The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-04-07


ter how much the system may loathe
the taste of rum, it must have it. If
the craving is not supplied, there is
depression following the excess (and
the drinking of any alcoholic liquor is
an excess), and the poor drinker, sick
from the reaction, knows of but one
way to raise himself from the pit of
his own digging into which he Aas
fallen. The depression is so great,
the craving so strong, that he flies to
rum again, and is temporarily raised
from out the earthly hell caused by his
own excess.
Under the renewed stimulus, life
puts on a new face, and the world is
again full of joy. The depression is
thus followed by new elation, just in
proportion to the amount swallowed
To illustrate: If the man is in debt. he
is sure to worry over it when in the
depressed stage. One drink makes
payment possible to his imagination;
two makes it probable, three assure it,
| four give him the feeling of having o
| surplus in bank, five the ownership of
wealth, and so on in the ascending
| scale. OF course, when the intoXicat-
ing effect of the rum dies out of his
brain, the stage of depression follows
again, only slightly deeper than its
predecessor. The temporary cure is
the same-more rum; and each time it
requires a somewhat greater quantity.
On and on he goes, until health fails,
the will power is gone, resistance to
the subtle demon is impossible. and
lastly death comes in to finish the
tragedy.
Even when the stomach has first be-
come so infamed as to have this wild
craving for rum established, if the
man had will-power enough to simply
stop, and refuse, no matter at what
cost of temporary physical suffering,
to touch the internal poison, he could
be saved. But here is the awful evil
of the rum habit. So swiftly does this
devils decoction do its debasing work,
that by the time the taste for it has be-
come habit, the will is so paralyzed,
the strength of mind so Slapped, that
resistance to the craving is almost i'm
possible We're the victim but firm.
the stomach would rally, the system
recover its tone and the power OF rum
over him be broken. But it has Slapped
the foundations of mental strength, and
the will is weak rs water under the
horrible thirst and craving of the dis
ordered system.
The great trouble with men who be-
ing dalllance with this devil of rum is
that they have the hallucination that
they can stop drinking whenever they
choose. Such man boasts, and with
apparent sincerity that he can "quit
when he pleases." Nothing is so dam
gerous as this belief, because it is
founded upon complete ignorance and
miSapprehension of the nature of mans
physical system. At the very begin
, ming it Is true; and because it is true,
p they do not quit. They keep on, be-
q cause they can do so safely. And they
still continue, until what at the begin
ming was an indulgence that could be
relinquished at will becomes merci-
less master, because the a05W to resist
is gone.
Rum destroys the will-power exactly
), in proportion to the amount of the in
! diligence. The man who to-day is not
so far gone but that he can quit at any
: time, but does not, becomes in another
= year a man who would quit, but can
not. He says he will, but when the
awful depression comes over him, he
: waivers, thinks he will "brace up"
= just once, and quit then; but he finds
!, his mistake again. The first "bracer"
= must be supplemented by another, and
h that by yet another. Social drinking
comes IN after dinner, and the man
who determined in the morning to
quit, goes to bed drunk at night And
so he goes on the road to ruin, till
:, finally, all power of resistance gone,
= he abandons himself to rum, and dies
4 the death of drunkard,
y He'll is full of drunkards who once
y declared they could quit when they
pleased" The trouble is, they never
e pleased" but kept on under this fatal
=, delusion till they found themselves
y powerless IN the clutches of an appe-
~ tite that could never be satisfied, and
- whose inevitable end is death.
=. There is no way to stop a man whose
- will power is weakened but by render
- ing it impossible for him to obtain rum
:. in any form. There is no way to pre-
i vent the vast mass of men who are not
" yet familiar with rum, but who were
! born with weak wills, from succumb.
- ing to its temptations, save by render
y ing such temptation impossible To
! ted0 Blade.