The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-03-30

again, only slightly deeper than its
predecessor. The temporary cure is
the same-more rum; and each time If
requires 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 inn
possible. Were the victim but firm,
the stomach would rally, the system
recover its tone and the power of rum
over him be broken. But il has Slapped
the founda ions of mental strength, and
the will is weak as 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 dan
gerous as this belief, because it is
founded upon complete ignorance and
misapprehensicn of the nature of man 5
physical system. AT the very begin
ming it is true; and because it is true,
they do not quit. They keep on, be-
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 UiU 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 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
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
the death of drunkard.
He'll is full of drunkards who once
declared they ''could quit when they
pleased" The trouble is, they never
pleased" but kept on under this fatal
delusion till they found themselves
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-
! 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
ing such temptation impossible To-
ledo Blade.