The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-04-04
The Drink Evil is Very Old.

The following is an extract from lecture
on the s'Drink Problem" delivered recently
in London by Axel Gustafson:
It stretches far beyond historic record, ana
many have tried to make this fact serve 70
prove their assertion that to take lntoxlcat-
ing drinks whatever be the consequence, Is
natural to man. But if we look impatiently
at probabilities we shall see how the drink
habit insidiously gained its hold upon man
and how naturally he came to acquire tnS
essentially most unnatural and pernlclous Oh
evil habits.
Primeval man did not know the use OF hre.
Therefore he could not cook his food which
indeed must have largely consisted OF roots
and fruits. Now, what could have been more
natural than that he should upon finding that
the fruit Juice was what he most enjoyed,
press it out and take it separately, and after
satisfying his immediate thirst set it aside.
We all know that on returning TO IL some
days later he would find it changed. what
more likely than that he should taste 1t and
invite others to do so, and that they should
marvel at the change in its taste and the
strange excitement It produced. OF course
Others would try the same experiment., ana
some one or more would become what we call
drunk. The story of these incidents would
spread. 1t is probable that the primitive
manufacture Of intoxicants was thus grad
ually discovered.
VI course, W06n luis ulScOfcIy Oo6ah w
result in drunkenness and in the commission
of crime under the influence Of drink, RENE.
dies for the evil began to be thought OF and
sought for. Whether the individual. society
or state should interfere depended upon the
nature of the crime and the character and
position of the individual or individuals who
committed it. And as such strange dis.
covery-or perhaps discoveries, as it might
have been made almost simultaneous In
ov-fa hoy yya ooraQh
very rapidly in all classes and conditions,
and therefore the awful results soon have be-
come apparent, it becomes evident that drink
and drunkenness were generally and proba-
bly, had long been prevalent ere history be-
gins to record the career Of man; and that
also, almost coe1tensively with the spread
of the evil, were such remedies as prlmeval
man could conceive employed by lnaivlauas'
society and state in so far as such organiza-
tions existed. There can be little doubt that
the words of Jesus Matthew xiv, 3S3g]
referred to this condition of the world IN
that period when he says: "For in those days
which were before the food they we're eating
and drinking, and they knew not until the
flood came and took them all away" These
words must clearly affirm that the people in
those remote days had sunk into such depths
of sottishness and gluttony that not only
they were incapable Of any attempt at self
preservation when the great flood came, but
but that they were too drunk to know even
that they were about being drowned! That
flood was divine Prohibition with q VEN
geance.
The Bottle in Public Life.
Admiring constituencies are as ready as
ever to crown their representatives Mt Wash
ineton with laurels for meritorious service,
but there is more general and growing dis
position to hold them to strict accounta-
bility for unbeeeming conduct, and vices
that once were borne with as being. at least
pardonable, if not the evidences of genius,
are no longer patiently tolerated. There is
no question of personal liberty involved in
this matter. A mans peculiar ways Of life
are not justly subject to outside interference
or officious criticism SO long as they concern
himself alone; but whenever he becomes in
vested with obligations or functions, for the
proper discharge of which he is directly re-
sponsible to the people; the public has the
right to demand that his walk and conyersa-
ton be such as not toimpair his official use
fulness or put in jeopardy the trusts that
have been committed to his keeping
Whether it be allowable or not for private
citizen to get drunk and make o beast OF him
self, Is not the question. He is certainly de-
barred from such privilegss!when acting in a
public capacity; for, no matter how intel
lectually gifted he may te or how well
equipped for the discharge Of public duties,
no man can drown his reason in drink or wal
low in any sort of vice without to some eI-
tent betraying the cause on the party or the
interest which he has solemnlF sworn to up
hold. 1t is gratifying to know that instances
of this high moral treason have become hap
PLY rare at the national capital, and that al
though now and then obtruding themselves
upon the attention o. the community they
are more than ever malodorous for the rea-
son that the general tone Of official life is of a
sober and self-respecting standard. But the
rule in this case ought to have no exceptions,
and a summary halt must be called to those
grosser forms Of inebriety and dissipation on
the part of public men, whether in or out of
Congress, that tend 10. hinder the progress Of
urgent legislation, 30 cripple the energies OF
any branch of the Government and bring the
public service into contempt Washington
Critic.