The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1874-08-01
ALCOHOL.

As the result of the chemical change
which sugar undergoes in passing
Idownwards towards dead, inorganic
condition, q substance is produced
which has been the cause Of more sor.
/ row, crime, and suffering than oil 9th.
| er evil agencies that have afflicted the
world. It has caused tens Of thou
sands of MURDERS, and uncounted in.
stances Of robbery, theft, arson, incest.
and suicide; it has brought misery and
want into millions of households; it has
filled almshouses and asylnms with
wretched victims; it sends never end.
| ing procession Of crime-stained men
and women to prison and the gal lows.
What an awful indictment this is to
bring against substance which stands
| 80 closely allied in chemical relation.
ship to innocent sugarl Alcohol is not
natural product; it can only result
from spontaneous change which is ex-
cited in saccharine liquids under the in
fluence of fcrment. If In the order
of things this chemical change had been
impossible, the human race would have
been saved from shedding tears, the
aggregated volume of which reaches
to that of mighty river. But alas! at.
oms of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen
are permitted to group themselves in o
way to form the maddening liquid; and
the great enemy to human happiness
confronts us in all our domestic, indus.
trial and commercial relations. II
through disarrangemcnt of Natures
laws, the vinous Preventative process
should suddenly cease, aud not another
drop of any kind of spirituous liquors
be produced, no sensible harm would
come to any industrial or art process,
and no absolute want in medicine would
be encountered. Carefully viewing the
matter from the standpoints Of the
chemist, physician, and artisan, we UNI
hesitatingly declare that the world in
it's present advanced stage has no need
of alcohol; it is simply convenient but
not necessary. Why not then make a
determined effort to rid the country and
the world Of the monstery Although al
cohol results, AS we have said. from
spontaneous changes, yet the aid Of
man is necessary to form the various
liquids containing it into attractive and
permanent beverages. The fermenta-
ton Of the juices of grapes and other
fruits produces alcohol; but If let alone,
Nature will not allow the spirit to re.
main except for brief space of time.
Nature abhors not only vacuum, but
manifcstly one Of her products, for al
cohol is SO unstable in its attenuated
combinations that, If left to itself. it
speedily runs down into the harmless
form of acctic acid.
II man ceases tn interfere in the Sc
ries of natural changes which saccha-
rine liquids spontaneously undergo, al.
cohol will not survive long enough to
do mischief. Why not then compel the
great army Of men, engaged in isola.
ting and compounding the agent, to let
it alone? Alcohol is a poison; it acts
inharmoniously with vital processes in
the animal organism In its purest
and best form. it slowly uadermines the
constitution, and binders or arrests
mctamorphosis Of tissues; in its vile
associations, as presented in these mod.
ern times, it kills with the certainty and
almost with the rapidity of strychnine
and arsenic. We ask again, why not
attempt to arrest its production and
thus strike blow at the root Of the
evil? There is virtue and moral force
enough in this country to compel Con.
gress to pass laws prohibiting its inn
portation in any form; and there is
virtue and moral force enough in most
Of, if not in all, the States to compel
legislatures to enact laws prohibiting
its manufacture. This is the point to
which we must, sooner or later, come.
All the laws ever made, or that ever
will be made, .conjoined with all the
prayers of all the well intentioned wo.
men of the country, will never stop the
cravings of human appetite, or pre-
vent its qualification, so long as rum,
whiskey, wine, malt LIQUORS, ETC., are
imported and manufactured under the
sanction of law. Alcoholic beverages
must cease to exist, before the world
will be released from the terrible thral-