The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-04-13
FINANCIAL RUIN.

The Most Expensive of All Extravagani
Habits-Why the Drinking Man Can No,
Succeed Financially-Nine Out of Ter
Business Failures Caused by Rum.
Rum costs. The man who paws g
dime for drink thinks lightly of it,
but when he takes twenty drinks day
he has paid two dollars for rum alone,
which, multiplied by 500, gives the
neat sum of $3.50 per year! Now, while
there are many drinkers who as vet
do not indulge to the extent of a score
of "nips" day, there are also a
large number who exceed that-whc
go as high as thirty or forty daily.
Then. too, it is not necessary that s
man shall himself drink the entire
twenty, or the whole forty, as the case
may be. Your drinking man is gen.
orally "jolly fellow" at least while
the fumes of rum are in his brain; and
he is constantly treating" as we'll as
being treated" He drops into g
saloon to get sustainer," and finds
half-dozen men with whom he has q
drinking acquaintance. "What will
you takeP" springs to his lips in.
stinctively, and he pays for seven
drinks. And this experience may be
repeated half-dozen times each day
The drinking man of convivial habits
always pays more for rum than he
drinks himself. because there are al
ways lot of hangers-on about sa.
looms, who are generally out of money,
but who will drink with any body who
will stand the expense, and never re-
turn the compliment.
The actual cash outlay of the rum
habit is so great that only million
aire can stand the financial strain for
any length of time. The man of mod
crate means ruins himself, in money
sense, in the indulgence of the appe-
tite Tor that which also destroys him
physically and mentally. But what is
actually expended by him for his own
drink is by no means all. The man
full OF rum is careless with his cash,
reckless of his expenditures, and totally
unfit to transact business of any kind
which requires clear head and cool
brain. The exhilaration consequent
upon his potations makes him feel as
though he is made of money, and he
pays it out with recklessness that
certainly must bring regret to his
sober moments. He does it with the
most extravagant things, and it goes,
he knows not where. Under the reck-
less promptings of the rum devil, the
man flush of money is pretty sure to
do one or two things-either visit a
gambling-room and waste his money,
or seek the gilded haunts of vice and
pour it out in the lap of her whose foot
steps. according to Solomon, "take
hold on hell"
1t may be set down as a fact that
the drinking man can never accumu-
late money, unless he is the fortunate
possessor of a bonanza business
that is, as to its profits, beyond any
consideration of expenditure, no mat
ter how reckless. Rum has burned a
hole in his pocket which leaks faster
than any ordinary business or money
making avocation will replenish it.
Bankruptcy and financial ruin are in
evitable. The drinking man is at a
disadvantage in his business, because
the money which should be used to
push trade, or tide over dull times, or
extend his operations into new lines
or new territory, is spent for rum, and
in the excuses which follow in the
trail of that demon. He becomes
more and more involved, and tries re-
trenchment in all ways but the one
which is his ruin. He will lop off all
needless expenditure save that for rum
and its attendant vices. But they are
like the horse-leech's daughters; they
cry "Give, give" until the man be-
comes desperate; he who was reckless
incidentally now becomes reckless
habitually. The crash of financial
ruin comes, and his course from that
time is direct plunge into habitual
drunkenness, poverty and finally
death.
Reader, did you ever consider the
grim fact-for fact it is-that minety
per cent. of the men engaged in legit-
innate lines of trade in this country
fail sooner or later? And did you ever
trace this back to its cause? The path
way of trade is strewn with wrecks,
and nine out of ten of them was caused
by rum. 1t should be plain to all that,
in these days of fierce competition in
trade, the legitim ate profits in any line
of business are too small to stand the
drain on the pocket imposed by the
rum habits Apparently the cheapest
of all designations, drinking is the most
costly. All other extravagances have
limit; but the thirst for rum is limit
less. II is like the ocean, which re-
ceives all the rivers of the world, yetis
never any fuller. The more you drink
the more you must and there can be
but one end to both the drinkers mon
ey and his physical endurance. Rum
not only costs frightfully in money,
but it takes away the power to make
money. 1t is as dangerous to a mans
finances as it is to his body. his mind
and his soul.
But though it is fact that ninety
per cent, of our business men fail,
sooner or later, the influence of rum in
causing the failure of at least nine out
of every ten is not so clearly seen.
We do not mean to say that these all
fail because they drink up the money
that should be used in business. While
many do this, there are many others
who do not, and yet whose downfall is
just as surely the result of rum as if
they had done SO. To do successful
business in these rushing days, when
every avenue of trade is the arena OF
keen competition, requires brains. 1t