Bloomsburg democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1867-1869, 1868-04-08

| whyMen Like 10 Drink. %.
| The following article from the pen Of
| Horace Greely we copy from the Herald N
Health, o journal which contains more sen.
sible articles on subjects Of practiclo NOR.
al bearing, than arc to be found in any 9TH
or monthly that comes to our sanctum.
! The Greek root Of the word intoxicate,
means poison. Whoever says man is In.
toxicated says he is poisoned. And II is
true. Give a part Of glass Of ordinary
spirits to child three or four years old, and
the child Is in twenty minutes in acongestion
ft, and probably.dies. II operates precise
lylike strychnine, arsenic, or any other dead
| ly drug. iH Commence by giving o child a
thimblefdll at q time, and gradually increase
the amount, and you may indurate him 50
that he will swallow as much at..a time as
would kill him at first. You may begin
with any: other poison, and do the same
thing. Our physical frame work is con-
structed with reference to this, to enable It
to stand a large amount Of any deadly sub.
stance, There is nothing peculiar in this
action Of alcohol. There in nothing in it
but the universal law that all poisons destroy
the susceptibility Of tue human frame.
Why does man like to drink liquor !?
Not because it has a. ..good..tastc, but because
it cxhilarates his nervous system. The man
takes his first glass Of liquor. It goes to
his stomach. Now, there is not:'a single
human stomach, nor:that Of any animal ev-
er created on this earth, that ever did or
ever can digest drop Of alcohol. The mo.
mcnt it falls into the. stomach. every vital
oagan recognizes the presence Of a deadly
enemy. 1t is precisely Of if q lion were
thrown into cage Of tigers, nd...cvery IT,
ger were to recognize the lion as his deadly
enemy. The stomach can not digest it, and
it cannot remain. All the organs assist in
throwing it of, andIthat great struggle Of
every vital organ to rid the stomach Of this
poison is the very thing which the pervert.
ed senses recognize as echilaration If a
man, standing on the moon, could have
telescope Of sufficient power to enable him
to view objects on the eearth, and could have
looked upon us during the late civil war,
and have seen, dimly through the glass, the
movements Of vast bodies Of men, he would
have said, "This nation has an immense
population there is o tremendous outpour-
ing of the people; this nation is in state
Of extraordinary prosperity" n
Precisely SO the mans sensorial, the point
where the nerves of sense concentrate, re-
cognizes, in this desperate effort Of the vital
organs to get rid of an enemy, a sense Of
strength nd,..exhileration in place Of the
languor and feebleness he felt just before.
But in little while, when nature has by all
her efforts, disposed of this poison, the
man sinks down to his former condition,
and great deal below it. Nature has made
her superior..struggle, she has got rid Of the
poison, but she has tired herselfin the effort
The next time Nature makes the same
struggle, but she has not the same strength
The second glass does not make the man
feel so good. The more man drinks, the
more he has to drink..to attain certain con-
dition. He has to take more and more
Nature turns constantly to rid herself of it,
but by becoming tired and gives it up.
There arc men who are not very perceptibly
affected by liquor. 1t does not make them
drunk. 1t does not hurt them; they say.
But it does hurt them. l never knew man
who drank good deal without becoming
intoxicated, whom liquor did not kill fast.
And for physiological reasons. If q man
will take poison, it is better to get rid Of it
than to keep it in the system. Drunkedness
is one of Gods infinite mercies, sent to help
poor, mistaken humane beings to get rid Of
the consequences Of their iniquity.
What We should do depends largely upon
what VIC orc able to do. II is not easy to
fly in the face Of public opinion. Laws
will, after all, be mainly reflection Of the
moral condition Of the people. They will
always be q little better, but not much bet
ter. If you should soy that no one in the
country should do bad thing, it would be
useless, because human nature, in the de-
velopment to which we have reached, would
not sustain such law. Public sentiments
are advancing. It does not allow men to
make parade Of vices which were once
tolerated. % DIT "a. ...a .l.-... .a-..gH asa
BosroN, Massachusetts,, is getting to be
''nice place" to live in. The following is
the record for one day:-A young man
named Kane, was knocked down last even
ing, and striking his head on the curb, caus-
ed inseant death. Frank Knell has been
arrested for murder. Several other rowdies
who were with him escadod. Several alleg
ed pickpockets, giving their names as Thom-
as Williams, Joseph P. Smith, Henry
Story :Jnhn lane. John Iannigan and