The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-12-20
DON'T BEGIN THE HABIT.
A Plain Talk with Young Men.

A Young man. who had just lost an
excellent situation by two-dayS
spree came into my study lately and
said to me: doctor. | can not under
stand how it is that ! should have made
such foo! Of myself and thrown away
my chance for Il living. This is almost
killing my little wife | replied TO
him: "There is no mystery about your
case. You have been tampering with
drink long while, trying to Jump half
way down Niagara. You ought to have
stopped before YOU began. 1t would
not have cost you one hundredth part as
much effort to have signed total alb
stinence pledge several years ago as it
will now to break loose from this terri
BILE habit" | cntreatcd my friend to
grapple hs weakness to Gods strength;
he signed pledge Of entire abstinence,
and went away with the desperate look
of man who is pulling for life in the
rapids, in full sight of the cataract
That young man is Il fair representa-
tive of Il sadly numerous class who
"lock the stable door after the horse Is
Stolen.' He may possibly be saved,
but 50 as by fire. Nv plain talk to-day
is with those who have not vet flung
themselves into the rapids. ] wish to
give half dozen cOmmOn-spnSc reasons
for letting every intoxicating drink
(whatever its name) entirely alone. He
who never touches a drop will assured
| " never become Il drunkard. Prcven-
tOn is easy. is safe, is sure: reforma-
tion is difficult, and with some persons
is we'll nigh impossible. The Jews were
commanded to build battlcmentS around
the flat roofs of their dwellings in order
to prevent the children from falling
over into the street. To put up the
parapct cost but little but the want of
it might cost broken bones; and alas.
what human power could recall dead
darling to life? | am always thankful
that took II pledge of entire abstinence
in early bOyhoOd. But for that battle
ment l might have been ruined by the
drinking-usages which We're deplorably
prevalent in my college. "Stick to the
tcctotal > said shrewd old kinsman to
me when ] started for college; and now
after forty years ! wish to conn end the
bridge that carried me safely over.
Q.) The first argument, my young
friend. for total abstinence is that
no healthy person needs an alcoholic
beverage; and even invalidS had
letter be careful how they
tamper with it as medicine. Sir Hen
ry Thompson and several other di>tin-
guished British physicians have delib-
erately declared that "alcOhol.c bever-
ages can not, in any sense, be considered
necessary for the maintenance of healthy
life; that it is not food in any true
sense of that term, and that the steadi-
est and best work is best done without
it. Livingstone, the heroic explorer of
Central Africa, was both a ply sician
and a teetotaler His testimony was:
Il find that | can stand every hardship
best by using water, and water only
l entreat you not to fall into the delu-
sion that you can do any honest work
the better by firing up your nerves with
alcohol. If you Go you will have to in
crease the fuel constantly in order to
produce the effect. Solid food and sound
sleep are all You. require: Even as a
tonic medicine wine and Bourbon NAV
cover up a great deal; they cure bit
rery httie. Several friends | have known
to be decoyed by them into drunkenness
and disgrace.
(2.) Therein lies a second reason for
ceitful. Not only the sting of the SER
pent, but the subtlety of the serpent is
in them. The deception lies in the fact
that the habit of drinking will become
confirmed before you suspect il. That
young man who came into my study so
tortured with the adder's bite, never
dreamed at the outset that he was play
ing with a rattlesnake. Every alcoholic
drink has in it this quality, that it never
satisfies, but awakens a constant desire
for more. A small glass creates a
thirst for a larger; one draught only
whets the appetite for second. This
is not the case with any wholesome food
or beverage. Bread and beef do not
breed excess; one glass of milk does not
arouse morbid thirst for two the next
time. But this horse-leech quality in
alcoholic liquors, which cries "give,
give" and is never satisfied, is the very
thing that makes them so dangerous.
This it is which makes it so difficult to
drink wine or brandy moderately and
so easy to fall into drunkenness. A
healthful beverage satisfies appetite; a
hurtful one, ike wine or brandy, stim-
ulates appetite until it becomes an un-
controlable frenzy. THIS | regard as
the Creators law against alcohol; and
when you take your first social glass
you begin to play with a deadly SER
pent.
You may say: Every one who
drinks liquors does not become a sol" :"
Very true, but every sot drinks liquors;
and not one in n million ever expected
to become a sot when he began with his
champagne or his SHERRY eobbler. :"
VIII you run the risk? would not.
The two reasons Why am teetotaler
are that dare not trust myself, and l
dare not tempt others by my example.
The most deplorable wrecks are those
of men or women who at the
outset considered themselves per-