Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-04-11

F"IHF CRUSADE. The excitement
upon the Temperance question is grad
ually dying out, so far as its manifest
tation in street and saloon praying
is concerned. As to the means chos-
en- by the western women to produce
n oiven result, we have said bat little.
We looked upon the movement rs one
calculated to weaken that deep re-
spect for religion and female ascend
cncy in society, which IS one Of the
most noticeable features of American
character. This effect will probably
be transient, and we write this article
merely to sum up what we consider
the good results that have actually
followed "The Crusade" The clos
ing out of a few score of saloons, eth
er by prayer, purchase, orpersuasion,
amounts to nothing. The reclama-
ton of few sots, under the influence
of quasi-religious revival is nothing.
As a manifestation, however, of very
powerful sentiment in the minds OF
the women of the country in favor OF
total abstinence, the crusade has deep
Significance. But above all the other
results that have yet followed it, the
thorough and practical discussion of
the uses of alchohOl either for pur-
poges of sustenance or stimulation,
will bring with it the widest and most
lasting effects. The most eminent
physicians in the country have been
interviewed on the subject, and altho'
the evidence thus gathered is contra
dictory, the preponderance is clearly
on the side Of the temperance people.
Few of these physicians defend
"dram-drinking" and very few of
them think it valuable as a therapeutic
agent. As stimulant it is looked
upon as dangerous, and DIR. Clymer,
of New York city, who stands at the
head of his profession, says that the
use of whisky and brandy for neural
pic disorders, in fashionable life, is
the source of a vast amount of female
dram-drinking, and of much domes-
tic misery. He also states that the
constant use of alcohol brings on
degeneration of the nerve centers and
that this generally begins at fifty and
progresses until death. When the
drinker begins to use alcohol regular
" when he is young, in small quaint
tiles so that he is never seen drunk,
the degeneration of the tissues begins
at thirty. In other words it is held (and
this point deserves especial atten-
ton. that a man does himself more
radical harm by using small quanti-
ty of alcohol every day than if he
we're to indulge i'll excess at intervals.
It is held to be more hurtful to use it
like a drug regularly, than OCCASION
ally in excessive quantities. On the
other hand men like DIR. Parker, while
they say that alcohol is valueless as
food, deem it of service as q medicine
and condiment, and he says that the
feeble and the aged can rightly use
it in this way. DIR. Parker denounc-
es dram-drinking and says that no.
thing, not even water, should enter
the stomach of healthy man between
breakfast and dinner. The insurance
agents have also been showing their
hands, and it is alleged that of 1000
non-drinkers and 1000 drinkers taken
at random at twenty years of age the
drinkers live thirty-five and the
non-drinkers sixty-fve years. The
discussion, therefore, must give
strength to the temperance sentiment,
and now it remains to be shown what
is the surest way of fighting the
great evil complained of. 1t is alleg-
ed that legal s4asion has originated
bitters, schnapps, cordials, and alcohol
ic sauces and pastries, while 1t has
caused medical men to prescribe liq-
uor to an extent heretofore unknown
and made the drug store a liquor
store. If this be true the old Wash
ingtonian societies, whose motto was
"touch not, taste not, handle not, -
and which confined themselves to
the work of getting men to sign the
pledge, leaving those who chose to
drink to police regulations, were af-
ter all perhaps nearer right than their
SUCCESSORS who advocate more pro-
gressive doctrines.