The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1883-01-05
W. C. T, u. C1.UMM.
Strong Drinks.

Why are those drinks called strong
drinks ?''
Not because they make people
strong, for they make them weak,
but because they are strong to make
| honest men thieves; strong to make
good people wicked; strong to make
industrious people idle; strong to
make rich people poor; strong to
make meureel about in the streets;
strong to make healthy people sick;
strong to make kings beggars; strong
to make men commit murder and
suicide; strong to make sailors steer
vessels on rocks; strong to make wise
men foolish; strong to make people
forget God; and sometimes they are
SO strong as to make people see two
things when there is only one.
ONE ITEM IN THE BILL.
The annual drink-bill of the United
States is estimated to be seven hun
dred millions of dollars In Great
Britain; with population of 6,OoO,-
900 less than ours, the drink-blll is
$765, 100000. What an enormous
sum for alcoholic stimulants in a
single year - $7oo,ooo,ooO! In
twenty years the annual compound
interest on this sum would amount
to more than $4,000, 1000, 900. Here
is the startling result of twenty years
national indulgence in Intoxicating
liquors.-over twenty-five billions
Of dollars !! The cost of drunken
ness is amazing. The aggregate of
money represented by these worse
than useless beverages is indeed fear
full, appalling, and beyond the man
ner of expression in words Or figures.
The wheat and corn which God gives
for bread is perverted into poison
for the multitude, destroying brain,
body and soul. And yet men won
der why we have hard times. As
Neal Dow says, "The wonder is, rath-
er, that we have any times at all"
THE SCARS OF 1NTEMPERANCE.
You know very we'll that scar
will not wash out or grow out. Alb
solu:ely, there is no doubt of this.
But how vFst ard fathomlessly prac-
teal are the applications of the simple
truth that scars are inerasablet A
two-edged sword, this, and Of keener
edge th:n Damascus steel: The dull
inebrate, who scars his brain by the
habit Of intemperance, thinks that
after his reformation his nervous sys-
tenn wilt slowly recover all the sound
ness it once had. But on your finger
scar will not grow out. Scars, how
ever the body may change are abso
lutely unchangeable> in the changing
flesh. We carry into our graves the
marks ofour boyhood's sports; and
this is as true Of the spots that scar
the brain as Of those that cash the
fingers. That the most searching
blessings are good habits, the most
penetrating curses are bad habits, is
found in the one fact shat the AUTO
matte nervous mechanism is such,
that when habit-good or bad-is
Scared into the brain, the soul pours
forth the result of the habit almost
spontaneously. And just so, friends
your tendency or mine to profane
speech, to ribald jest, to the inebri-
ate's thirst, or the sensualist's leche-
rous thoughts, scar the nervous sys-
tenn in it's automatic action. When
yon, thus Scared by habit land it
may be, alas!-''y ihheritance), pass
the place OF temptation, you are
seized-yon know not with what
power. You feel that there is a nee
essity upon you, and that mystery
is simply that sears are fnefasable.
You have SCARED your nervous sys-
tenn with an evil habit; aud now The
terrific power Of the automatic hfe=
,hal;isn stands behind yodf viii,