Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-11-17

For the ChronicIe.j
Drinking is Healthful.

Almost every day, in my walks among
the incorporate, / find persons of I'M
doubted candor and apparently good
Judgment, who aver, from their own eI-
perIence, that the drinking of alcoholic
beverages is healthful-or at least, notin-
furious. "To be sure" he says,"I might
make a hog of myself by drinking too
much; but if 1 keep within bounds, it
does me good to drink; l feel better after
I get my regular drink 1 can endure
more physical eXertiOn; my mind is
more active, and as a consequence, l am
much better fitted TO cope with the world
than 1 would be without the stimulant.
That it is good for my body, you can see
for yourself. Look at me! am l not in
good condition? My face, my arms, my
body, all perfectly plump and sound.
Show me a temperance man in any bet
ter order physically, if you can! / have
used stimulants for a long time, and 1
think 1 know by this time whether it is
hurtful to me or not. Do you think l
would drink II IL hurt ne, as you temper
ance men say it does every n that
drinks? 1 am ready to admit that alcohol
does seem TO injure some men wh0 new
er take too much; but l guess if the
truth were known, you would find that
there is some other for their i'll
condition, or perhaps they drink at m
proper times"
Now, CHRONICLE, the above specimen
is not fancy work, but a reality of ire
! quent occurrence; and ! am charitable
enough to believe that many who make
such declarations belieUe them sincerely
vet il is hard for non-drinkers to under
stand how tipplers can be so blind, for
surely they are, when facts Liz the fol-
lowing from the Chicago Advance, are of
daily occurrence. "a merchant prince
r ~ VII -A-%I- ar~ aDaea- ~
great manly beauty, who dined
without his brandy and water, nor went
10 bed without a terrapin or oyster sup
per, and who was never known to be
drunk, died OF chronic diarrhoea-a COM
mon end of those who are never intoxl-
Gated and never out of liquor. HATS
Journal of Health gives this account Of
his death; Months before he died-he
was a year in dying-he could eat moth
ing without great distress, and at death
( the whole alimentary canal was q mass
Of disease in the midst of his millions
he died of inanition (~stRrv3tion), That
is not the half, reader. He had been a
steady drinker, a daily drinker, for
tYenty-eight years. Scrofula has been
eating up one daughter for fifteen years;
another is in the mad-house; he third
| and fourth were of unearthly beauty ;
there was a kind of grandeur in that beau
ty but they blighted and faded, and
! faded-into heaven we trust-in their
sweet teens; another is tottering on the
verge of the grave, and only one is left
with all the senses, and each of them is
weak as water"
Another case given by DR.. HGu;-TA
gentleman Of thirty-ive was sitting on q
chair, with NJ specially critical symp-
toms present still he was known 10 be
a 'dissipated young man. He rose, ran
about fifty feet, fell down and died. The
whole covering Of the brain was thicken-
cd, its Cavities were filled with a fluid
that did not belong % it, enough to kill a
half dozen men with apoplexy; g great
portion of one lung wal in a state of gan
creme, and nearly all the other was hard
ened and useless; blood and yellow mat
ter plastercd the inner covering of the
lungs, while angry red patches of infa-
nation were scattered along the whole
alimentsrY canal, Why, there was
enough of death in that mans body
to have killed forty men," Fhf doctor
who talks about guzzling liquor every
day being healthy is a perfect disgrace
TO the medical name, and ought 10 DO
turned out to break rock for the term of
his natural life, at a shilling a day, and
find himself.