Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-02-27
For the Herald.
FOR the HeFal
AN ESSAY ON TEMPERANCE.
By PHYSICIAN.


keep themselves 'pure and unspotted,"
by avoiding all the exciting fluids which
flow through the channels of fashionable
and every day life. There is not mind
but feels natural repugnance to alcohol,
unless born of parents who live in bond
age to its kingly power. And yet, in diff
ferent constitutions, it is no difficult matter
to induce a fondness for it. 1 hardly
know which monster would rather have
set upon a brother-King alcohol, with
his irresistible poisOns, or Death, coming
before his time. mounted on his pale horse,
about to drive an arrow into the heart of
life. The former takes from me my
brothers. manhood; the latter carries him
only beyond the sweep of my physical
gaze; both events would cause tears to
flow; but the fall of manhood, thrice
more than death, would spread all around
a deeper sorrow, and darker desolation.
When man lives the life of temperance,
he may not be an object of remark; he
may resemble a tree in the garden, which,
because of its even growth, is passed by
for another more eccentric. tsThe oak
silently grows in the forest, a thousand
years; only in the thousandth yea when
the woodman arrives with his ak, is there
heard an echoing through the solitudes; /;
and the oak announces itself when, with
far-sounding crash, it falls!'' So with
your manhood. When it falls under the
foot of alcohol, an echo is heard, loud and
long, through the countless avenues of
society.
Nevertheless, the reckless drunkard
still clutches his bottle, and the nefarious
liquor traffic is fast increasing in Ameri-
ca. Hundreds dealin alcohol, and amass
large fortunes out of the sale of sub
stances, which should never be allowed
to cross the threshold of the stomach, ex-
cept in certain spasmodic, asthmatic, ner-
vous disturbances of the organism. In a
state of human development where appe-
tite more than reason, sensualism more
than spirituality, physical attractions
more than purity and enlightenment,eo con
troll the multitude, it is highly necessary
that reformers, at least, should throw
aside everything of degrading and dis
gusting nature, in order to exhibit the
bIuO Al1C IL OIAOSO WIZ WISH OdbW cA0 OC-
monstrations of inward principles. Not
only for this reason, but for individual
development and refinement, I would
urge every one to abandon the use of all
beverages such as spring from
Natures fountains, so beautifully emble-
matical of the Day Spring on high.
Reasons almost without end might be
added to the foregoing. But I refrain.
It is enough to know that our physiologi-
cal and psychological laws demonstrate
against the use of stimulants. Unnatu-
raj tensions give momentary pleasures
and brilliancy, but reaction must follow,
and herein lies the mischief. Alcohol is
a medicine; this is sufficient proscrip-
ton. All excess is vicious. He who
wishes to bless himself-the world by ex-
ample, and posterity by the transmission
of healthy qualities and noble character
istics, should be temperate in all things.
The luxury of health is superior to any
habit. Be strong, my brother, and aban-
don all drinks which give you dull eye,
| irregular features and leathery skin.
Parents, let me warn you to save your
selves and children from the pernicious
evils of intoxicating liquors. Young
woman, accept for your husband neither
drunkard nor sensualist, until both
body and soul have passed through the
ordeal of absolute publication. As storm
clouds shed their glow athwart the sum-
mer's sky, SO would their vices obscure
the horizon of your hopes and happiness.
Like the dark spirits of coming storms
like the s'canker-worm within the fruit, >
or like a stserpent in the linnet's nest, ,
would be their vices in the constitution Of
your offspring. Another secondary cause
of .misdirection appears at this point
stwalking in the footsteps of its prede
cessor." / allude to the extravagant u.s.
of animal food. Both sexes enter tht
gladiatorial arena, and hold up thei
hands in favor of a general slaughter o
brutes. It is enough to drive the ange
L of purity far away from the habitation
of men. The anchient worshippers o
fabulous deities never hesitated to offe
oxen, bullocks and lambs, as smoking
sacrifices in honor and fear of the super
nal powers; but we, though more civil
zed than they, and less in bondage t
mythologic beings, exhibit a no less ex
travagant propensity to destroy the beast
of the fields to appease the gods whfcl
reign in the abdominal viscera! The al
tars of extremism and inversionism seel
literally covered with blood, and reekin
with the fumes of sacrificial offerings. I'll
| millions of tons of animal flesh whic
travel down the human throat, and roai
l through the wilderness of the veins an
arteries, are sufficient to Danish harmon
from the constitution, and declare, as we
as maintain, the undisputed sway of ser
sualism. The animal world demands al
imal qualification. The flesh of beas
goes to build up the sovereignty of ca
nalism in man; because, we correspon
;s TO the food which sustains our being.
When the constitution becomes habituat.
to depend upon stimulating food, it cal
for fluid of corresponding charaete
almost every meat-eater experiences
sire for tea, coffee, or alcohol. The form
provokes taste for the latter. They /
: long to the same family. The masses
- men, in easy circumstances, indulge
brandy, champagne or wine; and tn
: too, at the conclusion of a sumptuo
meat-dinner. Consequently, the cong
gal principle is vitiated. 1t looks, the
oAly downward into physical condition
not upward, as it should, toward paren
love and happiness.
tits my profound impression that thr
fourths of human suffering need not /
e may be systematically overcome, can
mastered by science and peasonal praC
cal common sense, and thus be ute
prevented, while the remaining one-fou
- may be inevitable in the present stage
human growth, and can not be succe
bv- tn aaeo.A H.,