Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-03-02
THE EFFECTS0F DRINK
Some First Principles Under Any and All
Circumstances Alcohol Is a.
Deceiyer.
The Impressive Teachings c
Science About Alcoholic
Heredity.
Relations Of Capital and Labor as
Affected by tire Habit or Strong
Drink.

The following extracts from lecture on
"Ihe Drink Problem" in Exeter Hall, Lon
don, by MIR. Axel Gustafson, will be found
both interesting and Instructive
"Alcohol deceives us as regards vital re-
Antics, and when We come out of the de-
fusion the actual reality is SO terrible that
to escape it we rush back by means of al
cohol to the world of delusions again. Can
aay mockery be worse than its ordinary eff
fects upon man? 1t pretends to give
warmth by the very process which reduces
the temperature; it seems to give strength
by the very process which vitiates and ex-
hausts it; it releases us from remorse by
stultifying the conscience, from despair by
supplying US to our miserable plight,
from care by drowning the sense OF re-
sponsibility. 1t kills hope and loyalty and
yet makes us merry ut their loss. From
first to last, from birth to final death, in
all relations of life, it deceives, it de-
ceives, it aeceives!
"The chief reason why alcohol especially
harms the brain and principal nerve Gen.
tiers is because the nerve-issue, like that
of the rest of the body, is supplied through
proper nutrition and assimilation, and as
habitual tippling disorders digestion and
nervous tissue cannot be perfectly reno
waited; and as the tinest-it follows that the
nervous system, and in the degree of the
tineneas of its molecules and cells, must
be injured by alcohol.
"Physiologists and psychologists gen.
orally concur in the opinion that the deli.
cacy Or coarseness of the tissue and the
construction of the brain matter determine
the quality of its respective functions. and
the fact that the more delicate the tissue
the higher the functions exercised by the
brain seems proven by alcohol itself III its
effect upon mind manifestations, because
the first principles to suffer confusion and
paralysis from alcohol are those which are
normal, moral and spiritunl-those of as
piration, faith, reverence, volition, self-ab-
negation, love, modesty, patience, fortitude,
fidelity, and reliability. All these higher
functions it first blurs, next confuses, and
next obliterates. Hence think we are by
science authorized to claim that alcohol is
the chief foe of truth, religion, and aspirin
ton, and that the kind of sensuous, self
seeking, materialistic, go-as-you- please,
blase counterfeit of religion and morals of
to-day is chiefly the outcome of so-called
moderate drinkinh prevalent in all classes
of religious and seeular society.
"The spiritual outworks being taken by
alcohol, the powers that suffer next in or.
der are those of the mind-comprehensi
reasoning, generally all the faculties of co.
ordination of thought. Hence we see tina
moderate drinking works as great destruc
ton to our intellectual as it does to GU
spiritual powers. And, in doing thil
heavy damage to all the higher facilities
of being, it sets free all those othe
functions which in their true relations t,
the normal development of the whole be
ing are as pure and as, necessary as any
but which, when these relations are de
stroyed, act irresponsibly and tend to on
degradation. To the habit of moderat
drinking. therefore, 1 think We may fairl
feverish, shallowly brilliant. incoherent
repetitous, tiippant, cynical, and imperti
nent literature aud speech on all seriou
subjects which prevail in our midst to- day
All these boundless evils spring from tn
fact that alcohol is first and peculiarly
brain poison, and as the rest of the bod
in all its various and marvellous construc
ton seems really to have been fashioned t
be, as it were, the hand Of the brain an
spirit, the other general physical effect
are comparatively secondary to thos
wrought upon the brain, though only so a
being a, shade less comprehensively terri
ble..
"As regards alcohol as medicine,
Vuluh IT'S COuSlueIatlOA COLAOo OuIoAoO IL
scope of this lecture. l. will, however
make this general statement that what
ever may be its merits as a medicine it vii
of course be ineffective as such in tn
measure that tits used as beverage.
"The effects upon society and state folio
almost like corollaries to the problem Q
the effects of alcohol upon the individual
Now, as, alcohol dims and impairs, in tn
first place the functions of love, loyalty
modesty, tenderness. and SO, forth, whic
form the basis of true family life, and Q
the basis of society and state, we find th
alcoholic habit in any form subversive c
the foundations of society and state. Blu
the most appalling factor in the entire prof.
lem is that of alcoholic heredity, for,
anything is proven regarding heredity, it
proven that alcoholic degeneration descend
through the second and third, yes, the fourt
generation. And thus we find that b
means of this poison the spiritual an
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