A temperance fountain was a fountain that was set up, usually by a private benefactor, to encourage people not to drink beer by the provision of safe and free water. Beer was the main alternative to water, and generally safer. The temperance societies had no real alternative as tea and coffee were too expensive, so drinking fountains were very attractive.
Read more about Temperance Fountain: Cogswill Fountains, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Temperance Fountains in The United Kingdom, Examples
Famous quotes containing the words temperance and/or fountain:
“No temperance society which is well officered and which has the real good of our fellow-men in view, will ever get drunk save in the seclusion of its temperance hall.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Never since the middle summer’s spring
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By pavèd fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beachèd margent of the sea
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)