Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1886-02-06
DElIElUM TREMESs.

A young man in Walls Walla. Who
came near finding a drunkard's grave,
bat who had the good sense and stabil-
ity to give up the Intoxicating bowl
rather than bis life, in writing TO
friend in this city gives his experience
with delirium tremens. which will be
read With interest:
Lord Bacon said q man must get
drunk at least once Q moath, and Mon
taigne, the French philosopher, sndor. ed
the proposition. A very brilliant man,
vko represented in the U. s. Senate,
long ago. one of the States which Dor
ders the Pacific ocean, gave uttefance,
in that great representative body of
which he was member, to the follow
ing sentiment: That sxaltation which
brings as above the level Of the brute
vine and oil-elevates as, enables us to
seize great facts, inspirations which,
once possessed, are ours forever-I be-
lieve In wine. women, vhiskey and
var"
The writer will carry on the PROPOSE
ton Of Bacon and Montague and say
stay drunk one month. and experience
| for once 10 lifetime the horrible result;
realize the thoughts of the Rrsa; senator
above quoted somewhat reversed. The
result to q hamsn system reduced BY
diseipation-a wrecked nervous system
the horrors of delirium tremens. II
will be first realized by wakefHlness,
With terrible thoughts to occupy the
remnant Of mind; or, what 10 harder to
experience. q sleep filled with troubled
dreams, interspersed with abrupt starts
into wakefulness, accompanied BY cold
chills and dreadf oppression. II the
miserable sufferer is doomed TO II
awake, it Ia to listen to imaginary
sounds which have no actual existence,
sometimes running into the strains of
familiar air soft and low, or the volup-
tueus strains Of catching air, ct times
to give way to the chirpinR Of bird or
the humming Of an insect, each fellow
ing in rapid succession at the bidding
Of crazsd brain; and in the dead hours
of the night, when the silence is op-
presslve. the hours drag their slow
length along until the weary one grows
wild with waiting for daylight to at
least IN measure relieve the dreadful
menotsny. When the terrible dream
becomes more intense, the wretch lies
in imaginary splendor and pictures in
his diseased mind the revels, forbidden
pleasures and debaucheries in which of
late he has been q participant. The
destroying glass Of liquor flows again;
the laugh and jest 10 "a loud and hearty
as II a terrible retribution Was not to
fellow. But the dream is soon dis
PEELED, and the fearful realization of all
comes back with redoubled fierce, and
a present wild and earnest exclamation
1 fS.I AL A..
terrible thinRw What will and reason
would be provoked the mIrth on being
witness to the vagariss of such q victim
!. were they once TO go through the trying
ordeal and lie and see in imagination
every immovable thing about them in
motion, furniture dancing as IL to
rythp, curtains and tapestry assuming
fantastic shapes, and everything 90 hor
ribly unreal.
, What wonder, then, that the victim il
actusted by these horrors 70 suicide
when the last and more desperate stages
are eacoed, when the lighter hallucin
alton gives way to specters, grim
sketches, skulls and cress bones! Whsr
the imaginary demon stands beside one
towering 90 high above one In vspory
state and with dripping dagger descendi
toward the bringing wretch with suct
sviftnsss as to bring from him lov
sad vail 40 he crouches in terror, With
bloodshot eyes staring wildly, With q
terrible light in them that betokens Z
, state capable OF any deed. IL IL thii
, dread that oauses the sufferer TO run
. from the thousand and one pursuing
specters that are lowering about, while
the orszsd one rashes on over paths or
, which deadly reptiles creep, and every
, fec steps treads on some snake rcady
TO spring upon and pierce him With III
deadly fangs. Horrorl horror! and al
10 done. The imaginary gives way Il
, the real, the hallucinatiop fades 70 II,
realization, and the pursued. no loneei
, parsued, stands before the avengins
} God that said that those who tfanagresl
His laws must surely perish