The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-03-21
VICTIMS OF INTEMPERANCE.

VICTIMS OF lNTEMPERANCE
The Hold the Drink Habit Gets Upon the
Strongest Minds-How Nations as Well
as individuals Have Been Destroyed.
The history of the numerous victims of in
temperance, or for that matter, intemperance
itself, is the most melancholy of all histories,
and also one of the most important, involving
as it does, not only individual successes and
failures but the successes and failures of ma
tons as well. Every page is charged with
warning; every chapter reveals the folly of
the world, and the worlds great men and
rulers, and proves it true that the ''wine and
wassail have taken more strong places than
gun or steel" Intemperance is habit and
nothing but habit and a habit too, against
| which nature seriously revOlts at first but to
which she in the course of time and opposition
submits, and of which she finally becomes
fond. 1t is only by this force of bit that the
taste OF wine, OF ODium. of snuff, and OF to-
haCco becomes pleasant, for these are not
am ng the real wants of nature, but are pure
ly artificial.
eating DIR nks gains an irresistible influence
over both the mental and physical powers.
The moral qualities become weak or blunted
the mind languid ard all the phvs cal COnsti-
tuition changed and impar red, and instead of
the harmony that nature intended to have
with man there is continual str fc with the
knew man passing well:
"BOundless intemperance
In nature is Il tyranny; it hath been
The untjmey ending of the happy throne
And fall of many Kings"
| Notwithstanding the well known evil effects
! of indulgence IN the use of incbliating drinks
the habit is one of the most ens'aving. exer-
| cising Il peculiar fascination over the mind
against which the keCueSt consciousness of
! the wrong and OF the temporal and spiritual
! consequences have not the" SlphTpSt ipfl11pDsa
| Most of rs believe that any habit can be con
| quercd, but there are instances which over
| throw any such theory; instances where loss
| OF character, friends and wealth. and the
| greatest physical and mental ANGUISH. count
| as nothing, If only wine mGy he hgd. DR.
| Cheyne, a celebrated physician of Dublin.
cult waited, popular and wealthy. who had con-
! tnacted the habit of intcmperance. Every
effort was made to reclaim him in vain. His
| If ends mpiored him to abandon the vice and
regain his moral influence and his health In
answer to them he finally said: Il am CON
WINGED that all you say is only too true but I
can not resist If a bottle of brandy stood at
| one hand. and the pit of hell yawneG at the
| other, and knew that if took Dut swallow
Of the brandy should be pushed in, should
! drink II. You are all very kind. | should
| be grateful for so many kind, good friends
| but you may spare yourselves the trouble of
| TRYING to reform me-the thing is impossible"
D'onysius the younger, is another instance
| of this infatuatiOn. Aristotle says he would
he for ninety days at time in Il state of in
! IONlcdIIO on, ana me frequent recurrence of
| the habit deprived him in time of his cyeSight
/ The Emperor Ieno was in the habit of drink
| ing himself into an inscns bic cOndit on, and
when in that condition one day his Queen
Ariadne, had him taken to a tomb the hOr-
rOrS of which he fully realized. when after
some hours his senses returned to him. But
his ploadings and cries were not he Odd. He
81 q an tgunHIng de%th, hated by his wife
ard his people. He was indeed Il Wet III of in
temperance WinccSlauS, King of Bohemia
| when he Went to Rheims in order to treat
ntNS inn lntN M sal
questions, was so under the influence of the
wines of that e. uUtrr that he made cOnceS-
$ ons al Ike disastrous to him, elf and his king
dom certain monarch of Africa res grcd
all right to the throne. rat err than leave the
Portuguese colonies where the wine was so
yeasant TO him, ana his opportunities to
drink so favorable Queen FiiZabcths cee-
bratcd opponent. ThanC O'Neil. always kent
a. least two hundred tons of wire in his eel
lar at Dundrum. a. he drank q it So immod-
ertttclN tn t his servants were obliged to bury
him chin deep in the gre und order to aav
TIE strange lnhammatory effect his excess had
upOn him.
Babylon was the mighticst nation on earth
until she became II slave to luxury and dis>i-
patton. Her active and warlike habits Were
laid aside for those Of sensual indulgence and
soon her name mad become rcprOach. SAID
Jeremiah: THE mighty men of Babylon have
forborne to fight, they remained in their holds:
their might hath failed; they became as
women"
Cyrus was the avenging Nemesis for out
ragged nature. Whilst Belshazzar was en-
gagged in one of his luxurious feasts Cyrus,
whose plans were made in the knowledge of
BelshaZzars habits, entered the city sur
prised the people, and slew the King and his
companions, and the great empire of Babylon
passed into his possession. CYRUS was the
founder of the Medo-Pcrsian Empire. At
first he possessed Il country containing only
10000 inhabitants, but by his temperate and
warlikC habits he soon made il almost bound
less in extent and unrivaled in power. But
his victor es in their turn introduced to his
people the same habit of luxury and sensual
ty that had made many other nations fall so
easy a pray 70 ms courage and military tao
tics. Luxurious habits are necessarily the
bane to nat onal prosperity, and after the
union of the MedeS and Persians, and the fail
OF Babylon and its possession by Cyrus, cor
ruption seized upon the Persians. They be-
came intemperate and edeminate, and when
the Macedonian King marched against them,
they fell, as did Babylon.
The Macedonians were warlile, and under
Philip and Alexander successful in all their
enterprises Alexander is esteemed a greater
nun and General than Philip, but Philip was
what would be called in this age "A shrewd
pOljt clan, and with his superior executive
ability, superior discipline, and wonderful
command over men he might have cNcellcd
his son in greatness hut for the habit of in
temperance Philip finally fell by the hand of
an assassin, the Wet IN, although indirectly, of
intemperanoe. Alexander, justly called the
great early fell victim to his love for
drink In the beginning of his remarkable
career he was temperate in all his habits.
Once %hen the Queen of Carin sent him some
choice and SumptuOus dishes of food, tOpether
with some OF her best cooks and bakers, he
said &" do not need them; | am supplied
with better cooks by LeOndaS-a march be-
fore day to dress my dinner and light dinner
TO prepare my supper Plutarch dc ends
him against the charge of excessive drinking
He says he was not so much given to il rs was
said that, although he sat long at the table, it
was more to talk than to drink Every cup
contained some long DISCOURSE" and he cites
as an instance of his contempt for luxury and
luxurious habits his surprise when, after he
had conquered Darius, he examined the tent
Darius occupied, and said: " | am surprised
that such etleminacy should occupy the at
tenton of Il King" Had Persian luxury
never corrupted Alexander, he would have
remained unequalcd in all the attributes that
make man great Later on PlutarCh admits
that he became grossly dissipatcd. His en-
trance into Carmenia was mere baccban-
allan celebration. His visit to Persia and his
conduct near the tomb of Cyrus disclose one
of the most degrading scenes in his ] fe. He
offered valuable prizes to those who drank to
excess, and one man named PrOmachus, the