New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-06-28

court in New York in one year more
than half were under the astatute
against common drunkards. Of all
the cases of criminal prosecution in
the courts of Louisiana more than
half of Their proceed from intemper-
ance. Thousands of complaints are
made yearly in this city to the police
of ourrages committed by intoxicated
persons, and learned attorney told
me that of twenty-one cases of muir
der which it had been his privilegs>to
examine, every one of them had been
committed in consequence of intern
perate drinking. remember having
read an account of the warden of the
Connecticut State prison, reporting
that nine-t enths of all the prisoners
under his care were decidedly intern
perate men, and were brought to that
condition, directly or indirectly,
through intoxicating liquors. Many
had confessed to him in tears that they
never felt tempted to the commission
of crime thus punishable, but when
under the influence of strong alcoholic
drinks.
Look at its destruction of intellect
1t reduces man to a beast, to a fool,
to devil incarnate. The excessive
drinker first becomes stupid, then
idiotic, then a maniac. Men of the
finest genius, most acute minds, and
profound learning have dwindled un-
der the touch of this whitening demon
to the merest insignifcance, and been
hooted at by boys for their silly
speeches and silly actions, or chained
in a madhouse as unsafe in society.
Of eighty-seven insane persons ad-
mitted into the New York hospital in
one year the insanity of twenty seven
was produced by intemperance; and
the physicians of the Pennsylvania
hospitals report that one-third of the
insane of that institution were ruined
by ardent spirits.
What if one-sixth Of our maniacs
were deprived of their reason
by the bite of the dogs, the
friendly inmates of our habi-
tations, OF by some veg
etable common to our tables; who
would harbor the dangerous animal 81
taste the poisonous vegetable But
one-third of our maniacs are deranged
by alcoholics beverages. Indeed, ev-
cry drunkard is in temporary delir-
ium, and no man who takes even I" q
little " into his system possesses that
sound judgment, or is capable of that
patient investigation, or intellectual
effort which would be his without it
Just in proportion as man comes under
the influence of ardent liquors he ap'
proximetes to idiotism or madness.
Look at its waste of health and life
The worm Of the still never touche;
the brute creation, but, as if the mos
venomeus of all beings, it seizes thC
noblest prey. 1t bites man, and where
/ it once leaves its subtle poison fare
well to health--farewell to long life
The door is open, and in rush dyspep
STA, iaundice, dropsy, govt, obstruc
tions of the liver, epilepsy-the dead
Hest plaques let loose on fallen man
all terminating in delirium tremen
or mania potu a prelud
to the eternal buffetings of foul spirit
in the world of despair. One out c
every forty Of our population ha
taken up his abode in the lazar
house of drunkenness, and thirty thou
sand die annually the death Of tn
3 drunkard.
9 These sweeps of death mock all tn
n ravages of the late war, femme, pest
= lence, and shipwreck. The yellor
fever, felt to be one Of the creates
curses of heaven, has destroyed but
2 few in proportion to those murdere
Q by incompetence. In the late war I
1 liberty the sword and powder devOure
but a handful in comparison to whs
alcohol kills every year, and enslave
i every day. Shipwrcck destroys sue
g denly, and we grOau and sorrow whe
v forty or hundred human beings ar
suddenly engulphed in watery grave
. but more than half of all the sudde
Q deaths occur in fits of intoxication.
t needed not fable to award the priz
+ of greatest ingenuity in malice an
: murder. to the demon who inYente
alcoholic beverages over the demo
'' who invented war. ,4. ts--
II And look at its waste of huma
: happiness. .'.......-
! Yes, look, look, look, for yeurselve
The woes of drunkenness mock a
. description. Some speak of the 10
: of drinking. Oh, if there is wretche
n being on earth it is the drunkard, II
"a property wasted, his character gon'
: his body loathsome, his passions will
. his appetite craving the poison thu
2 kills him, his hopes of immortalit
L blasted forever, 1t is all to-
: "Me miserable,
q Which way fly is hell, myself am hell. /"
And his family. I can never look
: it but. with feelings of the deePe
! anguish.
d " Domestic happiness, thou only bliss
II Of Paradise that hast escaped the fall, y
:. Thou art shipwrecked here. Sorro7
woe, wounds, poverty, babblings, al
= contehtion have entered in and dive
le there. .-...rs-A