The Dawson journal., 1884-01-03
Brandy L Began with and
Brandy L will End
With.

/ Would you like to hear the sto
Try? 1t is not an uncommon one
Only young life wrecked foj
time and for eternity by prescrip.
J tions Of physicians. This is how
| became acquainted with it.
A respectable, elderly man call.
ed on me one day; and besoughi
me to try and save his son. &c
make him a Good Templar If j
could and SO keep him from drink.
ing. Harry was his youngest sor
and his darling. Carefully and
tenderly brought up, he had been
q Band of Hope boy, a Sunday
School teacher, and abstainer ur
to the age of twenty-three
be wes now dreadly i'll with an
attack Of delirium tremens, the
second he had suffered from. and
his father said he had brough it on
by his daily visits to a public
house, where tempted to drink
to excess, and 70 bet on horse
races.
But how cams this Band of
Hope boy, this Sunday-school
teacher, this regular church ten
der, this total abstainer to frequent
this public house? His tale is
soon told.
A week after his father had
sought my aid | met the young
man in the street. His clothes
hung in folds about his wasted
form, his feverish eyes and burn
ing face, and crazed, despairing
look, marked him plainly out for r
one of alcohol's miserable vic
tins. | stopped and spoke to him,
urged him kindly to give up his
drinking, warning him of what it
would surely bring him to. He
looked me in the face with a ghast-
ly stare which l shall never forget,
and drew out an empty brandy
bottle from under his coat. "Afr.
Kidd" he said, you know moth
ing about it. l am dying. j can
not eat. | cannot drink anything
bu brandy. I am now going to
get this bottle filled. Brandy [
began with and brandy will end it.
1t is the doctors doings. / was a
total abstainer all my life until [
had severe illness. My doctor
ordered me brandy I refused to
take it, and after a severe struggle
| gave in Itook the brandy which
he prescribed for me, and | soon
learned to love it. By degrees /
Became what ] ANA drunkard,
and hopeless. Let me alone; it is
killing me, but / must have it.
When be had said this he hur-
ried on, in spite of my most earn
est pleadings, to FIJI his brandy
bottle at the public house. 1t was
his last visit there. In three days
after he was dead. Very proba-
bly, the medical man, who in his
illness had ordered him brandy,
and by the force of his medical
authority had overcome his reluc-
tance to take it, never heard of the
result of his prescription, never
saw his own work. But the work
was done nevertheless. He saw
death staring him In the face when
he said: Brandy / began with,
and brandy will end it." Medical
men who have studied the subject
are generally careful to avoid the
prescription of alchohol where
their patient has love for it.
They seek some other remedy.
But even they do not fully realize
the danger of creating fatal lik-
ing for stimulants; they refuse to
believe in the facility with which
it is often acquired. The patients
and their friends realize that. In
health. there may be no cravings
Tor liquor, but a serious illness
comes, the sinking, deadly faint
ness is experienced, and the slim
ulant is administered. The sud
den transformation that follows is
not forgotten. Or the patient is
restless, tossing from side to side
of the bed. The glass of brandy
is drunk and soon sleep falls on
the stupefed brain. But when
the patient recovers, is the knowl-
edge that relief may be had from
intoxicants abeneficial knowledge?
In thousands of cases that knowl
edge has led to habitual excess
and a drunkard's grave.