The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1872-12-31
The NAN who Drinks.

IN the entlTe temperance problem. And
the problem will never be solved till the
world finds out what exactly is the best
thing to do with him. Certainly there
can be no solution without eliminating
him. g,. s..
The man who makes and sells the bey-
erage is, OF course, another factor And
when the question drifts wholly within
the domain of our human sympathies,
we find, naturally enough, that our pit
les 60 with the drinker, and our indig-
nations against the yepder The. one
makes bis. fortune out. Of the misfortune
of the other. And bad as. the; world. is,
lii looks. a little. sourly on the money that
implies, ,on the other side Of the bargain,
poverty, shame, hunger, tears heart,
aches, desolale homes, all manner of ru,
| immoral included. The senders may
say, "That is the drinkers business !"
but the world replies, 1T is your bust
ness too" .a- .- s,r,
But tie two go together, inevitably.
They are Siamese twins, III the. sense of
being connected by vital ligsture Cut
that, and they will both stop breathing
And yet, the drinker must be consid-
cred the first, lin order of time and
cause; for he furnishes the demand
The seller stands in the position Of sup
ply. If there were no drinkers, there
would he no sellers So that the best
way, to get rid of the vender, if he is
Objectionable to society, is TO take away
his customers. erD t1a 5
To he sure,if everybody should refuse
to make or sell intoxicating beverages,it
would bring reign Of terror to the
drinkers. But it would not necessarily
be fatal to them. For men are ingepi-
Gus; and never more so than when devil
sing ways and means for the qualification
of hot and clamorous appetite Corn
enough could be chewed and spit into q
calabash within an hour, to furnish. after
due fermentation,a "a drink ample to ill the
brain with delirium. Such things have
been done great many times. II is
only specimen Of. the inexhaustible re-
sources of bibulous men.
In earnestly trying to solve this great
lproblem, therefore, We must somehow
ascertain what is to be done with the
man who drinks You may say that the
yenders generate dlinkers yes, hut in
no such proportion ss the drinkers give
birth to the sellers. When man opens
a saloon in Chicago, he does not have to
sit in an empty room, drumming lone
somely upon barrel-heads, till drinkers
can be manufactured. They will be
there in an hour, scores of, them. The
$4,000 drinkers are The constituency of
the $500 saloons. A. -efoas af3 Z
In word, drunkenness is the root of
this whole difficulty. and temperance
people have not always seemed to guess
it. What is inebriety7 What sort Of
a thing is it in its naturef Is ii to be
classed simply as a misfortunef
1t may he Inherited, no doubt; being
thus one of the direful transmissions of
! evil from father7to son. 1t may be orig
mated by example and influence. There
may be pre.disposing causes. The ap-
petite may lie germinally in the inheri-
ted constitution, or it may be created by
evil associations. al
But whatever its origin, is il some
thing like having the smallpox, or ty-
phus feverf In other words, is it sim
ply disease, for which the patient can
not be held morally responsible ?
We need to understand this, before we
can understand what ought to be done
with the man who drinks
There probably would not be any
uncertainty upon this point, were
it not for the Impressions 80 gene.
rally made upon the popular mind, by a
certain class of temperance lecturers and
writer's Some OF these have been, them
selves, the wretched victims of the fatal
appetite and very naturally they go in
to the work with special warmth OF
sympathy with their class,a fta "
But. at any rate, the common presen-
tatiQn ofthe inebriate is,that he is chief
lly to becommiserated., He is an unfor-
tunate among the noblest and most gen
erous of men; but a prey to the rapacity
of the sellers; helpless victim of cru
city and plunder. He seems to. he the
man who, down on his way to Jericho,
presumably upon legitimate business in
that neightorhood, fell among thieves,
The saloons are the .robber-caverns
among the rocks; and, their keepers,
rushing out upon the innocent Wayfarer,
Iplunder him, wound him, and leave him
half dead.
Aud yet, is not false impression LEFT
on the mind whenever the liquor seller
is held up to view as an assassin! Is
there no sacrifice of truth and justice in
the use of such on epithet,to make tel
Hing point? Not SO much Of justice to
the seller, perhaps. as to the drinker.--
For it leaves the man who drinks to be-
Ilieve that he is an innocent victim of the
saloon-keepiDg footpad. He is simply
going about his business or his pleasure,
which is to crafty dangerous and
morbid appetite, and while. thus engag-
ed, the man among the bottles rushes
out, smites him down with lnsuspeeted
stab, and picks his pockets.
] Is this, now, really the true way %
state the case2 Does any man in his
senses believe that the drunkard has no
more responsibility in the matter than
such an eyaggeration of the vender's
lpart in the affair implies? The man be-
hind the bar is guilty enough, and ought
to atone for his guilt But the man in
front of the bar, pouring whisky down
his throat till his brain reels, is not in
nocent lie has no business to 60 into
the internal magazine, and I'll himself
with those devilish forces which, when
he gets home, may explode, filling the
|house with beastliness, cruelty and per
haps murder And if he insists upon it,
his friends and neighbors, on the basis
of self-defense, have right to restrain
him from going. Nor is this any more
an infringement of personal liberty than
lis the act of putting in Jail thief who
persists in stealing. The pabl lic welfare
raunirao n