The Opelousas courier., 1885-10-31

but it is the cool, unimpassioned ut
terance of science. Take q few facts
in proof. Since 1850 the Temperance
and General Mutual Assurance Office
in London has kept it's policy holders
10 two Observation-Disclosures and moder-
ate drinkers, no immoderate drinkers
being taken. Now, during a period of
sixteen years, thirty out of every hun
dred of the abstainers lived beyond the
life-insurance expectancy; while out
of every hundred moderate drinkers
only one survived. Moreover, during
the same period the company paid TO
the legatees of the moderate drinkers
more than 100000 over and above
the rated expectation )" while the
death claims of the abstainers fell
$4,000 below the ezpectancyS
Again, the records of the Temper
ance Providence Institution, another
great insurance company dolniciled in
London, show that among it's policy
holders the deatltrate is t~writy-iliie
per cent greater among the moderate
drinkers than among the alsstaitefs.
Just think Of it. For every htntaiad
deaths among the abstaiheis there We're
l28 among the drinkers Aud, mark
you. they were all temperate ~diink"'s;
there were no drunkards amos. them.
Similar testimony Gun be- addnced III
wholesale quantities from the archives
of various other companies. III view
sf snch an array Of facts, is it mt all
wonderful that Insurance companies
make CAREFUL ibnniry concerning the
drinking habits of wanld be policy
h"lders! Is tltrS not abundant war
rant for the recens statement OF Col. ).
L. Green, president of the Connecticut
Mutual Life Insurance Company, that
t.among persons selected for physical
soundness, the death rate is more pro
fDundly affected by the use OF intoxi
eating liquors than from any other
cause, apart from heredity."
Similar testimony can be accumulat-
ed in vast abundance from the records
of hopitals, aims houses, &c. Ii is IN
necessary, however, to multiply proofs
These facts are sufficient to convince
any one who is willing to be convinc
ed.
With all this vast overwhelming
mass Of scientific evidence in favor Of
total abstinence, what plea can the ad
vocates Of rum pnt in for the catltiil-
uance of their tippling practices
Well, here is n bloated, r%ed-eyrd, red
nosed, equity, poverty stricken. hall
itubecile old sat, who calls out IN stem
torian tones, Look at me | am u
living refutation of your total absti
uencr doctrine. have been drinking
for fifty years, aud it has never iiutf
me- Well. as to its not hurting him
everybody knows that it il nat true,
Eyerybndy knows that he is not hal
the man he would have been had he
been an abstainer.- Physically. meu,
tally and morally h. Is Il wreck
though, IF course, M angel from lieae
en- could not make him bellows it. BnI
he is not dead that is il fact. Aud
because he has lived sn long witt. lIts
drinking habits. he argues that III ini
lsspot lnm,fni! Is this solid reasoning
Let us see.
knew il man n,ct who lived fnl
twenty funr years with all his limb:
utterly p~araiyzed; DOGS ihai Prove
that l,aralysis is conducive to lnfgevi
ty9 knew another man who iiae
pnln,ouary consumption fol more, thar
forty wears. and who lived 10 be more
than seventy years ri age. Does thai
move that consumption tends e
Elengtlirn thu thread Of life! Cnleridgt
and De Quincy were great opium eat
ers. aud vet they did a great deal ot
literary work does it therefore foilow
that the opium habit is conducive tt
success ia literary pursuits Every
n,nu who is not M idiot knows laW e
answer snrh questions us these Fht
consumptiv~ and the pafalytic lived
not b~teanse.,f their diseased condition
hat In spite OF it; and they wpasd isass
lived longes nf,tise,ssd cs,ieridgs
and De Qnincy tirlved successfully i,
the mines of liteiafure-n"t i,ce,ust o
the oninm habit, Int III spite af ii, am
but Tor ,l.at habit, theii diggings wnnit
have been more .kiiifnlIy directed. ane
their ores woufsl ia We been of more
value to the world. Likewise. ouI
topper has lived through many YEARS
not on account of his drinking habits
but IN spite af them. With sucll /;
constitution hat he been u, sii,stsiner
he might haze lived 70 h. 4 lIir.die,
years old aud i,eei vigorous and aciis,
Il, tiir last. Az it is his sands ut hi,
have nearly run. His poisoned carcass
3 will o rest hsneatii she sod. Doe
such a case initiate against total alb
s~fiuence doctrines!
Because God gave this man Il cohsti
tuition capable of outstanding til,
effects III poison daily administered fl
Years. does it therefore follow tina
everybody should swallow Il daily al
lowaflce Of the same ppiseI.l Snel
reasoning Is beneath contempt. Al
: idiot ought to be ashamed Of it Ey
erybody knows that i apestion Of thi
kind mlst be decided not by il cs,nsid
Grafton of ii few anomalous cases, bu
by Il general average of 1fdiDary cases
!. And pursuing this scientific metho
q the medical science Of the present da
asserts in the most emphatic nianne
: possible that alcohol is poison an
] should be administered just as otllt
= noisous are, under the direction Of
skiIlfui physician. IT. use as i bevel
age il in c~ontravention of the prime
S pies Of science.
The Merchant
I Who rests supinely At his ease witho,
/ an effort to improve the business OF Il