The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-10-08
The Sad Effects of Stimulating Drinks.

The Sad Effects Of Stimulating DrInks.
Under this head an article has recently ap-
peared in Halls Journal Of Health, whicn we
have read with the greatest interest," and which
we gladly transfer to our columns, and recon-
mend most earnestly to the perusal of our
readers. We have long entertained the same
general views upon the deleterious effects of
Stimulating drinks especially upon the intel
lectual and moral faculties of our most gifted
men, but never have seen them presented be-
fore with so much clearness and force. How
stupendous and widespread is the evil herein
delineated How the progress of science is
clogged; the advance of refinement impeded (;
the full development Of mind obstructed the
capacity for practical usefulness lessened; the
growth of all the virtues which most adorn
humanity, and are most promotive of social
repose and national prosperity checked and
undermined the length of human life itself
fatally lessened by the causes which are in this
admirably written article so graphically and
impressively portrayed Let no man hope tor
the perpetuity of free institutions IN this he
public, of which all of us are so justly proud,
unless in some way the giant evil of intemper-
ance can be stayed in its devastating progress.
Let no man expect that the principles of civil
order will be maintained, public concord up
held, healthful, religious and moral influences
be kept alive and be given beneficial ditfu-
sion, matrimonial happiness be secured, the
education and training of our children be judi
ciously and effectively provided for, our rank
among the civilized nations of the earth be
preserved or the fruition of all our hopes of
national grandeur and power be realized,
unless some speedy and all-conquering remedy
can be applied in time to save us as people
from consequences, the direful nature and ex-
tent of which no pen is capable of adequately
delineating, and no single mind, perhaps, ca
pable even of conceiving in all their fearful
magnitude. Listen to the words of wisdom,
and be warned in time against mischiefs, which,
when once fully realized, leave no hope either
for individual man or for communities of men,
however blessed in other respects with the
means of attaining the highest prosperity and
happiness which earth is capable Of supplying
Here is the article:
"The man is q maniac, deliberate suicide,
who drinks tea, coffee or ardent spirits of any
kind, to induce him to perform work in hand,
and when he feels too weak to 60 through with
it without such aid. This is the reason that
the majority of great orators and public favor
ties die drunkards The pulpit, the bench, the
bar, the forum, have contributed their legions
of victims to drunken habits. The beautiful
woman, the sweet singer, the conversationalist,
the periodical writer, has filled but too often
drunkard's grave. Now that the press has be-
come great power in the land, when the mag
azine must come out on certain day and the
daily newspaper at fixed hour, nothing waits,
everything gives way to the inexorable call for
copy. Sick or we'll, disposed or indisposed,
asleep or awake, that copy must come; the
writer must compose his article whether he
feels like it or not and if he is not in the
vein for writing he must whip himself up to it
by the stimulus of drink. Some of the great
est writers of the century have confessed to the
practice, on urgent occasions, of taking sip
of brandy at the end of every written page, or
even oftener-Lord Byron at the end of every
paragraph sometimes
1t may have escaped the general readers no.
tice that more men have died young who have
been connected with the New York press with
in ten years, and that too from intemperance,
than in all other educational callings put to.
gether young men whose talents have been OF
the very first order, and gave promise Of life
of usefulness, honor and eminence. The best
possible thing for man to do when he feels
too tired to perform task or too weak to carry
it through, is to 90 to bed and sleep week if
he can this is the only recuperation of brain
power; the only actual renewal of brain forces,
because during sleep the brain is, in sense, at
rest, in condition to receive and appropriate
particles of nutriment from the blood which
take the place of those which have been con-
sumed in previous labor, since the very act of
thinking consumes, burns up solid particles, as
every turn of the wheel or screw of the splendid
STEAMER is the result of the consumption by fire
Of the fuel in the furnace. That supply of
brain substance can only be had from the nu-
triment particles in the blood, which were OBJ
tained from the food eaten previously, and the
brain is so constituted that it can best receive
and appropriate to itself those nutriment par
ticles during the state of rest, quiet and still
ness of sleep. Mere stimulants supply nothing
in themselves, they only goad the brain, force
it to greater consumption of its substance, un
til that substance has been so fully exhausted
that there is not power enough left to receive a
supply. lust as men are sometimes 80 near death
by thirst and starvation that there is not
strength enough left to swallow anything, and
all is over. The capacity of the brain for re-
ceiving recuperative particles sometimes comes
on with the rapidity of lightning, and the man
becomes mad in an instant; in an instant tails
into convulsions, in an instant loses all sense,
and he is an idiot. 1t was under circumstances
of this very sort, in the very middle of SEN
tence of great oratorial power, one OF the most
eminent minds OF the age forgot DIS loea,
pressed his hand against his forehead, and, af-
ter moments silence, said: God, as with a
sponge, has blotted out my mind BE assured,
reader, there is rest for the weary only in
early and abundant sleep, and wise and happy
are they who have irmness enough to resolve
that by Gods help, will seek it in no other
way"
ACTIVITY LEADS TO HAPPINESS. should
all live more healthful, more useful and Ion
ger lives, says the Philadelphia Ledger, did we
50 employ our activities to extract from them
IL. IL, natural nnd To-