Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-06-13
Genius and Strong Drink.


as rule, men of gifted genius who
fall into the ways of intemperance.
So common has this idea. become,
that the friends of inebriates are
sure to use it as a redeeming apology,
in speaking of the shortcomings of
their dissipated relatives. 1t is a
heavenly attribute to have compass
sion for the erring and to assist in
retaining those who have fallen into
any vice, but human pity does not
require or imply that we clothe the
victim with virtues that he never did
nor can posses. We have always cher
ished an abiding hatred towards
tomb stone eulosy and obituary
panegyric, and it is no less distaste-
full to us to hear anxious friends or
relatives outraging the jewel of con-
sistency by proclaiming in gushing
terms, their pseudo-sympathies for
some miserable wretch who is only
waiting to be restored to popular
position in society that he may cause
another and grauder sensation by
falling again into his evil ways. But
facts are worth more than ideas in
the present discussion. Now, let
anybody ruma9e the encyclopedias
or biographical dictionaries, and they
will find that nine tenths, nay nine
ty-nine one-hundredths of the emin-
ent names that, by dint Of nothing
short of true merit, have been placed
in those volumes are the names of
the noble men and women who
were exemplary in their everyday
walk and life, aud bright and shin
ing patterns, withal, of all that rend-
ers iilustrious human character.
These are the evidences upon which
we must rely, and whether we search
among the living or the dead for
that which is really and truly great
and good, morally and intellectually,
we shall find that the same still small
voice ever solemnly testifying on
the side of temperance, and alb
stemiousness in all that tends to
prostitute the body, mind or soul.
All the instincts of the confirmed in
ebriate and debauchee are groveling
and not elevating, and in every re-
spect, Numerically opposed to all
that is pure and ennobling. The
Chicago Advance hits the nail on the
head in using the following language
on this point: The remark is fire.
quently heard that it is the most
gifted, generous" fellows who are
most apt to fall into intemperance.
The saying is neither true nor USE
full. However it may have been for
merly, it has come to pass now that,
as Professor Swing suggests, the
temperance reform has reached first
the minds that are most gifted.
Many years ago." he says, I" it was
my good fortune to serve my coun-
try by being secretary of a temper
ance society, and in that official dig
nifty I addressed letters of inquiry to
Presidents of Colleges and Profess
sors, to ask what was the quality of
the young men who in those days
marred their college course by the
use of ardent drinks. Long letters
came from President Woolsey, of
Yale, and from Horace Mann, then
of Boston, and from Professor Moi
fat, of Princeton, and they all bore
testimony that genius in their col
leges and schools drank less than
stupidity; that whisky was passing
away from the higher order of mind
and was to be found only in pos
session of the more sensual and less
bright.
The narrow-guage railroad mania
in Oregon, has received somewhat of
a scare from the reports of what Jay
Gould and Vanderbilt are going to
do. If Jay Gould, as his agents in
Portland tacitly intimate, is going to
buy and control the Columbia river
steamer route and the Oregon and