temperance Recorder," Albany, N. Y.; "The Temperance Reporter," Trenton, N. J.; "The Temperance Recorder," Philadelphia; "The Standard," Wilmington, Del.; "The Temperance Herald," Baltimore, Md.; "The Western Temperance Journal," Cincinnati, Ohio; "The Temperance Herald," Jackson, Mich.; "The Temperance Advocate," Indianapolis, Ind.; "The Temperance Herald," Alton, Ill.; "The Temperance Advocate," Montreal, P. Q.; and "The Temperance Advocate," St. Johns, N. B. "The Youth's Temperance Advocate" began its career in 1839.

PECUNIARY GIFTS.

The liberal subscriptions of leading citizens, in the early stages of this great movement, show the class of men interested in it, and the measure of their zeal. The first subscriptions were made to aid the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, soon after its organization in 1826, namely: Wm. P. Green, of Norwich, Conn., $1,000; Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D, of Andover, Mass.; Hons. Henry Holmes, J. E. Proctor, John Tappan, Wm. Ropes, and Samuel Hubbard, of Boston; Hon. S. V. S. Wilder, of Bolton, Mass.; Wm. Bartlett and Moses Brown, of Newburyport, Mass.; and Arthur Tappan, of New York, $500 each. The following gentlemen contributed $1,000 each to aid the New York State Society: Messrs. John Jacob Astor, Anson Blake, Boorman & Johnston, Brown