American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-07-29
The Demon of Cold Drink.

} Every one except the amateur or pro-
fessional drunkard admits that ardent
spirits ought not to be used as bever-
age in hot weather. They simply in
crease the heat of the system and thus
give aid and comfort to the thermome.
ter in summer assaults on the lives and
collars of the human race. The En-
glish troops in the torrid zone were for
merly addicted to the excessive use OF
brandy as a supposed prophylactic
against malarial diseases. Experience,
however, demonstrated that the bran
dy-drinkers did not withstand the eli
mate nearly as well as did the men OF
more temperate habits. It is true that
one English temperance society, which
had undertaken to collect statistics on
the subject, was recently shocked by
the Official statement that of the "tee-
totalers" belonging to a regiment sta
toned at Sierra Leone, so per cent. had
died and 80 per cent. had
been invaded. Further in
quiry, however, showed that the
whole number of " teetolalers'' ia ques-
ton was two, and that one had died of
snake bite and the other had broken his
leg; while the statistics concerning the
| mortality of brandy-drinkers were such
| as to fill the ss teetotal'' mind with JOY
and triumph.
. 1t is an abuse of language to style a
man temperate merely because he does
not drink ardent spirits. The truth is
that many so-called temperate people,
who decline to look upon the wine not
only when it is red, but also when it is
yellow, as in the case of egg-nogg, are
extremely Incorporate. While there is
no doubt that intemperance in the use
of ardent spirits is one of the most dead
ly evils incident to civilization, it is
equally true that intemperance in the
use of ice-water is rapidly undermining
the constitution of American men and
women. As nation, we are fearfully
addicted to cold drinks, and there is i'm
perative need of an organized move
ment to fight the demon of ice-water.
Strange as it may seem to the con-
scientious man who comprehends the
deleterious effects of cold drinks, there
are thousands of our best and noblest
citizens who are victims to the cold
water habit. They begin the day with
one or more glasses of ice-water before
breakfast. During that meal they fire.
quently turn from the coffee which
cheers but does not inebriate-in case
it is sufficiently adulterated with the
simple and healthful bean and satisfy
their depraved thirst for water. On
their way to their business they stop at
the numerous drug stores which shame
lessly faunt their soda-water fountains
in the face of the public, and hastily
pour down the deadly ice-water, which
perverted ingenuity makes palatable
with cream and sirups. In the office of
the store the water-cooler, filled with
the stomach and notwithstanding
beverage, is always at hand, and when
the water-drinkers return home after
day of constant drinking, they too often
spend the greater part of the night in
solitary and aquarial debauchery.
The result of this pernicious practice
has been to fill the country with class
of stomachs that are incapable of any
earnest digestive efforts, and to crowd
the chairs of busy dentists. American
stomachs and American teeth are daily
growing feebler, and the time is appa-
rently at hand when set of false teeth
will be presented to every newborn
infant at the same time that he receives
his first india-rubber ring, and when all
sorts of stomach-bitters and digestive
pills will invariably supplement his daily
meals. For this state of things ice-wa-
ter, either in its undisguised form, or in
its shape of soda-water, is responsible.
And the worst of it is that the victims
who form our temperance societies and
who fancy themselves temperate because
they never drink any thing but water
The deadly effects of ice-water are
particularly noticeable at present.
When an overheated man desires an.
attack of congestion of the brain there
is no plan which he could devise which
would be better adapted to secure the
end desired than that of drinking water
of, or below, the temperature of 80 de-
grees. Yet this is precisely what scores
of so-called temperate men are contin-
ually doing. 1t is sufficiently irrational
and dangerous for men to drink brandy
and whisky in hot weather, but it is a
question whether ardent spirits are re-
ally more Immediately dangerous to
health than the ice-cold beverages
which even the most earnest teetotal-
lers'' pour into their astonished and in
dignant stomachs.
Water is undoubtedly the most whole
some beverage which we can use; but
there is vast difference between water
at safe and natural temperature and
the ice-water which alone satisfies the
abnormal cravings of the American
throat. Let us, by all means, drink
water, but let us decline to endanger
our health and degrade ourselves below
the level of the beasts by drinking in
ordinate quantities of ice-water. There
is not single animal-except man
which even dreams of communicating
wholesome water with ice. The ordi-
nary water of the hydrant and the faucet
satisfies the thirst of the wild elephant
and the domestic cat. Poor, fallen hui
man nature, on the contrary, longs for
ice and gratifies its corrupt cravings at