The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-06-17
Tyranny of the Appetite.

In the story entitled my Wife and I, !"
there occurs passage regarding the vice
of drunkard's appetite, which reveals
| its desperate tyranny, 1t is where Boil
ton is giving his reasons why he dare not
marry, as follows: zone sip would flash
to the brain like fire, and then all fear,
all care, all conscience, is gone; not one
! glass, but dozen would be inevitable
! Then you might have to look for me in
some Of those dens where those possessed
Of the devil flee when the fit is on them,
and where they rave and tear and cut
themselves until the madness is worn
out This has happened to me after
! long peoriods of selfdenial. and self-con-
| troll and Elusive hope. 1t seems to me
that my experience is like that of man
whom some cruel fiend condemns to go
through all the agonies of drowning
over and over again-the dark plunge,
the mad struggle, the sufocation, the
horror, the agony, the clutch at the
shore, the weary Chamber up steep rocks,
the sense of relief, recovery, and hope,
only to be wrenched off and thrown back
| to struggle and strangle and sink again.
If had fallen dead after the first glass,
it would have been thought a horrible
thing but it would have been better for
my mother, better for me, than to have
| lived as L had
/ Here comes in the lesson of selfdenial;
yea, of total abstinence from that which
so quickly poisons the blood and crazes
the mind. There is but one course for
those of such excitable temperament,
and that is abstinence. Is it a cross?
And do you crave it when you smell it?
But you are not a slave; you can say no
when the devil tempts? All men have
their evil tendencies; all men must deny
themselves. How much harder is it for
you to deny yourself than for me? Be
cause ! crave money may l therefore
steal? May | give way to the passions,
or must put on the breaks2" The lat
ter, of course. So must you if you would
be a true, independent man. We admit
thai one may have a stronger appetite
than another, that, having had drunk
ard for a father, one may inherit love
of LIQUOR" or of tobacco, or of other un-
clean things, and therefore has harder
struggle to overcome it than one whose |
warp and woof was without rotten
ness or stain. Still. those who |
are not idiotic, imbecile, or in
sane, must keep down the tyrant, or |
he will make slaves of them Reader, |
are you nursing tyrant? Do you cud- |
die and roll him under your tongue, as a |
sweet morsel? Do you hold him in your
mouth or between your lips, suck the
fragrant weedF DO you keep him In |
closet, corked up, lest he evaporate, and
do you visit him regularly? He is max
ing advances on your works-your vitali-
ty,-and will soon surround you, and
have you fast in his clutches! You are
his victiml
You are now to be marched off to pris-
on, and your home will be among liber-
tines, prostitutes, gamblers, thieves, rob-
bers, murderers. Your master is the
tyrant, Appetite, who has enslaved mil
lions besides. He has sealed your doom.
So ends the drama; and so ends the
wrecked creature of perverted appetite
The small cross of selfdenial, he said,
was too great for him to bear, and we
now
"Rattle his bones
Over the stones,"
and hide him away among felons and
paupers in the oblivion of "potters
field"