Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-03-19

Which Great the gates. How coyiy II cntic.m
Inc wnd-harP into strains which sound like tears
That you and night arc sisters both 40 pure.
40 beautiful, no made to love and lure.
80 n l%i. OF music, m,rmurs, otlorn, beams;
| when day nor Nan less heaven e,,cpmDssset
! knowsi i'''s>
The Deluslons Of Drink.
| by Dr. J. q. HOLLAND.
hing Solomon has the credit of being
the wlsest man that ever lived and liz
declared that he who is deceived b,
wine, the mocker, and strong drink. the
raging, is not wise. The decisions OF
drink are ~ old ~ drink itself. and arc
az prevalent now IA in Solomon's time,
There arc men who honestly believe
that alcoholic drink is good for them
yet there is not ono Of them who would
touch it except rs u prescribed medi.
cine if it were not for its pleasant taste.
The delusion touching its healthfulness
grows out of the desire to Justify ali
appetite which may either be natural or
acquired. If a man likes whisky OF
WINE, he likes to think it is good TO,
him, and no will take some pains to
prove that it is so, both to himself and
others.
Now, alcohol is pure stimulant.
There is not SO much nutriment in it rs
there is in chip. It never added any,
thing to the permanent forces of life,
and never can add anything, Its mo-
mentery intcnsification of force is a
permanent abstraction of force from the
drinker' s capital stock. All artificial
excltants bring exhaustion. The ply
slcians know this, and the simplest
mans reason is quite capable of COM
pretending it. If any man supposes
that daily drink, even in small Quanti-
ties, is conducive to his health, he is
deluded. If he possess sluggish tenn
permanent, he may be able to carry his
burden without much apparent harm,
but burden it is, and burden it will
always be.
After a man has continued moderate
drinking long enough, there comes a
change-a demand for more drink. The
old quantity does not suffice. The
powers which have been insensibly
undermined, clamor, under the pressure
OF business, for increased stimulation.
1t is applied, and the machine starts of
grandly the man feels strong, his form
grows portly, and he works under con-
slant pressure. Now he is in condi-
ton of great danger, but the delusion
is upon him that he is in no danger at
all. At last, however, drink begins to
take the place of food. His appetite
grows feeble and fitful. He lives on
his drink, and, of course, but one end
to this-viz death! It may come sud-
denly, through the collapse of all his
powers, or through paralysis, or it may
come slowly through atrophy and ema-
citation. His friends see that he is kill
ing himself, but he cannot see it at all.
He walks in delusion from his early
manhood to his death.
A few weeks ago, one of our CITY
physicians publicly read paper on the
drinking habits of women. It was a
thoughtful paper, based on O compe-
tent knowledge of facts. It ought to
have been OF great use to those women
OF the city who are exposed to the dan
gers it portrayed, and especially to
those who have acquired the habits it
condemned. Soon afterward there ap-
peared in the columns of daily paper
q protest from writer who ought to be
a good deal more intelligent than he is.
against the doctors conclusions. The
health and physique of the beer drink
ing Engllshwoman were placed over
against the health and physique of the
water drinking American women. to
the disadvantage of the latter. The
man is deluded. It is not a year since
Sir Henry Thompson, one of the most
eminent medical men in England,-
man notoriously beyond the reach Of
any purify Christian considerations
declared against the beer-drinkine OF
England on strictly sanitary grounds,
Our iterateur declares that the Eng.
llshwoman can outwalk her American
sister. That depends entirely upon the
period of life when the task il under
::sac::: . Tie typical Englishwoman who
has stood by the beer diet until she il
more than forty years old, is too fat t.
walk anywhere easily out of doors, o,
gracefully within.
During our late civil war this matte,
of drinking for health's sake wa.
thoroughly tried. A stock of experienc,
and observation was acquired tina
ought to have lasted for a century
Again and again, thousands and thou
sands of times, was it proved that tn,
man who drank nothing was the bette
man. He endured more, fought better
he came out of the war healthier thai
the man who drank. Nothing is NOR
easily demonstrable than that the louo
used by the two armies, among officer
and men alike, was an unmitigate,
curse to them. 1t disturbed the brain
and vibrated the councils of the officers
and debilitated and demoralized tn
men. Yet all the time the delusio,
among officers and men was, that Their
were both comfort and help in whisky
The delusions of drink are number
less, but there is one of them whicl
stands in the way of reform so decidedl
that it calls for decided treatment. w
all1de to the notion that it is q mic
thing to drink nice liquors or wines a
ones home, to offer to ones friends
and to make them minister to good fel
lowship at every social gathering, Will
it is very different thing to drink ba,
liquor, in bad places, and in larg
quantities. A man full of good win
feels that he has right to look wit
contempt upon the freshman who i
full OF bad whisky. It is not a lon,
time since the election of a professor i,
a British university was opposed solel
on the ground that he neither dram
wine nor offered it to his friends an,
when, by a small majority, his election
was effected, the other professors de
clded not to recognize him socially
There are thus two men whom thes
sticklers for wine despise-viz. tn
man who gets drunk on bad liquor, an,
the man who drinks no liquor at all
Indeed, they regard the latter with
hatred or contempt which they do no
feel for the poorIdrunkard. The abso
Lutte animosity with which many men il
society regard one WHO'S conscientious
~ opposed to wine-drinking, coult
only spring from delusion in regart
to the real nature of their own habits
The sen4tiveness of these people O,
this subject, however, shows that the,
suspect the delusion of which they ar
the victims. They claim to be on tn,
side of temperance. They deprecat,
drunkenness, and really don't see VIVA
is to be done about it. They wish tina
men would be more rational in thei
enjoyment of the good things of thi,
world, ETC. etc. =; but their eyes seen
blinded to the fact that they stand il
the way of all reform. The horribl,
drunkenness of the larger cities O.
Great Britain, with which no hell tha
America holds can compare for mo-
ment, can never be reformed until the