Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-01-20
ADvERrIsING RzsI
Constitutional Drunkards.

iants b mystery to a healthy man.
We do not refer to total abstaiuer3
alone; for many Of them are accustom-
ed To teach that the appetite Is in every
lone suppressed volcano, which taste
MAY set into raging fire. But there
are men of healthy constitutions, who
have tried what qualification could be-
got from the various stimulants, and
who cannot understand how 9 man can
have an irresistible appetite for any of
them; how man cannot stop the use
of a stimuIant which he knows is ruin
ling him. 1t seems to them a lack of
will, a deficiency Of moral faculties, an
imbecility of mind and body. Yetths
evidences of this utter inability to hold
Lack from ruin, in those who have tho
greatest Inducements to preserve their
manhood, are so abundant that the fact
cannot be resisted. ...-.,
What is it that makes the difference:
The habit Of total abstinence cannot
explain IL, for this, to many, is no ef-
fort nor selt-denial. The fact of tasting
does not explain il; for many caste and
drink and find no pressing appetite.
Is the difference constitutional? If so
is the constitutional vice formed by the
manner of rearing the child, or does it
date back of his begettiug? In natures
law the sins of the parents are visited
on the children. Common observation
shows inherited moral as well as physi-
cal obliguitieS. 1t needs no ghost come
from the dead to tell us that the child
whose father or mother has the cOnsti-
tutional vice of craving appetite for
stimulaats of any sort, will inherit the
vice in-probably a larger degree.
The common sense of the eommuni-
ty accepts the drunkard's drunken son
AS the natural heritage. This will ex-
plain that irresistible appetite, and that
moral imbecility which seem so
strange to those Of healty natures. 1t
is constitutional vice, inherited by
parents so abandoned to their sppetites
as to beget diseased constitutions, and
transmit curse tC their children.
But the child " no is well born, is en-
vironed with per;ls which may infect
its constitution with the craving for
stimuiants. In many cases it Is kept
drunk with opium in one form or an-
other. This Is the base of all the sOoth-
ing syrups which ere called blessing
to mothers. Even they who profess 10
think that if a stout man tastes of spir.
its he will fire thirst which is un-
quenchable, will give to infants fire.
quent narcotic doses which are greater
in proportion to their tender bodies
than the stuutest drinks of spirits to
fnll-grOwn men. Need we say that
nart otics are even more ffectiye than
spirits in forming the constitutional
craving? o.. iaE r i.a
Mothers who would be shocked at the
proposal to put a tesispoonfui of brandy
into their infants food, to keep it qui-
ct, will dose it with opium, under the
name of cordial or soothing syrup,
which is much more destructive to its
nervous system. And perhaps, while
thus forming constitutional drunkards,
they will improve the opportunity Of
its quiet to 20 out and join the crusad-
ing hand to raid the drinking places.
What could be expected of child
dose,i with opinm in tender infancy
but diseased, nervous state, and con-
stitutional need Of stimulants? If pre-
viously it had the heritage of an inordi-
nate appetite for, stimulents from its
parents, how, with this infantile train
ing to be a drunkard, can it escape?
Do we not find in this heritage OF O
vice, and in this creation
of it by the use of narcotics in infancy,
the reason of that irresistible appetite
for spirituouS and narcotic stimulants
which seems to sound constitutions
such shameful imbecility?
This is meant for a temberance lee
ture. Men, you who keep yourselves
under the stimulus of
spirits or tobacco, or who have acquir-
ed appetites fer them which you can
not resist, you can not beget children
of sound constitutions. Young women
look to it! Mothers, you who dose
your infants with opium, you are form
ing constitutional craving for stimu-
lants, and laying the foundation of
appetites which will overcome all your
example and exhor-
tations. 1t is not the taste of spirits
that forms the irresistible appetite.
Drunkards are begotten. Probably
many are made in infancy. 1t is the
diseased constitution that makes the
person unable to resist the temptation.
II Cincinnati Gazette.