Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1885-03-22

dred Who daily fall victims 90 the knife
and revolver of the rum-ccrsed: the
eight thousand annual szicIdeg the
slxty thousand Who yearly I'LL the drunk
ards grave, Consult the catalogue of
ZOD,OU ANIMAL crimes the penal servi-
tude Of which amounts to I ,'.0o, 600 years,
costing for conviction. board, clothing.
guards, &e-, $96o.0Oo, ,0oo yearly in ex-
change for 10000 crimes
From the time it issues from the
eoiIed and poisonous worm in the distil-
lery until II emp!ses into the hell Of
death alcohol IS a curse. Ii 10 the foe
OF everything that tends TO elevate the
race. Il is the instigaior and protector
of every crime that the ingenuity Of
fallen man cAH devise.
Ihe time 10 passed, man OF thought
and action, when VOC can anord 10 laugh
or lesr at the temperance question, or
even treat Il with indifference. Ii de
mands the best thought Of every well
balanced mind Tie temperance ques
ton 10 not q myth: it Is a fact, and has
come TO stay.
No one knows better than the physi-
clan the effect Of alcohol upon the ku-
man system. Alcohol is either the in-
mediate or remote cause of three foarths
Of all diseases. All over the country
the profession is waking up to the ne
oessity of action. A few years ago a
National Medical Temperance Society
was organized in Great Britain. France
Is not least IN the nez departure. That
the primary use of alcohol as a stimu-
LIANT is only apparent, and not real. 10
now being aRitated in the medical world.
Ii is already being discarded by many
eminent in the profession. A hospital
in London IN SO treated over one thou.
sand patients entirely without it and
With great success. In the same year it
was stated that in the United States
fifteen Thousand physicians had signed
q paper to the effect that they did not
believe 1t Necessary for medicinal pur-
poses
William Pitt once said, in Parliament,
" one fact is worth Thousand theories
In regard to the effect of alcohol upon
the human system We have facts enough
TO huEi it into eternal darkness. Ualike
anything else that 10 taken into the sys-
tsm, it Is eliminated in only two ways,
through the pores of the skin or by
means Of the lungs. Nature, standing
like flaming sword at the portal Of the
bowels and kidneys, cries: Thus far
shalt thou come and no farther"
Not only does alcohol prey upon liver,
stomach, kidneys, heart and lungs. but
1t has a strong affinity for brain and
nerve centers, absorbing water and hard
ening tissue, thus hindeFing thought and
action.
The ancient Greeks were an sbstemi-
Gus people. They developed the highest
degree of mental and physical perfection
the world has ever known. In two thou
sand years Europe has not brought forth
As many illustrious men as Greece did
Ia two hundred. First in orators, states
men and commanders; first IN poets.
historians, philosophers and men of sci
ence; first in architects. sculptors and
artists. Who has not heard of Peri
cies. Socrates, a Sophocles, Phidias,
Aenophop, a Demosthenesf They
made the development of the individual,
the basis of government, and the secret
of their power, both physical and men
tai, lies in the fact that they could break
down brain and muscle rapidly.
Man is an engine self destroying, self
consuming, aRd bis power to think and
t. act ia in the ratio of bis ability to
destroy tissue. The locomotive plunR-
ing along the highway gets its power of
locomOtion from the wood, coal and
water upon which it feeds. The boy in
school who can solve his problem in the
shortest possible time is tue boy who
can break down the tissues of his brain
most rapidly. Ii is the destruction of
brain aud muscle that has attained the
present degree Of civilization, that car
ries on commerce between nations, that
inyents, discovers and engineers gigan-
tic enterprises. II is this that has opened
up the great West, has built her cities,
planted her fields Of grain aud made
her miues to Weld their treasures, has
built her railroads, provided her tele-
graphs and telephones and made her
cattle upon thousand hills and her
cattle kings to rejoice.
Every thought Is broken brain, every
act is broken muscle. Whatever arrests
this change lessons the power of the in
dividual to think and to act. Listen. ,
Alcohol is a preservative; it arrests the
destruction Of human tissue. Therefore
II is the enemy of human progress.
In this age, when the air teens with
thought; when ideas chase each other
through the very heavens and make the
old sta boil; when ambition fastsns its
chariot to the stars and affection sweeps
the universe With the rapidity of light;
when electricity Is king and every hu-
man csrebration is commanded to vi
brafe in unison with il: when our dear
est interests and all our hopes of future
greatness depend upon the perfect ad-
Iustment and easy play Of all our faeul-
ties, can we afford to harbor the germ Of
sure destruction? Can we afford TO en-
terrain in our capitol, in the balls Of
Congress, at the table OF the White
House, an evil whose every pulse is q
dead weight upon the growth Of our na-
tion, rendering the brain which supports
il incapable Of fulfilling its highest pcs
sibilitiesi
Brain Is at n premium to-day; rum is
its deadly enemy. What shall we do 10
be saved from this serpent that has
drawn its hery sting throughout the
length and breadth Of q Rloyioas land?
Mrs. Hayes voiced the best thought of
the American people when, with sablime
moral courage seldom witnessed IN
Washi aQton. she uttered. the immortal
words, There shall be no wine" and
frem Maine to California, from the
saow-capped Rockies 20 the orange
groves Of Florida. from city vsst 70
wind-swept plain is heard the prayer Of
nation's heart:
There shall be no vine"
"Vox popuIi vox Del, - The voice of
the people is the voice OF God.