The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-12-09
An Essay on Drink.

Drink makes a man fool. Take the
wisest man and make him drunk, and he
is as big fool as the most illiterate and
silly is in the same condition. In fact,
the wiser the man the bigger the fool
for more reasons than one. Men, in the
flush of their young manhood, who would
not stoop to anything beneath the dignity
of gentlemen when sober, have been
known to borrow money when drinking,
in order to get more of the very stuff that
was even then making them lose thoir
self respect and forget their manhood,
with all "the true, the beautiful ard the
good" and became troublesome to their
friends and the community and liable to
violate the law and be punished for their
rccklessness. While slightly under the
influence of liquor, and not enough To be
detected by othsrs, acts have been com.
mitted and words uttered, unconsciously
through Gao effects Of the stimulant,
which would make any sober, sensible
person think the "guilty" man must be
either tight or "a natural born---fool. :"
All owing to the mean liquor showed of
on him.
A man who takes but one drink de.
serves no more credit than he who takes
two. The principle is the same all the
way through F; the cause and effect the
sanls in the one case as in the other. II
oUe drink satisfies one man and it takes
more for another, both should be held
equally guilty, on the principle that If
one drink cid not satisfy the former nc
would take as much as the latter.
1t il weakness to drink, in the sense
that it is weakness to gamble, etc. 1t
is habit, passion. We are all weak
creatures Of habit and passion. One has
a foudncss fot one thing, and ono for
another. What suits one, docs not
always suit another. Ir many cases the
gambler does not drink; in many cases
the midnight thief does not drink. Their
ruling passion is no. the cup tia: intoxi-
Gates; they are intoxicated with the Lore
and excitement of their avocations.
Often the man who drinks Las no other
fault-his fault is more hurtlul to himself
than to Others. Free from the effects Of
drink, lie attends TO his business and
minds his own affairs; but under its In
flueuce, he neglects his business and speaks
and acts as he would not be guilty OF
doing when sober. A man whose refined
nature and cultivated taste would shrink
from tho very thought of evil, loses his
better self whom under the control Of
drink. and he deliberately commits those
very sins from which he rscoils in his
soberness. He gets into bad company
and becomes involved in ugly sctapes.
1t is easy enough for the free man to
saw he could quit drinking. Let him
contract the habit and he will find then
that if he abandon it he will deserve
more credit than if he bad never begun
the habit The gr&ndcst exhibition of
the human will that can be, is recorded
when slave breaks his bonds and stands
firm.
Why don't you take one drink and
quit? Yes, yielding TO the temptation to
take one drink and quit has been the
prime cause Of the loss of many mighty
and magnificent miad that could have
make its future as grand aud glorious as
it's past had been infamous and inglor-
ioua. Edgar Allen Poe once tboug ht he
was strong enough to take one drink aud
quit. But in the brilliarcy OF lis intel
lact, bright in ll,o circle Of letters as tie
evening star in tic circle above Kim,
found to his cost that he could not take
one drink and quit. Prentiss, the match.
less AIississippian, under the power of
whose gigantic mind concentrated
congress swayed for consecutive days,
oncs thought he could take one drink
and cult. But in the pride of his intel
lectual strength, in the glory of his tower
ing mind, he too found TO his cost that
be could not take one drink and quit
NewJeJYv Observer.