The Delaware farmer., 1883-11-23
HORRORS OR DRUNKENNESS
SOME OF THE PHENOMENA OF ALCOHOL
lied BRAINS

We were four. We sat talking in tn
lobby of a Denver hotel. Tt was II p
m. The talk was languishing, when tn
wide doors opening to the street wer
thrown apart violently, and tall, heav
lily built man walked in. His soft ha
was tilted backward on his head. Hi
step was uncertain. He was drunk
We recognized him as Dalton, a minel
from the Snowy Range. Seeing the
group sitting around a table, he came
toward us, and with a drunken smile
said, g Howda boys ?" Then, before We
could greet him, he turned away, saying
carelessly, cit is cat night for me. !
may as well go see the creature" En-
tering the elevator, he disappeared.
Wondering what Dalton meant by
cat night" I asked one of my com
panions the meaning Of the phrase. He
replied. GA phantom cat comes to Dali
ton during the night following his third
day of hard drinking. 1t is a warning
to him to put on the brakes.
Tell me of it" said.
Complying, he said "Dalton sprees.
He drinks at long intervals, and never
in moderation. When the wild desire
for alcohol assails him, resistance is
seemingly impossible He turns his
mines over to his foreman and comes to
Denver. He drinks excessively the first
day, still more the second, and he turns
himself loose on the third. He is
heavy and very powerful man, and can
drink an enormous quantity of whiskey
before succumbing to if. have known
him to drink forty glasses of liquor in
one day, six of them before breakfast.
By the end of the third day Dalton is
very nervous. Soon after he fails into
his first drunken sleep on the third night
he always dreams that he comes into
his room that a noise, as though some
thing scratching on the carpet under his
bed, attracts his attention that looking
under the bed, he sees a large yellow
tomcat, with bristling tail as big as a
rolling pin. The cat is tearing the car
pet with its sharp claws. Indifferent to
cats, or dogs, or any animal that walks
on earth, he undresses and gets into bed. |
Instantly he is smitten with paralysis.
He cannot move. His brain works |
without friction and is wonderfully clear.
His vision is penetrative. He can see |
through the bed, and sees the cat on the |
floor in the corner. His clear sight
pierces through the disguise of the crea-
ture and he realizes that it is an eve-de-
stroying, lesh-eating devil. He knows
that the fiend will come out from under
the bed and jump upon the footboard
there with arched back and
swelling tail, the creature will utter
trightful cries preparatory to leaping, with
listended claws, on his face and tearing
out his eyes. Dalton becomes afraid of
5he cat. He tries to call for help. He
strives TO move. His efforts are vain
The cat leaps to the footboard and
ylares at him with distended fiery ewes
Again he struggles to throw off the par
llysis. He cannot move. The cat
With horrid cry, springs on his upturn-
urned face. Under the spur of this su-
1reme horror he rallies, and, with an
exhaustive effort he awakens. He is IN
lerved. He trembles like timid woman.
His heart beats quickly. It takes
hree or four days of perfect rest and
olitude to restore his nervous system.
lie drinks no more for months"
"Does he know, while suffering from
his alcoholic nightmare that it is a
?'
Eyes, my companion answered. she
nows it. But he also knows that if he ]
oes not awaken, and so prevent the vel \
DIV tomcat from getting in his work the
at will kill him. He is in deadly fear |
this cat, though he knows it is but an '
Icoholic phantom. And underneath t
is dread of the cat lies the fear of I
cath resulting from alcoholism. The
1t is only faint shadow cast by the c
jinijams, that stalk spectre a
ke in the vestibule of his brain.
"The warnings some drinking men re- S
i've are very strange, said the oldest i
our party. ''I know several men who a