The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1858-09-02


spirit-to indigence which accustoms its
victims to base actions and evil thoughts
to indulgence which engenders envy
and exposes the mind to corrupt tempta-
tions--to Indulgence which leads to theft,
and even to more desperate crimes. This
is indeed a fearful consequence. The
man who drinks does not merely produce
these baneful results for himself alone,
but also for all those who depend upon
him. When we go to our asylums and
poor houses, we find the great majority OF
children there to be children of drunk
ards, who, after having by degrees dwarf
| ed their intelligence, exhau sted their vig-
or, destroyed their health, dissipated
their pecuniary resources, are obliged TO
abandon their children. Obliged do
say ? no because brutificd. and insen-
sible TO the cry of duty and of nature,
they abandoned them without regret, and
have sometimes even barbarously driven
them from the paternal roof, as they
chase useless mouths from place closely
besieged in war. 1
Some who contemplate this frightful
picture may reassure themselves by say
ing this is only true of habitual drunk
ards, but that they scarcely ever 90 to
excess, and the lesson is not applicable to
them. This is not so. " He who hath
drunk will drink again." is the language
of a truthful proverb, and its terrible
verify should impress itself upon all
minds The drinker progresses step by
step little by little he accustoms himself
to the internal beverage insensibly he
loses the sense of danger, and finally falls
over the precipice. Il is from among the
moderate drinkers that drunkenness draws
all its recruits. All sots there COM
menced their career. There is no safety,
then, but in being infexible not to drink
at all-never to be drunkard it is nee
essary never to indulge in alcoholic
liquors. Our nature is weak, and its
fragility is one of the woes of humanity.
He who would save himself from infec-
ton, in an infected atmosphere, should
wrap himself in a preservative garment,
not to be laid aside night or day. The
soul is like a delicate tissue, which shows
the mark of the leest stain. Lord BACON
says, in his essay on Marriage and Sin
gle Life, 81 He that hath wife and child
rem hath given hostages to fortune" I'M
itating this original observation, it might
be said with more truth, bottle of wine,
or flask of brandy, are hostages given
to intoxication and misery. Nourish,
therefore, fixed and eternal hatred for
the least excess in alcoholic drinks, so as
to give no hostages of degradation. To
maintain this principle, vigorously resolve
not 10 frequent those places and those re-
sorts where it is dispensed. | do not
mean that we should turn with horror
from those who are enslaved by drunken
ness far from all minds be such egotis-
teal and heartless morality. Exhaust
every means for their reformation, and
labor long, courageously, energetically,
without WEAKNESS, earnestly, and affec
tionatcly for that purpose but do not
allow any ties to draws you for relaxation
to circles where carousing and drinking
is carried on. Such intimacy would be
dangerous, such examples would be det-
rimental. Evil is contagious. More
than twenty three hundred years ago
Menander said to the Greeks, evil com
munications corrupt good manners, "a
a truth which St. Paul, who appears to
have been familiar with the current lit
erature of his time, has made a portion
of one of his epistles. Is il necessary to
dwell upon this striking truth ? Is it
not too evident to what degree bad ex-
ample and vicious companions are per-
nicious ? When we have spared nothing
which duty commands or charity inspires,
there is another duty to fulfil, another
charity to exercise, it is not only to bear
an inexorable hatred to vice, but to avoid
the contagion of its temples. AS long
as an individual endeavors to correct
friend or a brother, there is nothing to
be feared; he is sustained by the action
he exercises, and is ever animated by the
resistance he experiences. But when be
ceases to wrestie, the door is opened to
deleterious influences. When an evil is
habitually under our eyes, it loses its
horror, its inlamy gradually disappears,
familiarity insensibly extends its inhu-
ence, and then to partake the evil re-
quires but step. What we see without
repugnance we easily learn to do our
selves, and once launched on the danger
Gus stream no one can say he will be able
to stop in his course. He who lends his
countenance, even passively, to a vice, is
not far from committing it. A fault en-
genders a crime.
When We consider alcohol as bever-
age, it has no redeeming traits, but is
made up Of unmitigated evil. The an
clients had a saying. an zinc ueritas-in
wine there is truth---an axiom of which
we may observe, by way of parenthesis,
that il is not over and above compliment
tary to human sincerity. Not only, how
ever, is wine as a drink, destitute of all
other good qualities. but it also lacks,
the Roman saying to the contrary not
withslanding. even the requisite of truth.
When its devo:ees have not proceeded in
its polation SO far as to lose the faculty of
speech, it produces, not truth, but indis-
cretion. Dir. Armstrong, in his poem on
the Dirt Of Preserving Health. appositely
notices this, when describing The after
effects of debauch. He says, after
painting other evils