New-York tribune., 1870-02-04
THE SCRANTON TRAGEDY.

THE SCRANTON TRAGEDY.
While the newspapers gloat daily over the
details of the last case of murder or seduction,
mere mention has been made of an incident
which occurred last week at Scranton, Penn,
and which seems to us TO contain the elements
of the most terrible tragedy. But the story is
so old and hackneyed-the tragedy almost as
common as death itself. A young man goes
wandering about the country, the son OF re-
spectacle and wealthy people: well-educated
himself, generous, affectiOnate, good fellow,
of whom no worse harm can be said than that
he was "a little fast" Just at the age, too,
when the broad (road Of life has the fullest
daylight upon it when all chances OF power,
and helpfulness, and love are waiting to be
conquered by the strong brain and ready
hand. Just at this age, this boy stops short,
looking, it would seem, with a certain steady
GOODNESS at bis own future, and finding that
for him, early as it is, there is no chance Ihe
devil of drink has its grasp on soul and body
and is sucking Ethe life from both. He tries
his own strength, and finds it too weak to
shake il off. Afraid to Igo home, ashamed to
look his felow-men longer IN the face, he
writes q boyisl, sorrowful good-by to father
and brothers, and then quietly puts pistol TO
his head and ends it all. There is something
beyond the pathos of words to us In the lads
messages to his brothers, the other boys he
had left at home
Caution Willy, mOtbep, not to follow in
"my footsteps. Let me be buried only in a
"plain box, and do not wish to have any
but relatives at my funeral. Keep Henry
"out of hari,a reach, as if he is not checked
he will be ruined also" He sends q thou
" sand kisses to little Julius and Clarence, and
"tcll them / will never come to see them
"again and tell julius that he must forget
"me, as l am not worthy Of remembrance
from the meaDest cur living" A common
story, as we said. There is hardly a house
hold where it does not repeat itself; where
some bOy-usually, too, the most generous, I'M
pulsive lovable of the group-is not going
along this lads downward road, TO die, per-
haps, only by the slow suicide of drink, but
no less surely by his own hand
There has been so much false reasoning on
both sides of the subject of temperance, such
interminabe chatter, bigOtry, and frenzied adj
iuration that it is beyond all other questions
worn out and distastcful. But the deaths from
drunkenness number no fewer because fashion
taboos the subject. Its fatal effect upon the
mental power and spiritual health of the cOun-
try are no less appalling The evil is physi-
cal plain matter of fact; it is time that 1t was
grapplel with in plain physical way. 1t has
been the custom both IN and out Of the pulpit
to represent intcmperance as temptation OF
the devil to be met and resisted by prayer
and faith. The drunkard is simply u sinner.
He is entlcatcd to repent by all the terors Of
earthly ruin and the eternal death beyond the
grave. His heartbrOl,eD wife and starving
children are with justice enough, perhaps, held
up before his conscience, which it is the custom
TO denounce as scared. 1t is time that We
looked at tie other side of the question,
through the poor wrotchs eyes. Wife and
children are usually neither so hungry or
heartbroken as he I; he surely sees the earthly
ruin and eternal damnation with more agonizcd
soul than the man who breaches TO him yet
he walks deliberately down to hell for drink
of liquor which has long ceased in all probability
to yield him any pleasure For what 7 What
il the answer to this riddle Simply this !:
That the liquor has become physical neces-
sity that drunkenness, in eight cases out of
ten, is either an hereditary or acquired dis
ease, as much rs scrofula or scarlet-fcver. Let
us surely use faith and prayer in the one case
as in the other, but let us meet physical
ailments by physical remedies. This fact is
Just beginning to be understood by the med
ical world. Two or three Asylums for Inebr-
atos are noted for their success, where it
furnishes the theory on which the treatment
is based but not until it is comprehended by
the people. by the parents or wives of drunk
ards, can there be any effective opposition to
the evil. When woman understands that
her child may be- born with the inherited dis
ease of OinOmania, which so affects his
stomach and nerves that the crav-
ing for stimuants is morbid, and once
indulged almost certainly fatal, she will
use the same rational means to guard him
against 1t rs she would against colds if he in
herited consumption; and the boy himself
knowing that liquor, which may be nnocuous
to other men, is physical poison to him, is
far safer than when taught to regard it as a
temptation which only the weak mind yields
to. Drunkards with whom the disease is not
hereditary are, almost without exception, san
guine, genial, warm bloOded men, for whom
mental excitement is necessity, and whose
chance of cure, therefore, lies i'll the applica-
ton of some healthy stimulant, some counter
irritant of the brain or emotions.
We only hint at the great reform needed in
the treatment OF this growing evil. The day
is. we trust, not long distant when it will be
as thoroughly understood as any other less
mortal ament, and the poor victims can seek
for some sensible philosophic means of cure,
instead OF turning to death, like this poor boy,
as the only chance Of relief, and asking for a