The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-06-14
The Horrors Of Drink.

The monstrouS scOurge Ot drunkenCCSS
is sweeping annually to dishonored grave
more than fifty thousand of our population,
! and probably million OF the earth's inhab-
itants. The vice exists here and there, and
everywhere upon the highways and by
ways; in the mansions of the rich and opu-
lent, and in the novels and garrets OF the
I poor and INDECENT. The legislative chamber,
/ the pulpit all occupations and professions
alike share the moral and social deyastations
of the blighting and withering curse. Day
I after day we read in .lle newspapers the sad
/ stor SD often repeated, of some unfortunate
being whom the grave has relieved from
the horrors Of indulgence in strong drink
4 Sometimes the quetus comes through the
torturing and ul-consuming method OF the
/ liquid poison, and as often through the
means of the unmanly and miserable sui-
eide. Day after day we are furnished with
I scenes of the results of drinking, which send
a shudder through the frame aud makes the
warm blood turn cold. We all, perhaps,
remember the account which excited the
public not long since, Of young man in the
east, reared By educated and wealthy pa
rents, beloved by the household, aud having
at his command moBey and all the appliances
of luxury and ease, who was led, step by
step, in all the gradations of fashionable
drinking saloons, till one morning found
him CHASTITY suicide, after numbering his
brothers and sisters, and attempting in the
most horrid manner TO murder his father
and mother. But a few months ago, in one
of our large cities, a daughter, who had
been drinking, and knowing her aged moth
er to have in her possession sum of money,
proceeded to murder her by savagely chop
ping her head with an axe that she might
obtain the means with which she could pur-
chase more liquor.
Not long since, man in neighboring
State, who, when free from intoxication,
! We iuIustriaus and kind to his family, cot
on a spree, went TO his home, and delihe-
rately loaded gun and shot his wife dead
in the presence of his children. So runs the
catalogue of murder, which can be traced
to the Devils nostrum, alcoholic liquor
And, if possible. yet sadder aspect pre-
sentd by this destructive and all-pervading
vice is, that thousands of men are yield
ing soul and body to its embraces, who.
otherwise, would be useful and exemplary
in all the relations Of life We see daily
themost melancholy proofs that men Of the
, Hottest intellectual and moral natures-the
higlest type Of masculine humanity-are
not above the seeming necessity for alcohol
: ic .timulatiOn. Men there are, in our coun-
: tr,. who, at one period of their lives, stood
: upin their intellectual grandeur, like colos-
: sal pillars, aud who, by their uariyalled
talerts, gave the highest hopes OF admira-
tion and pride TO their countrymeu, that are
nowfar sunk in the purgatoriaI regions of
human despair. They are lost to them
selvs, TO their friends, aud to their country.
: Th, "blackneSS OF darkness has closed
; owe them, and they stand as shattered
= wrecks awaiting the waves OF oblivion TO
bic them forever
Nhiie the misery is worldwide. we need
n ns go abroad for examples of the awfully
dslructive effects of strong drinks. Its
: lrrorS are seen and felt in our midst. Right
Ire in the city Of Evansville, where we