Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1871-03-31

core the. success of the special reform
So long as the system is all -afame with
the influences Of pepper, mustard, vine
gar and coffee, it is not easy to work a
permanent reform from tobacco and alco-
holic liquors. Many give up one form of
intemperance, and inplace of it adopt
arother which is quite = bad for the con-
stitution, if not for the mind and morals.
We have known renowned temperance
lecturer who would smoke strong pipe
three hours after having given rousing
temperance lecture was not reform
ed,-he had simply shifted the habit to
one less Grazing in its4inauence.. but no
less unnatural in its effects.
We are aware that temperance reform
ers generally believe one must quit his
habit at once and forever. That soma
have done this, we knox;; but how many
more have tried and failsc9 and how many
thousands would have sought and obtain
ed emancipation under = gradual system?
We know that the Divine command is:-
'Let him that stole. steal no more. =
This is the right injunction in that case,
because it is moral delinquency; but the
use of liquor. tobacco o. opium is not
merely moral obliquity. but physical
habit, and the cure mustbe first physical :
aided and promoted BY tie spiritual. per-
baps. or there will be nospcrmanent cure.
We should invoke the '.iisine assistance"
in keeping such good resolution, as also
in respect to every other matter of impor-
tance, for the aid of the religious feelings
is powerful ally, andsshe poor drinker
or slave of tobacco willaind need enough
of aid from on high to brace him up and
enable him to keep his, seod resolve.
When thorough rssuperation of the
nervous system is established the cure is
radical. Until this il slfscted, the patient
is liable to relapse. to fsil through weak
ness of the flesh. We Re confident that
a man who has used ;quos. tobacco or
opium for twenty yeass may become SO
thoroughly free fron,.jtsIs 10. abhor it, OF
the smell of it, as intsnssly as would any
delicate girl who bad nsser used them.
A moral sense of the sinsof the habit. or
an intellectual appreciafions Of the folly
and ruin Of it, may grs.Ay aid IN carry
ing out the resolution to oe frees but the
real victory comes onlg xith the cure Of
the nervous system uhls kIindly Graves
thesindulgesssc go.
The world is becoming besotted in every
species of intemperance. 1t is every year
growing worse in every aspect of abuse of
appetite and in the love Of excitement.
The pulpit. the press and the temperance
organizations inveigh against the growing
dissipation of the people radical health
reformers offend the public prejudice by
insisting on a spare vegetable diet. and
still the world goes careering on to de-
moralization and death, unreformed.-
With SO much teaching and so little result,
there must be radical error in the teach
ing, or supreme folly or total depravity in
the taught. If the nature of these vari-
Gus habits of intemperance were merely
perversion of the mind, like gambling or
dishonesty. moral teaching might work
thorough reform in all cases. But the
habit Of using poisons demoralizes and
weakens the brain and nervous system,
and it thus becomes physical disease as
much as measles or smallpox And
though moral purpose will give aid and
inspire strength to endure the awful ply
sical misery of deprivation, and in some
instances brace the man up
till nature has time to cure the nervous
disease, yet in the great majority of cases
the man has not the strength thus to win
a victory. We believe an asylum where
in patients could be controlled they
do not control themselves be to
most slaves of habit, If not so far gone as
to break down by delirium tremens, sure
and simple way out of the difficulty. In
these institutions all drunkards are not
suddenly deprived of all stimulation but
gradually. in prescribed manner, it is
wisely withdrawn. giving the system time
to readjust its functions The same would
be a feasible method in respect to NOR
phine or tobacco.
Thousands of men. like unhappy flies
in spiders web. would glad
ly be free; but having been taught only
sudden abandonment as means of reform
and having hundred times tried and
failed. could and would adopt systematic
and gradual abandonment Of their bane.
and we believe ninety in a hundred Of
such, even unaided by the warm support
of temperate friends would come off VIC
tors. No man more than the slave of
habit is aware of the evil of it, or more
than he abhors it, and himself, for the
weakness and folly; but this does not put
out the fre-does not cure the disease
does not liberate him.
Those who for years have practiced
eating arsenic become able to use guam
tity that would kill SIX men who are un-
accustomed to it; yet if they quit the habit
suddenly, they have all the symptoms of
being poisoned. They acquire the habit
of using the poison by taking small doses
at first. The constitution braces up a.
gainst its effects until it can endure large
quantities. A gradual withdrawal will
enable the system to readjust itself. and
the patient is not only saved from the pois-
on, but cured of the habit. -
We would not abate the labors of the
pulpit, the press or the Temperance or