The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-04-07
FEARFULLY DEBASlNG7


Use of Rum-The Brain Scared, tho In
tellect Confused, the stomach Diseased
and the Will-Power Destroyed.
1t is not alone in business or spir-
itual way that the rum habit is terri
Bile. Among the most frightful evils
connected with it are it's effects upon
its victims social habits and moral
nature. He who has become the slave
of the rum devil can no longer find re-
Taxation in quiet and pleasant social
intercourse, because it is too tame for
him. The fire that is burning within
him requires fiercer fuel. There is
something brutalizing in rum, which
requires quite different surroundings
from the pleasant home tireside and
the smooth. even enjoyments of the
family circle around the evening lamp.
No confirmed drunkard can be salts
fled with the pure society Of his wife
and family; the gleeful prattle Of his
children has no music for him. He
wants coarse, impure crowd of boon
companions, and if it contains q fe-
I
! shameless sisterhood who sell their
! bodies. and their souls at the same
time, for gold.
Such men weary of their homes.
There is no home for them but the
rllm-hole, gambling hell. or the resorts
of vice-and if they can combine all
/ three, they like it better. The earthly
( paradise of such man is gambling
game in the society of similar men and
lost women, with sideboard, loaded
with rum in various forms, at his right
! hand. He then has his entire hell with
in reach. The hours are spent in vul-
gar jest and ribald song, in vice and
drunkenness, until exhausted Nature
will bear no more, and the WORKOUT
physical system finds sort of feverish
relief, which is of use only because il
| is cessation of still more feverish
wakefulness.
Not only does rum debase its vic
TINS morals, but it deadens the intel
lectual taste and destroys the purer
pleasures of the mind. Such q man
finds no enjoyment in literature. 1t is
impossible for him, with q rum-soakec
brain, to sit down quietly and read
pure literary works. What, to the
confirmed drunkard, even though he
be an educated man are the pages o.
Thackeray, or the wizard work Of Sil
Walter Scott? Can such man reve
in the literary beauties of Milton!
paradise Lost" the placid number.
of 1homson's Seasons, or the cheer
full pages of Young's Nigh
Thoughts?' Can he find any solacj
in the perusal of religious books or any
instruction from volume of natura
science? His taste is fearfully de
PRAYED, and only the licentious vol
umes of such high-priests of literary
nastiness as lola for instance, cal
tempt him to an attentive perusal
For pure literature he has lost al
taste. You shall find no red noses il
a public library, any more than a
a prayer-meeting. Rum and good tast
are incongruous. They can no NOR
mix than oil and water.
This utter deterioration of the mora
, and intellectual qualities, due to tn
rum habit. is paralleled, too, by tn
utter destruction of the will-poweI
, Rum sears the brain, confuses the in
tellect, and destroys all purity G
f taste, all strength of will. From tn
= time that the drinking of rum is
pleasure, till the bloated and dis
eased body loses its hold on life, thi
fearful weakening of the will goes on
The beginnings of the drunkard's CO
reer are pleasant The introductio
OF this demon into the physical sy'
TEN produces pleasurable exhilar'
ton. The experiment is repeate
again and again, until the pleasul
l which at first attended the swallow
ing of the poison disappears. The
D the claws come through the velvc
, and the victim finds himself in II
clutches of a merciless tyrant instea
of in the hands of u laughing friend.
: The stomach, infamed and di
:, eased which was before soothed al
7 Initiated 10y rum, now inexorably d
! mands q supply. 1t is no longer