Omaha daily bee., 1886-09-12

been greatly mOdlneu; Dut that modern
moralsis hesitate to cocrce rum sell
ers and hasten of to coerce gamblers
and the vendors Of unclean literature
means after I'll. nothing else but that
they are still inclined to consider intem-
peTance, on the whole. a lesser evil than
a passion for gaming or lasciviOus novels.
j. that bias a relic of the times when the
temptations of the sexual instinct were
dreaded more than those of the poison
vice: Judging from secular standards
we should be inclined 20 think that alco
hol is doing more mischief in a single
! wear than obscene literature has ever
! done in a century. Aud while gamcsters
NAV be indemnifed by an occasional
| gain, there is no doubt that the passion
4 OF the topper involves an inevitable loss Of
/ time. money, and reputation, as well as
/ of health. And, unhappily, 1t involves
! the loss of sef-respect, and thus destroys
! the basis on which the ad-
vocates of appeals to the moral
! instinct POUNDS his plan of salvation.
| The power of moral resistance is weak
| ened with every repetition OF the poison
! dose, and we might as well bcsiege
| bed-ridden consumptve with appeals to
resume isplace at the head of an afflicted
family. DIR Isaac jennings mention the
case of a young man of great promise
whom a clerical friend attempted to dis
| suade from habits of imtemperance.
Here me first a few words said the
young man, land then you may proceed.
| ] am sensible that an indulgence in this
| habit will lead TO loss of property, to
loss of reputation and domestic happiness,
to premature death, and to the irretriev-
| able loss of my immortal soul; and now
| all this conviction resting firmly on my
mind and flashing over my conscience
like lightning, If | still continue TO drink
do YOU suppose anything you can say
will deter me from the practce?"
Taught by the logic of such exper-
fences, the friends of reform have at last
| recognized the truth that the temperate
use of alcohol is but the first stage of a
| progressive and shame-proof disease and
that moderation and reputation falling
We must adopt the motto OF "Eradica-
ton" We must direct our blows against
the roots of the uDas-tree; and there is no
doubt that the sharpest, if not cheapest
tool would be the general enforcement
of prohibition. The penalties of a severe
proscriptive law would sap the basis of
the poison-traffic by making its risks
outweigh its profits especially the profits
of catering to on ever decreasing de-
mand. For the very means used
diminish the perils of tempta-
ton to thousands of young
men of that class owing their ruin less to
innate depravity than to the evil influence
of an obtrusive example. The army of
topers would die out for the want of re
cruits wherever the causes of intemper-
ance are limited to the temptation of the
rum shop, with its garish splendor and
its sham promise or pleasures. But the
tempter comes in more subtle disguises
The eliXirs of death are sod as panaceas
Brandy doctors" as Benjamin Rush
used to call them, abuse the confidence
of their patients by inoculating them
4 .l =, Il zE 1,f, -
| Thousands of topers owe their fall to a
prescrsption of '.tonlc bitters." In many
of our smaller cities drug stores, rather
than coffee houses and beer gardens are
the preparatory schools of the rum shop.
DR.. n. 5. Davis, ex-President of the
American Medical Association, confesses
TO having found mo case of disease, and
no emergency arising from accident,
that could not be treated more success
fully without any form of fermented or
distilled liquors than with" DR.. James
r. Nichols, editor of the Boston journal
of Chemistry records his conviction
that ''the punishment of alcohol would
not deprive US of a single one of the in
dispensable agents which modern civil
ization demands I'm no instance he
adds, ''of disease in any form, is it a
medicine which might not be dispensed
with and other agents substituted. y
Ten years ago the six hundred delegates
of the international Medical Con-
gress, convened at Philadelphia, were
induced to admit that ''alcohol is not
shown to have definite food value by
any of the usual methods of chemical
analysis or physiological investigation, -
and that Its use as a medicine is chiefly
that of cardiac stimulant, and often ad-
mits of substitution" Then why, for
mankind's sake. not contine ourselves to
such substitutesy Have the ex-
| of pnp,nannafhv
abundantly proved that diseases
of sorts can be cured, not only as well,
but more easily and more permanently,
without the use of any drastic stimulants
whatever Is it not mere mockery to
prohibit the sale of small beer, and per
init any enterprising distiller to deluge
the country with poison by selling his
brandy as digestive tonic and elude
the Inconvenience of the Sunday law by
consigning his liquor TO a drug storeF
But while these treacherous feeders of
the alcohol habit are being assailed with
even more trenchant blows, temperance
people as class seem TO ignore an evil
have unearthed the very tap root
of intemperance, viz: the life
blighting tyranny of Sabbatarianism.
Savages and wanton country boys, now
and then may taste glass of tire-water
for the sheer mischieyious love OF risky
| experiments, Dut IN our centers OF CIVIL
zation six out of ten topers use alcohol
for exactly the same purpose that the life
weary toilers OF the east use opium-as
an anodyne TO Tighten the burden of
hopeless misery. In primitive state of
society nature herself provides abundant
opportunities of recreation. Wealth re-
stores those opportunities. Our priyil.
eyed citizens can leave the city weeks 10
propitiate nature by pilgrimage to the
sanctuaries of the wilderness, and restore
their health by the care and outdoor
sports of their nature abiding ancestors;
but those privileges are denied to
the very classes most sorely in need
of their blessings, and by suppressing
all popular pastimes on the day when
a vast plurality of our workingmen find
their only leisure for recreation, we
force them to seek relief in the narcotics
of the rum shop and drown their misery
in the Lethe of intoXication. They drink
to get drunk; they take refuge in the de-
lirium of the poision fever as in dream,
TO escape the soul sickening round
about of six days of drudgery
followed by a seventh day of un-
satisfied longings. Heat the furnace