The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1881-01-08

! A great many newspapers in tn
world, and several in Louisiana, are de
voted, more or less, to the advocacy o
the temperance cause, but, so far a
our limited observation goes, the St
Landry Democrat is the only ono which
comes out squareIy and professedly il
defence of free mhiskey and plenty
Of it. It is just because of its isolated
and novel position on this subject thai
we are unable to determine whether
it has taken this step ito I'LL void
long existing in the community or in
spirit of emulation of the chivairons
inebriste at a religious revival meeting,
who kept his seat while everybody else
in the congregation rose in response to
the ministers request for everybody to
stand up who wanted to go to heaven,
and who, when they were seated, rose
to his feet at the clergya,sn's request
that all would stand up who wanted to
go to he'll; and who, on being reproyed
by the pastor for his hardness of heart,
replied, "Well, parson, if the vote
hadn't been practically unanimous the
other way ] might have voted with the
majority, but ! always make it point
to stand by the frisndless."
The Democrats column editorial Of
last week on this subject, boiled down,
amounts to an admission that drunken
ness is an evil, indeed q crime, for
which the Democrat recommends sun
spsring punishment of the drunkard,
saying that for his commission of
crimes and offences while drunk he
should be put to work on the public
roads, sent to the penitentiary, or put
in = public pillory," and that for com
hitting murder he should be given
thirty-nine lashss on the bare back for
getting drunk, and hung for the muir
DER" but that ."wlIiskey is harmless"
'.the materials of which it is made were
put here for good purpose" and
''thosc who use it to excess are the
criminals, and they should be punished
accordingly"
The fallacy Of this position lies partly
in the manifest error of its assertion
that "whiskey is harmless" and partly
in the implied assumption that "those
who use it to excess" and who are
styled by the Democrat, for that act
alone, as criminals, might drink it all
their lives, as harmless beverage,
without any serious danger of using it
to excess.
As to whiskey being "harmless," it
is confessedly one of the most power
full of diffusive stimulants, and every
and truthful physician will
say that no man can regularly and fire.
quently use any powerful diffusive or
stimulant without weakening
his nervous system, nor without Gre
ating an imperions desire for constantly
increasing quantities of it to stimulate
the nerves weakened by its reactionary
effects. This is true even when whis-
key is pure, but, rs sold in market
overt, for drinking and not medicinal
purposes, 1t IS never pure. We chal-
lenge any man, and any newspaper, to
refer us to any first-class distilIery, dis
tilling over 100 bbls. of whiskey an
nually, for market, for ordinary drink
ing purposes, in which strychnine is
not used in its manufacture. 1t is no.
torions, that by the addition of a GER
tain quantity ofstrychnine, abushel of
corn or of rye will yield much larger
per cent. of wbiskey than can be ex-
lracied from it without strychnine.
Twenty years ago there was less of this
deadly poison used in distilleries than
at present, vet more than twenty years
ago one Of the first and most respscta-
bic distillers in Kentucky refused to
distill two barrels ofpure corn whiskey
for one of his intimate friends, who
related the incident to us, on the ground
that he could not do it without stop
ping his distillsry for several days, and
out every inch Of it used in
The manufacture Of whiskcy, in order
10 be sure there wonld be no strych-
nine in it, and that no man wonld be
willing to pay him enough for two bar
rels of whiskey to cover the enormous
expense which would b incurred by
such stoppage and cleansing of his
He said at the same time
that every distiller used srychnine,
and We remember to have seen the same
notorious fact recently reported in the
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