The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-06-22
TEMPERANCE READING.
a DEvlL-FlsH.

famous and Filthy Liquid.
Those who have read Victor Hugo's
"The Toilers of the Sea will remem-
Der with the utmost distinctness the
thrilling account given by him of a
terrible encounter between deFil-fsh
and the hero of his story; and will
recollect with equal clearness his
graphic description of the appalling
monster itself.
There is not perhaps one inhabitant
OF the great deep that inspires us with
such horror and loathing as are in
spired by this awful and merciless
creature. Its enormous eyes, the great
sack of its body, and its numerous,
long, sprawling, muscular arms lined
with rows of cruel and devouring
mouths or suckers, make us shudder
and sicken at the very idea of being
Rugged into pulp in its irresistible en-
brace.
There is one popularity of this loath-
some monster which is fatal in the ex-
IRENE: the instant its prey touches
even the most distant extremity or at
tenuated point Of any of its arms, the
next moment the unsuspecting victim
is EMBODIED in its n1urderous grasp, and
gradually absorbed through its relent-
less suckers into its palpitating bulk.
This is certainly awful to contemplate;
but when we come to associate a hui
man being with such terrible tragedy
at the bottom of the sea, both language
and ideas become at once hopelessly
paralyzed.
And yet, destructive and appalling as
this revolving creature is, there preys
upon our youth, and those also of ma
turer years among us to-day, a destroy
er more terrible, which may well be
termed the great devil-fish of our social
system, and which is hourly devouring
the best interests of our homes, and the
minds and bodies of some of our best
citizens. This devil-fish, this monster
evil, is alcohol, pure and simple, or in
any Of its DISCUSSES. Being poison of
the most subtle character, as chemistry
proves it to be, and as the ablest scien-
lists aver it is, it saps the foundation of
health; and being corrosive irritant
and destroyer of tissue, it saps the
foundations of our reason, blasts our
prospects and character, and leads its
victims on till they become mass of
corruption.
This is fearful picture, but it is not
overdrawn, as can be amply verified at
any hour OF the day.
Any man who raises glass of alco-
hol in any guise to his lips does foul
wrong to himself and his neighbor and
the State, inasmuch as he patronizes
and fosters trade or manufacture SUBJ
versive of all good government, ma
terial prosperity, virtue and peace in
the community. He indorses, however
becomingly, a practice which fills our
jails and lunatic asylums, saps the en-
ergies of industry, and strews the land
with paupers and with broken heads
and broken hearts. Even the Romans,
long ages ago. in the glow of their bar
barous magnifcence, put us to the blush
in this respect. They held the use of
intoxicating drinks in such adherence
that they made their slaves drunk and
then paraded them before the populace
to disgust the latter with the vice of
intemperance.
How contrary the practice of wemod-
erns, and what a reflection upon our
intelligence! We make drunkenness
one of the amenities of life, and court
partial intoXication almost every hour
in the day; while at night our liquor
stores and lager-beer saloons are, for
their dimensions, packed more densely
with old and young than our school
houses sometimes are. These are the
hell-traps which are the veritable
mouths or suckers of this great devil
fish. Into these channels of per-
dition flows the hard-earned pittance of
the poor laboring man, while his chill
dren are huddled in hunger and rags
around cold and desolate hearthstone.
From the open doors of these unholy
dens protrudes, however disguised, a
cruel arm of this devastating monster,
enticing youth in it's destruction, and
dragging the confirmed or willing VIC
tim down to deeper and darker ruin.
Let us hang the picture in the judg-
ment chamber of our conscience. It is
not overdrawn. The spoiler is upon
us, and unless we tear him bodily from
his last foothold in our midst, his can
cerous fibers will seize upon all that is
good in the land, and make honesty and
pure government impossible. There is
no Sinking the fact; it is the well-man-
nered and respectable drinker who
teaches the young to emulate his cau-
tious example, never dreaming for mo-
ment that, in nine cases out of ten, being
unable to control their appetites and
convivial tendencies, they rush past his
attractive standard of moderation, be-
come hopeless drunkards, and often die
in jail or a mad-house, or cast out to fill
a pauper's grave.
And now let us inquire more minute
ly into the constitution of this liquid
ruin that bears so many along to pre-
mature grave and blasts their lives and
reputation long ere the final scene
closes. Science has recently demon
strated that alcohol, in all its forms, is
the excrement of a microbe, or the
very ashes of decay, virulent poison
OF a most dangerous and insidious
character. Yes, we absolutely barter
both soul and body for the purpose Of
INDUCING depraved appetite or taste
for fluid the most sickening and beast
" conceivable, and which outrages
every sense of honor and decencyi The
fact is beyond contradiction ; the alco-
hol in fermented liquors now in such
general use is the excrement of millions
of microbes which are imperceptible
save under the most powerful lenses,
although floating in myriads all through
the lower strata of our atmosphere.
This alcohol, when taken into the stom-
L -. IL