Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1871-04-17
WHAT COMES OF TOO MUCH
'DRINK."

WHAT COMES OF TOO MUCH
DRINK"
In general terms, the abuse Of drink
Is pronounced to be the chief occasion.
and provocative of crime. Nobody
can or does dispute this. Yet 1t Is so
often said that the saying has become
a dark, not a ''glittering generality
The regulation Of the evil by statute Is
by many deemed hopeless, while other
reasoners look confidently to the stat
ute book for reformation Of an evil
which has Its source in customs out OF
the reach Of law. But whatever refer
ence to the subject may avail, or not
avail, for legislative purposes, there
are some persons in every community
who may from facts draw q moral or a
warming for the guidance of their own
individual conduct. 10 leave general
titles and come down to instances, let
us take one days newspaper record Of
the consequences of drink. Take the
columns Of a late Philadelphia paper A:
The first report under the local head
Is the committal to prison of a wife
and mother, to await trial for causing
the death Of her husband. Of the chill
dren, one but two weeks old Is, Of
course. with the mother In the cell. or
the other two children, the oldest Is
aged but five years. The husband, it
appears, came home on q Saturday
night drunk, and was assisted up the
stairs by a friend who was also drunk.
The wife ordered the friend out Of the
room. After he had left the husband
undertook to follow, and, according to
the evidence published, was pushed by
his wife down the stairs. His skull
was fractured, and he was taken up
dead. The wife who thus widowed
herself and orphaned her children had
also been drinking. In another case,
a man Of whom his employer testified
that he had been with him several
years, and that he had always found
him ''quiet and we'll behaved" was
committed to prison. He awaits the
result Of serious wounds inflicted by
him upon a companion with whom he
had been carousing Oh Sunday after
noon. The wounded man is danger
ously stabbed, and the accused can say
nothing about it, except that he ad-
mitted that he IA under the influence
of liquor. Here, then, Is II woman
made a widow, children left fatherless
aud worse than motherless, for the
mother is in prison awaiting trial for
homicide, and n "well-behaved and
quiet man awaiting trial for murder
Gus assault, ii not for murder itself.
The only explanation or excuse Is, that
the living, the dead and the MANNED
all were incapable Of rational conduct,
by having themselves dethroned their
reason, obliterated their conscience and
awakened their evil passions by drink.
In other cases before the Courts, whose
features, less murderous but still
wretched, are recorded, the witnesses
are forced by cross-examination to
confess continually to drink, drink,
drink, in their own persons, and to
testify to an atmosphere full of fumes
Of drink, in which vice is present, and
| sensuality is the rule, and dishonesty
the practice. The wonder Is how any
person who values life, or the circum-
stances which make life happy, can
consent to an indulgence which rem
ders him incapable of protecting him
self, aud reckless OF what harm lie may
do to others. 1t Is usually true that a
state of intoxicatioa deprlveS n man Of
his accountability. But it only changes
his responsibility. If he is not, while
drunk, accountable for the harm he
does, he Is doubly guilty for giving
way to the Indulgence which converts
Il reasoning being into an unreasoning
and uncomfortable creature of violence.
If 4 person should destroy all reason
Ing capacity in another man, by fore
ing him to partake Of "tile insane
root" how little doubt should we have
Of the murderous character Of the act.
And Ii Il man himself destroys his OWL
reason, the decd Is one Of moral suicide.
Consequences Involving death and MUIR
der may be the result of any debauch.
The character of affection in a wife
and mother, Of tllial duty in n child, Of
kindness in a parent. Of gentleness in
q friend, of honesty ilran agent, may
be forfeited, and NE ksenness Of re-
morse embitter)H e to its very end.