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

/ hhhBhht SnisDu AAu~to ahu Ave ~
eating the forbidden fruit, and curse
the ground for their sakes, but did no
curse the forbidden fruit, nor the tire
that bors it.
We have already limited that tn
regular and frequent use of whiske,
beges an imperieus desire for its us
in constantly increasing quantities
The nervous systesn pervadescxery por
tion of the human ~qgaaism. If tn,
nerves are unzstuaally excited they be
come p,ostrated by weakness when tn,
excitement has passed away. Whisky
like liquid fire, stimulates them to un
natural tension. The smallest quantity
uBdiluted, produces this effect. Hthai
quantity Is regularly and frequentl,
repeated, the time soon and surely
comes when it proves insufficient to
drag the weakened nerves up to their
normal vigor. Then the moderate
drinker must abandon whiskey alto
gether, and wait till Nature hasrestored
her lost equilibrium, or he must fire up
the furnace of his stomach with little
more whiskey, and then with more yet,
and then with more, until his nervous
system is burned up with liquid fire.
True, here and there are rare exceptions,
which, as in all other cases, prove the
rule, where the regular drinksr drinks
regularly and moderately during a long
life, but mems physical systems are as
diverse as men themselves, and in al
most all cases moderate mecessitates i'm
moderate drinking, or an absolute alb
stsntion from intoxicating drinks. The
Almighty did not curse the tree Of the
knowledge of good and evil, nor its
fruit, possibly because, like the tree of
life, it was thereafter to remain mac
cessible to mortal man; yet, for mans
lie cursed the ground
which produced it, and, IA" important
fact, ignored by the Democrat,) He
cursed the serpent who tempted Eve TO
eat the forbidden fruit. Ever since,
man has been prone to yield to temp
tation, and, the Democrat to the con
trary notwithstanding, we think it more
and more God-like to sympa-
thize with the tempted, and falling and
fallen inebriate, and to invoke the rig
ors of the law against his teinpters,
than to denounce him as criminal,
and TO hound him on to the pillory,
the lash, the penitentisry and the gal
lows.
The Democrat intimatcs that wills
key should be let alone. We do let it
alone, but-does the Democrat let
alone2 And is it "a more ex-
cellent way" to induce men to let it
alone, for respectable journal like the
to contend that whiskey is
harmless, and 10 denounce the efforts
of temperance lecturers and newspapers
as "fraud and delnsion ,"
The Democrat is wrong in its prem
Uses. 1t assumes that because temper
ance men denounce whiskey, and, in
speaking of the terrible consequences
Of its use as beverage, say "Whiskey
did it," they are doing nothing more
than denouncing an inanimate object.
!. e., whiskey, and personifying il as a
moral agent; all of which, the Demo
crat says, is ridiculous. The Demo
crat ought to know that when we say
''whiskey did it, we do not mean to
speak of whiskey an an animate, SEN
Lient, moral agent, any more than when
we say opium did it, strychnine did it,
OF arsenic did it. What we mean, and
what temperance lecturers mean, is that
The use of Intoxicating liquor as bey-
erage certainly causes poverty, disease,
disgrace, misery and crime; and that
therefore, in the interest of society, and
Of humanity, thepublic and unrestricted
sale of this physical, mental and moral
poison, as a beverage, should be abol-
shed; and VIC are quite willing toleave
It to public opinion to decide which
method of arresting this gigantic evil
Is aquixotic," that Of the temperance
ectnrers and newspapers, which in
,okss the aid of wholesome legislation,
Or thst of the St. Landry Democrat
sis: unsparing punishment of drunken
hess, exhibition of drunkards to chill
iren, to disgust the latter; and cultiva-
ing sound minds and sound stomachs.
Orange Cullnre I'm A1OuIsiana.
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IN. o. Picayune]