The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-12-21
TOTAL ABSTINENCE AND ALCOHOL


"Total abstinence from all that can
intoxicate," is watchword as ancien:
as creation, and was once as broad as
the universe. When God created the
world and rested from His work, He
pronounced it Every good;" each thing
good in itself and good in its connec
tions; the light good for the eyes; the
air good for the lungs; the food good
for the stomach; water good for quench-
ing thirst.
Had each been made differently from
what it was, or had either not been
made, man could not have existed.
Light, whose particles had been Of a
size that was even visible, would have
destroyed the eyes; air, whose compo-
nent parts varied only in its proper
tions, would have been death to the
lungs; ten thousand fields of poisonous
grain would not have been food for a
single stomach; and oceans of brandy,
gin or rum would not have quenched
thirst in man or beast He who made
man and beast knew what was best for
them; and therefore for thousands of
years, millions after millions in sue
cession, of fish, fowl and beast, have
been blessed in His dominions; all, in
observing the laws of their physical
nature; and from ripping streams and
gushing springs, issuing from natures
own fountain, man could drink the
beverage prepared by God himself to
nourish and invigorate His creatures
and beautify His footstool," without
dethronine his reason, destroying his
health, or by slow but certain degrees
committing suicide.
Happy had it been for the race had
man continued in this state of primeval
temperance. But, alas man. tempted
to evil, Withstood not the attack, but,
basely yielding. became corrupt in
heart, and speculative in thought and
desire, and, according to the Apostle,
"vain in his imaginations and his fool
ish heart was darkened' " Processing
themselves to be wise they became
fools, who changed the truth of God
into lie. and worshiped and served
the creature more tlsan the Creator"
Here began the rayages of sin and
misery, and as "vain man would be
WISE" age after age has been toiling
for something better than that which
has been so bountifully provided by his
All-wise Creator, and so would fain
find happiness by inverting the order
of nature in TIE qualification of his
evil lusts, passions and appetites by in
ventions of his own.
This spirit of speculation has spread
everywhere, and the cursed lust for
gold has taken advantage of the NOR
bid cravings of this most unhallowed
appetite, and men with unholy, specu-
latiye designs have invented that which
is often refEesented as sovereign
panacea" for the worlds evils, and
have presented their proposed remedy
in the form of alcoholic drinks
But instead of removing the worlds
evils it has increased them in both num-
bers and magnitude; feeding this
strange, unnatural appetite, causing it
to rage with more malignant fury, fill
ing the earth with sorrow and misery,
lamentations and woe. as facts and our
daily observations abundantly prove.
From our best information, the first
alcoholic mandatory by distillation
was erected in Arabia, in the form of
chemical laboratory; but long before
this, the baneful principle was obtained
by fermentation, and was essentially
the same as that obtained by distilla-
ton. After the secret of the speedy
Transformation was discovered the work
of intemperance seemed to take new
impetus; and wherever this principle
has spread, everything lovely and of
good report has withered under its in
fiuence.
The history of the old world is full of
painful facts testifying to the baneful
effects of alcoholic drinks, and the
history of our beloved country is no ex-
ception to those facts During the
years of the late rebellion intemperance
made more widows and Orphans than
we're made by the direct stroke Of war.
But why refer to the past for facts while
these proofs are brought to our very
doors every day? We scarcely take up
a public journal but our eyes are
greeted with revolving and heart-sick-
e1ing details of robberies and murders
committed by men. aye, and women,
too, while in a state of intoxication
Neither are these revolving crimes con-
fined to men and women. but even chill
dren Of tender years are drawn into the
whirlpool of strong drink, and our
sensibilities are shocked while reading
accounts of crimes and murders perpe-
trated by boys not yet in their teens. -
Rev. w. Il. Thomson, IN Union Signal
DIR. MARTIN, of the Sqlpstrierie,
Paris, has made a series of observations
stretching over a period of years, on
nervous affections among the children
of alcoholic drinkers. In eighty-three
families in which one or more members
showed nervous excitability, traceable
to alcoholic origin, there were 40 chill
dren. Of these 106, more than quar-
ter, had commissions, and in the year
1874 1859 were dead, 241 were still alive,
but 81, more than one-third of the sur
vivors, were epileptic.
A SIGNIFICANT FACT comes from Liv-
erpool, Eng, in the announcement that
shares of the Cocoa Temperance rooms
opened there in 1876 are now at 100
per cent. premium,