Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-03-30
THE DRINK PROBLEM,
ABLY Discussed in Lon.
don by Axel Gus
tafsOn.
Prehistoric Drinking Habits-Unsuc
cessful Observation-Disclosures
Punished by Death.
HOW Great Nations Have Fallen Vic.
TINS TO the Evil-History Of
the License System.

Inc drink evil is very old. It stretches
Iaf beyond historic record, and many have
ulea 70 make this fact serve to prove their
assertion that to take Intoxicating drinks.
wnatever be the consequence, is natural to
man; But II we look impartially at prob
apl!iIies we shall see how the drink habit
lnsldlously gained its hold upon man and
now naturally he came to acquire this es-
sentlally most unnatural and pernicious of
habits. ''"' ~
fnmeyal man did not know the use of
nre. therefore he could not cook his food,
Walch, 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
ne most enjoyed, press it out and take it
separately, and after satisfying his inn
mediate thirst set it aside. We all know
that on returning to it some days later he
would find it changed. What more likely
than that he should taste it and invite 9th.
ers 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, and 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 intoNicants was thus pradu-
ally discovered.
OF course, when this discovery began to
result in drunkenness and in the commits
sion OF crimes under the influence of drink,
REMEDIES FOR THE EVIL
began to be thought of and sought for.
Whether the individual, society. or the
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 a strange
dlscovery-or, perhaps, discoveries, as it
might have been made almost simultane-
ously in many different quarters must
have spread very rapidly in all classes and
conditions, and therefore the awful results
soon have become apparent, it becomes
evident that drink and drunkenness were
generally and probably had long been
prevalent ere history begins to record the
cazeer of man; and that also, almost
coextensively with the spread of the
could conceive employed by individuals,
society and state, in so far as such organ
lZations existed. There can be little doubt
that the words of Jesus Matthew xiv 3S,
39l referred to this condition of the world
IN that period when he says, "For in those
days which were before the flood they were
eating and drinking, and they kne1p not
until the food came and took them all
away" These words most clearly affirm
that the people in those remote days had
sunk into such depths of sottishness and
gluttony that not only were they incapable
OF any attempt at self preservation when
the great flood came, but that they were too
drunk to know even that they were about
being drowned! That flood was divine
prohibition with vengeance. Applause. |
1t is worth while, in this connection, to
call attention to the comments of the Jew
ish Talmud on Noah's planting of the
vine. All these comments-and they are
many-associate Noah with Satan in that
planting, and all distinctly attribute alco-
hol's power to sink man into state Of
the lowest bestiality to the fact that Satan
watered the vine with the blood of various,
specially unclean beasts which he had
slaughtered.
History describes primeval man as ma
ture worshiper, who alternately, in the
spirit of fear or love, adored all those force
manifestations which he could not account
for or comprehend. Thus we are told
that among the ancients drinking was
religious ceremony. AS large proportion
of crimes plainly resulted from drink, no
doubt their worship of it was that of un-
mixed love.
DRUNKENNESS PUNISHED BY DEATH.
We find from the earliest records of
those days, in which, indeed, very little is
said except about the monarchs, drunken
ness was most severely punished, frequently
by death. In the Hebrew law, for instance,
in Deuteronomy it is written that when
father had in vain striven to reclaim his
son from drunkenness, he should go be-
fore the elders of his city and say, "This
our son is stubborn and rebellious, and he
will not obey our voice. He is glutton
and drunkard. And oil the men of his
city shall stone him with stones that he
die, SO shalt thou put away evil from among
you, and all Israel shall fear" Again, for
the guidance of the Jewish priesthood, We
read in Leviticus x. s, 8, "The Lord spake
unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor
strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee,
when We 60 into the tabernacle of the con-
gregation, lest We die. 1t shall be statute
that ye may put difference between holy
and unholy, and between unclean and
Clean" And considering that we read,
later on in Scripture, that we are all of the
priesthood of God, We see that it is in
tended that we shall never touch intoxi-
eating liquor. Applause.
In the early history of China drink was a
great curse to her people. The Shocking,
or history of the ancient Chinese Empire.
mentions especially an imperial edict called
"The announcement of drunkenness"
WHICH, COuueuus I'LL COuluOu ufuuhATOS "
immediate death. In India. as we know,
its sacred lawgiver, Boodh, includes among
his commandments one forbidding any
drinking of intoxicating liquors, and the
initiatory rites of the Buddhist baptism in
volve vow of perpetual abstinence from
intoxicating drinks and all other vices. The
Indian lawgiver Manu-, supposed to have
lived about the ninth century b. c., emu
merates drunkenness among the ten vices
which may cost monarch his life. and
drinking as one of the six faults which dis
honor woman; and he classes drinksellers
with gamblers and revilers of Scripture.
Alomphra, the founder and lawgiver of
Burmah, condemned to death any one
convicted of drunkenness, and indeed the
Aztecs of Mexico condemned all
young men who we're convicted of drunk
enness, but confscated the property of
those that were old AS to ancient Greece,
We find in Draco's laws for Athens the
penalty of death fixed for drunkenness; and
Solons laws condemned an archon to a
heavy fine for first intoxication, and to
death for. the second intoxication. A citi-
zen seen entering drink shop was dis
honored forever-would it not be good if
we had that law here? [applauseI and no
more than this was required for the ban
tshment OF n Senator from the AreOpapus |