Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1888-04-07
THE RUM DEMON.
The Moral Degradation Following
tho Use OF Rum.

the most frlghtful evils connected with IL
are its Effects upon its victims social habits
moral nature. He who has become the
slave OF the Rum Devil can no longer find re-
taxation in quiet and pleasant social inter-
course, because II is too tame for him The
fire that is burning within him requires a
fercer fael. There Is something brutallzng
In Rum, which requires quite different sur
round ngs from the pleasant home Hreside,
aud the smooth, even enjoyments Of the fam
fly circle around the evening lamp. No con-
1rmed drunkark can be satisfied with the
pure society OF his wife and family; the glee-
full praiile Of his children has no music for
bin. He wants a coarse, impure crowd Of
boon companions IL It contains female
element, she is taken from the shameless
slsterhood who sell their bodies, and their
souls at the same time, for gold.
Such men weary Of their homes. There 10
no home for them but the Rum-hole, the
gambling hell, or the resorts OF Vicc-and IL
they can combine all three, they like 1t better.
The earthly paradise of such man Is a gam
bling game IN the society OF similar men and
lost women, with a sideboard, loaded with
Rum In various forms, at his right hand He
then has his entire hell within reach. The
hours are spent in vulgar Jest an d ribald
song, IN vice and drunkenness, until exhaust
ed Nature will bear no more, and the worn
out physical system finds a sort Of feverish re-
lief, which is OF use only because It is cessa-
ton Of a still more feyerish wakefulness.
Not only does Rum debase its victims NOR.
ais, but 1t deadens his intellectual taste and
destroys the purer pleasures Of the mind
Such man finds no enjoyment in literature.
1t is impossible for him, with a Rum-soaked
brain, to sit down quietly and read pure liter
airy wooks What, to the confirmed drunkard,
even though he be an educated man, are the
pages Of Thackeray, or the wizard work Of
Sir Walter seottl Can such man revel in
the literary beauties of Milton's paradise
Lost" the placid numbers of Thompson's
Seasons" or the cheerful pages Of Young's
''Night tboughtsin Can he find any solace
in the perusal Of religious books, or any in
struction from volume of natural scieneei
His taste Is fearfully depraYed and only the
licentious volumes Of such high-priests Of
literary uastiness as lola, for instance, can
tempt him to an attention perusaL For pure
Literature lie has lost all taste. You shall
find no red noses in a public library, any
more than at a prayer meeting. Rum and
good taste are homogeneous. They can no
more mix than oil and water.
This utter deterioration of the moral and In
telleelual qualities, due TO the Rum habit, is
paralleled, too, by the utter destruction of the
will-power. Rum sears the brain. confuses
tue intellect, and destroys all purity Of taste
all strength Of will. From tue time that
the drinking OF Rum is pleasure, tin the
boated and diseased body loses its hold on
life, this fearful weakening OF the will goes
on. The beginnings Of the drunkard's career
are pleasant The introduction Of this demon
into the physical system produces pleasur-
able exbilaration. The experiment is repeat
ed again and again, until the pleasure which
at first attended the swallowing OF the poison
disappears. Then the claws comes through
I the velvet. and the victim finds himself In
the clutches OF a merciless tgrant instead of
4 in the hands OF a laughing friend.
I The stomach, inhamed and diseased, which
! was before sOJthed and Initiated by Rum,
now ineXOraby demands a supply. It is no
longer question OF pleasure at all. No mat
/ ter how much the system may lOathe the taste
4 OF Rum, IL must have it II the craving Is not
/ supplied there is a depression following the
| excess land the drinking of any alcoholic
\ liquor is an excess), and the poor drinker
I sick from the reaction, knows Of but one way
h to raise himself from the pit Of his own dig
1 ging Into which he has fallen. The depression
4 is so great, the craving so strong that be
/ flies TO Rum again, and Is temporarily raised
from out the earthly he'll caused by his own
excess.
Under the renewed stimulous. life puts on
a new face, and the world is again full of joy.
I The depression is thus followed by new
/ citation, just in proportion to the amount
7 swallowed. To Illustrate: II the man is in
debt, he is sure TO worry over it when in the
! depressed stage. One drink makes payment
+ possible 10 his imagination; two makes II
probable, three assures IT, four give him the
/! feeling Of having surplus in bank, five the
ownership of wealth, and so on in the as
/ sending scale. OF course, when the intoxi-
| eating effect Of the Rum dies out OF his brain,
4 the stage Of depression follows again, only
I slightly deeper than its predecessor. The tenn
I p0rary cure is the same-more Rum; and
each time # requires a somewhat greater
/ quantity. On and on be goes, until health
+ fails the viii power is gone, resistance of
j the subtle demon Is impossible and lastly,
I Death comes in to finish the tragedy
Even when the stomach has first become so
/ infiamed as 10 have this wild craving for Rum
! established, II 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
I here Is the awful evil of the Rum habit So
swiftly does this DEVILS decocton do its de-
basing work, that by the time the taste for It
I has become habit, the will is so paralyzed,
( the strength of mind so Slapped, that resist
/ anbe 10 the craving is almost impossible
I Were the victim but firm, the stomach would
I rallv the system recover its tone, and the
I power OF Rum over him be broken BUTT has
! Slapped the foundations of mental strength,
and the will is weak as water under the horri
/ bic thirst and craving Of the disordered system
Z Inc great NfnuDiG WIN men VINO DelnG Qal-
/ lance with this devil Of Rum is, that they
/ have the hallucinRton that they can stop
( drinking whenever they choose. Such man
/ boasts, and with apparent sincerity, that he can
| 'quit when he pleasesn Nothing is so dan
I gefous as this belief, because il is founded
| upon complete ignorance and misapprehen-
/ sion Of the nature Of mans physical system.
Z At tie very beginning it is true; aud because
4 il is true they do not quit They keep on, be-
! cause they can do so safely. And they still
4 continue until what at the beginning was an
/ indulgence that could be relnquished at will
! becomes merctless master, because the WiR
TO resist is gone.
Rum destroys the will-power exactly in mo-
! portion to the amount OF the indulgence The
4 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 quilt but can
not. He SAYS he WILL but when the awful de-
preston comes over him. he waivers, thinks he
will "hrace upm just once, and quit then; but
he finds his mistake again. The first ''bracer'
must be supplemented by another, and that
by vet another Social drinking comes in af-
ter dinner and the man who determined in
the morning TO qdit, goes to bed drunk at
night Aud so he goes on the road 10 ruin,
1 till finally, all power of resistance gone he
abaudons himself to Rum, aud dies the death
! Of the drunkard.
Hell Is full of drunkards who once declared
they 'could quit when they pessed.n The
trouble is, they never pleased but kept on
under this fatal delusion till they found them