Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-08-13
TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
Bishop lreland's Address Before
the National Total Ahsti-
nence Union:

81.
Before the National Catholic Total Abb
Mimi, Bishop Ireland delivered an ad-
dress last Wednesday. the principal portions
of which were aSfollows:
The thesis Is maintained by most able
physicians that alcohol is no food, pro-
ducipg neither heat nor strength; that it
is no stimulant that increases the healthy
activity Of any organ of the body, although
it may allow OF disorderly action. Alcohol,
they say, is simply narcotic and a sedative,
and only in exceptional sanitary conditions
can il bring positive benefit TO the human
system. Were We TO consent to the claims
which other physieions put forth in its favor
we still would have to confess with them
that most limited supply suffices for all
salutary effects, and that all draughts in
excess OF this limited supply are hurtful to
mind and body At best alcohol is useful,
but in slight quantities. But what do
facts tell us? Alcohol, ocean-like, floods
the land. Mild dilutions, as wines, do not
satisfy us; fermentation and distilation are
called into active service to provide 1T in
more undiminished vigor; and whether 1t
be wine, or beer. or whisky the vile art OF
adulteration is often employed to enhance
report of the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue, dated July /, 1881, we find in the
United States engaged in the sale OF dis
titled liquors (this calculation leaves out
those who are engaged exclusively in the
sale of wines or fermented drinks)
ALP wholesale dealers and no.
$40 retail dealers. This state
ment gives us one retail dealer, !. e., one
whisky saloon keeper, TO 800 OF the popu;;
lation of the country, men, women ana
children. We know that all whisky sellers
do not honor the government with report
of their traffic, and when to this fact
we add that children and women are gen
erally to be taken out of the list OF con-
sumers, we begin to see what immense
quantities of alcohol in its fierceSt forms
are used by the adult males OF America.
We are not to suppose that saloons exist
ON small sales. Those who have paid at
tention to the business assert that an av-
erage of SIS per day is by no means an
unreasonable estimate of the sum
paid to each saloon of the country for
drinks Besides, We have from the
commissioner of revenue the figures in
Gallons of the amonnt of distilled liquor
sold in one year, III, lbs, $50 gallons, 1. E.,
two and one-third gallons to every person,
man, woman, or child, in the country. At
least 1O, 1000, 600 barrels Of beer and ale are
manufactured and sold in the United
States, and in addition to distilled and fer
mented liquors, a very large quantity, GER
tainly, OF wines, native and imported, is
used.
In the United States the cost of alcoholic
LIQUORS to the consumers in one year has
been $50, 900 900, or an average Of over Sl5
to every man, woman, and child in the
country. In Great Britain the cost in a
year has been &l42, 100000 or S74o,0OOOOO,
an average of over $50 to every one person
of the population. 1t is difficult for the
mind without some term OF comparl-
son to comprehend these figures. The sum
spent in four years for alcoholic drinks in
Great Britain would purchase all the rail
roads in the country, and the sum spent in
six years would pay off the national debt.
The aggregate of wages paid by all the
manufacturing establishments in America
during the year 1869 was only ST15, 5S4 600,
but slightly in excess OF the drink bill Tor
the same year. The total value OF all
church property in the country in 1870
was S:S54, ASS, 0C0. Six months abstinence
from drink would buy it out.
You will permit this plain question
Amid the general ruin and devastation
caused by drink, how fares the Irish peo'
pie? The Irish people do not drink more
alcoholic liquors than others; they drink
positively less in Ireland than the English
this much is true, alcohol does them more
harm, because their warm nature yields
more readily to its flames, and in the
wreck which follows they have more vir-
tues to sacrifice. Nor do mean to say that
intemperance is the sole cause OF their
woes; vet this much is true, 1t is great
cause of woe for them, and were it once a
memory of the past other causes would not
long linger among them.
II there is a man who should curse alco-
hol, and visit upon it the full wrath OF his
soul, it is he who loves sincerely the Irish
people.
Far more than landlordism, said one
of the most Jealous opponents OF Irish land
lordsm, Mr.. A. NJ. Sullivan, has intemper'
ance IMPOVERISHED Ireland. Fifty-tive mil
lions of dollars have been spent in one year
(lS7O for intoxicating beverages. Absentee
landlords, accounted one of Ireland's great,
est curses, draw annually from her people
but SOS, 900, 600. Mr.. Villers Stuart, NJ. T.
for Waterford, made the statement lately
in Dublin: "One-half the amount OF what
was annually spent in drink in Ireland
would if annually applied for the purpose
buy in fifteen years the fee simple OF all
the farms in Ireland"
Suppress civil commotion and intoXica-
, ton in Ireland and you can close courts
ana lallS. II III Otner CouittieS, - " o.
per cent. of crime results from drink. ]
would not fear to say that in Ireland 80 pei
cent. or more would be the correct figure
s. good are the Irish people without whis'
kI-so bad with it. Lord Morpeth, when
Secretary of Ireland, during Father Math-
| ews crusade, gave these statistics: or cases
of murder, attempts at murder, offenses
| against the person, aggravated assaults
there were in 1887 (before Father Mathews
labots), 1906; in 1888, 11,05s; in 1889
| 1907 jcrime diminishing as temperance
preyaied); in 1910 (the hey-day of temper
ANGEL l73. Between 1888 and 1910 the
public houses where liquors were re
tailed in Dublin had lessened by
23T. As consequence the per
sons imprisoned in the Bridewell
| (the principal city PRISON. had fallen in
single year from 1876 to %, and more thar