Arizona weekly citizen., 1888-01-07
TEMPERANCE.
Well Written Plea in Its Behalf The Degrading Effects of Intemerance
 Upon the Character of Men.

A Well Written Plea in Its Behalf. The Degrading Effects of Intemerance
 Upon the Character of Men.
 ED. CITIzES:-Seeing iu your excel lent paper come action has been and IS being taken in regard to temperance in the surrounding villages, I write this tor the good of the order, not that can hope to say any new thing on 6 sub Iect so hackneyed. The curse of drunk enness. on the side of its physical de- vastationR, has been abundantly de- picted by the advocates of temperance reform.
 The amount of grain consumed in the manufacture of Intoxicating liquors; the number of men whose labor is worse than wasted in producing and in vend- ing them; the number of lives destroyed by them; the number of pRupers and insane persons whose woes are tracesble to this source; the effects upon the health of individuals who use them, All these things are forcibly set forth in the most expressive rhetoric Some
 
 statements of Jealous advocates; but there are facts enough of a most appsll- ing nature, in these representations, to call for tue most serious thought and actions.
 But the verse side of drunkenness is not that which appears in these familiar figures. The most frightful of the drink hsbit are not those which can be tabu- in fHfa s,,e eA,l | census. lt is not the waste of corn, nor the destructio5 of property, nor the increase ct taNe nor even the ruin of physical health, nor the loss of life which most impresses the mlnd of the thoughtful observer Of ineSriety. IL IS the effect of this vice upon the chsrsc- ters of men, as 1t is exhibited to him day by day ID his ordinary intercourse with them. It IS in the spiritual realm that the rAvages of strong drink are most felt, and most terrible. The sympathy connecting body and mind are SD great when one suffers. the other must share that suffering; and the injury of the physical health resulting from interl- persnce must. therefore, be Bcoompa- nied by similar injury of the mental and moral forces. But the inclination of the popular thought Is 90 strongly toward the investigation of physical | phenomena that the spiritual ccuss- | quence of drums enpess are often over | lo"ked.
 Degeneration of tissue is Elcre palps- | ble than degeneration of spirit; leEion | If the brain more startling than a break | Ot faith; but the deeper fact of winch the senses take no note, IS the more import ant fact, and it would be well If the 6t- tention of men could he fixed upon 1t. The phenomena to which referred often | report themselves tn the Quickened per | captions of those nearest 10 the drunk ard Many 8 poor mother observes, with a heart that grows heavier, day by day, the signs of moral decay m tie character of her son. IL is not the hush- ed face and heavy eyes that troubles her | most It IS the evidence that ms mind IS becoming dull ar and touleT. his seusI- bilihes less acute, his sense Ot honor less commanding. She discovers that hIs | loyalty to the truth Is somewhat impair ed, tbat he deceives her often without cOmpunctioD. This effect IS often seen in the young inebriate. Irdtbfulness IS the fundamental virtue; when 1t Is im- | paired the character IS undermined and strong drink makes a deadly assault upon 1t; coupled with that loss of truth tulness Is that weakening of the will, which always accompanies chronic drunkness.
 The man loses, little by little, the
 mastery over himself; the regal faculties are ID cbairs. How many of bis broken promises are due 10 6 debilatsted will, and how many to a decay of his ve- raciousness, it would be impossible for the victim himself to determine. Doubt | less his intention to break of his eyil habit is sometimes honest, and the fail ure is due to the psralysis Of his will; doubtless he often asservstes that such is his purpose at the moment he Is con- irving how he IS 10 obtain the next dram. Ii is pitIful ID the extreme to mark the gradual decay of these prime elements of msnliness in the character of the man who IS addicted 10 the strong drink habit.
 This loss of self respect. the losing of ambition and the fading of hope are signs of the progress of this disease Tn character. It is a mournful sight-that of the brave, the ingenious, the high spirited man sinking steadily down into the degredation of inebrety; but how many such spec,soles are vis- able all over the land; and 1t is not m the character of those alone who are notorious drunksrds that uch tendencies appear. They may be cen often in the lives of those who are never drunk, Sir Henry ThOmpsOn's testimony IS emphatic to the effect that ''the hsbitual use of fermeDted liquors, ipjures the body and dIminishes the mental power" If, 6s he testites, a large proportion of the most painful and dangerous msladits of the body are due to "rhe nse of fermented liquOre, taken in the quantity conven.iUnslly consider ed very moderate" then 1t IS certain that such use of them must result m serious injuries tO the mental, morni and physIcaI nature. Who does not know reputable gentlemen, physicians artists clergymen ever, who were never drunk perhsrs in their lives, and who maybe never will be, but who reveal, ln conversation end 10 cOnduc; also, certsio melancholy effects of drinklngE lhe hrsin is SO often iBhamed wItb alcohol ,hst its functions gre lmperfecdy per formed. and there is R percepisbie loss of mental power and moral tone, The thinker IS not conEcious of this loss, but ibosa who know bim best rrs painfnliy aware that bis perceptl' ps are less Keen. hIs judgments lees sound, hIs temper less serene, his spiritual vision less clear. because he tsrries little too long a' the wIne.
 Even those who refuse to entertain ssthetic theories respecting these bever- ages may be able to see thGt ihere are uses of them that stop short of drunk enpess. and thst are still eKire meiy hurt fuI to mind and the heart ss well gs body. That conventional idea Of mod erstiop. to which Sir Henry Thompson refers, is quite elastic; the term IS stretched to cover habits that are stead Ily despoiling the life of it's rarest tr9iis. The drinking habit is often defended oy reputable gentlemen 10 whom inc very thought of debauch would be shock ing. but to whom, if it were only lsWtnl,
 in the tender and just sollcitude oi friendship, such words ss these might oe
 snoken: .Iti true that you are no' drunkards, and may never be, bns II you rould know, what Is too evident to toose nearest and dearest to you, how your character is slowly losing the hrmness Inf its texture and fiueness of its outilnei