River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1874-03-24
The DelusiOns Of Drink.
BY DIR. J. q. HOLLAND.

ueClareu tnat he who is deceived by
wine, the mocker, and strong drink. the
raging, is not wise. The delusions of
drink are MS old as drink itself, and are
as prevalent now as in Solomons time.
There are men who honestly believe
that alcoholic drink is good for them
yet there is not one of them who would
touch 1T except rs a prescribed medi-
cine if it were not for its pleasant taste.
The delusion touching its healthfulness
grows out of the desire to justify an
appetite which may either he natural or
acquired. If man likes whisky or
wine, he likes TO think il is good foI
him, and he will take some pains TO
prove that it is so, both to himself and
others.
Now, alcohol is a pure stimulant.
There is not SO much nutriment n it as
there is in a chip. II never added any
thing to the permanent forces of life,
and never can add anything, Its mo-
mentery intensifcation of force is a
permanent abstraction of force from the
drinkers capital stock. All artificial
excitants bring exhaustion. The ply
sicians 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 a sluggish tenn
permanent, he may he 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
Change 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.
Ii 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 q 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 1t 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. IL was
thoughtful paper, based on compe-
tent knowledge of facts. Ii ought to
have been of great use to those women
of the city who are exposed 10 the dan
gers it portrayed, and especially to
those who have acquired the habits it
condemned Soon afterward there APP
peared in the columns of a daily paper
a protest from a writer who ought 10 be
a good deal more intelligent thar lie is,
against the doctors conclusions. TIE
health and physique of the beer drink
ing Englishwoman were placed over
against the health and physique of the
water drinking American women, to
the disadvantage of the latter. The
man is deluded. IL is not year since
Sir Henry Thompson, one of the most
eminent medical men in England, IA
man VIGOROUSLY beyond the reach of
any purify Christian considerations, ~
declared against the beer-drinking of
England on strictly sanitary grounds.
Our literateur declares that the Eng
lishwoman can outwalk her American
sister. That depends entirely upon the
period of life when the task is under
taken. The typical Englishwoman who
has stood by Che hcer diet until she is
more than forty years old, is too fat 10
walk anywhere easily out of doors, or
gracefully within.
During our late civil war this matter
of drinking for health's sake was
thoroughly tried. A stock of experience
and observation was acquired that
ought 10 have lasted for century.
Again and again, thousands and thou
sands of times, was IL proved that the
man who drank nothing was the better
man. He endured more, fought better,
he came out of the war healthier than
the mau who drank. Nothing is more
easily demonstrablc than that the liquor
used by the two armies, among officers
and men alike, was an unmitigated
curse 10 them. II disturbed the brains
and vibrated the councils ofthe officers,
and dcbilitated and demoralized the
men. Yet all the time the dolusion
among officers and men was, that there
we're both comfort and help in whisky.
The delusions of drink are number
less, but there is one Of them which
stands in the way of reform 80 decidedly
that il calls for decided treatment. We
allude 20 the notion that it is nice
thing b. drink nice liquors or wines NJ
ones home, 81 offer 10 ones friends,
and b. make them minister 30 good fell
lowship at every social gathering, while
IL is q very different thing 10 drink bad
liquor, ia bad places, and in large
quantities. A man full Of good wine
feels that lac has right 10 look with
contempt upon the freshman who IL
full of bad whisky. IL is not long
time since the election Of "A professor IN
a British university was opposed solely
on the ground that he neither drank
wine nor offered il 10 his friends and
when, by a small majority, his election
was effected, the other professors de-
cided not to recognize him socially.
U