The National tribune., 1889-04-25
CHAPTER XIII.
sTIMULANTs-(continued.)

A French humOrist tells a story about a good
natHred rustic whose neighbors were every
morning startled by the horrible bowling of a
young dog. Whats the matter with your
pup Jean?" asked one of his VISITORS has he
swallowed dose of poison? He seems to have
a screening fit every once In a while?" "Oh,
it's nothing but his tail" said Jean. Bob
tailed dogs are all the fashion, now, you know,
and my wife says Ponto has to be clipped but
it's against my principle to hurt an animal
more than can help, so just cut off an inch
every morning"
The philanthropic plan of breaking stimu-
lant-habit by slow degrees is founded on SINH
lar mistake: and even the we'll meant custom
Of comforting a reformed topper with stimulat-
ing drugs or good cup of strong black cof-
fee" is apt to miss its purpose. As proof of
sympathy it may cheer the heart OF the poor
soul-siclz wretch, but its physiological action is
apt to augment the difficulties of reform by
tending to re-establish the stimnlant- didtheSiS,
as physicians call chronic disposition to rely
on the aid of artificial tonics Total abstinence
from all stimuants will make tho struggle
sharp but decisive. The distress of the few
first days may be Incompatible to anything but
a paroxysm of desperate Inconsistencies, but
| after time has once blunted the edge of that
anguish, every following day will bring addi-
| tional relief. The morbid craving will con-
stantly diminish and at last cease entirely.
There was good deal of physiological wisdom
III bne CUSTOM Oh tile Olu GreekS, WHO uSeu W
cure the despair of lovesick younSSter by
sending him on distant voyage or on an ad
venturing- trip to the Asiatic colonies. Excite
| ment, in such cases, is indeed, apt TO operate
as counter-irritant and the distracting crav-
! ings of a halfcured drunkard might often be
| similarly cured by the alternative of risky, or
otherwise exciting, employment. Successful
work counteracts soul-sickness, as it counter
acts bodily disorders I" 1t is almost miraculous"
the German traveller Gerstaecker wrote from
California, what an amount of fatigue a
man can undergo with impunity as long as he
is braced up by the consciousness of playing a
/ winning game. Two Of my tent-mates went
70 work on q gulch-claim Il month ago, and
finding profits slack, generally came home in
the middle of the afternoon growing terribly
about the excessive heat and getting fits of the
blues in anticipation Of physical collapse If
this sort of bake-oven weather should last
much longer. Last week they struck a nugget
stratum, panning out from six to 16 dollars
worth of coarse grain gold per hour, and ever
/ since they have been at work Is hours day,
singing and joking, digesting the toughest grub
| with ease and laughing at hardship, though
| the heat has since grown worse; SO much so.
| indeed, that some of our less successful neigh
boTs have quit work in despair, and wondering
If my partners were born in Hades, to stand
such weather day after day. And still stranger,
the six hours pause are by no means so many
|
ing to do, and washing and mending leaving
hardly four hours for sleep, half of which is
often fooled away with the construction of
castles in the air. But at the first glimpse of
daylight they are impatiently ready to go at it
again, and after fearful days work with mat
toelss and eroWbars / saw little Fritz get MP in
the middle of the night and swear considerably
because the bright streak in the East turned
out to be not the dawn, but only late moon,
peeping over the ridge of the eastern Sierras."
That same fatigue conquering specific would
often prove the most effective remedy for the
after effects of alcoholism, and / have known
delrium sick soldiers who had to be watched
night and day to prevent them from falling like
pirates on the alcohol-storeS of the hospital, but
| who, after an exciting campaign with plenty
of chances for fun and glory, but without a
ghost Of chance for other stimulants, came
home cured from the fatal passion that had de-
fed all chemical antidotes.
But for years-through life in some cases
the spark OF the least relapse may rekindle the
devouring fire; glass of beer, containing,
perhaps, only 10 drops of pure alcohol, is
| enough to revive the passion of the reformed
brandy-drinker. a spoonful of laudanum,
taken on the prescription of a physician, may
cost the redeemed opium-eater the fruits of
years Of life-and- death struggles with the pow
ers Of despair.
No other ailment, indeed, is so hard to cure
and SO easy to prevent as a stimulant habit.
Poison and "stimulant," we have seen, are
| interchangeable terms, and all poisons are at
first either inspid or repulsiye. No beer
drinker ever liked the taste of the first glass.
The shocking effects of the first cigar no smoker
is apt to forget. Opium is about as attractive
as caustic potash. Nature thus warns us in
the pIainest language of our instincts. Nor
can all the sophistry of the nostrum-
monger demonstrate physiological necessity
the use OF any artificial stimulant. Alcohol,
nicotine (tobacco) and opium have no nutritive
value They are no heat-prOducers. Their
stimulating action on the disease exhausted or
ganism is a sham-an appeal to Beelzebub for
the exorclsm of minor devils. Inauguration
ana stimulation are as different as substance
and shadow. 1t has been said that drunkards
devour the capital of their health instead of
coatenting themselves with tho due interest
but the truth requires a different comparison.
What they receive for sacrificing the health of
coming years is not an advance of vigor at ALL
but only its wretched counterfeit The plan of
| curing debility by stronger and stronger doses
OF alcohol w0nld have an exact analogue in the
plan Of curing the languor of a sicklv child by
teasing 1t into fit Of copyulsions and then try
ing to cure " the consequent still greater ex-
haustion by devising more outrageous provoca-
| lions IN order TO bring on another fit. The us
ritce, the spontaneous vigor of the physical and
mental organism, is not merely the only HARM
less stlmuiant, but the only source of true en-
ergy, of true perseverance, Of genuine inspira-
ton. The exhausted laborer, trying to gain
new strength by cOnvulsing his system with al
cohOl, might as well try to still his languor by
drinking his own blood. Gin-inspired poetry
Is rarely worth the paper of the manuscript.
Nor can happiness, or any tOlerable imitation
of it, be bought at the dramshop medical
friend of mine was once induced to adopt the
youngest son of a lady whose husband by turns
neglected and mal-treated his family, and
finally abandoned them altogether. The little
fellow did his best to repay the kindness of his
protector. He was lively and docle to a de-
gree not often united. In spite of the evil in
huences Of his early childhood he seemed gift
Gu with all the generous impulses OF the hap
piest mental constitutions and became such a
general favorite that friend of the doctors
family remembered him in his will as if he had
been child Of his own Then the brutal
father reclaimed his son. and the neglect of
some legal techncaiity in the mode of abortion
enabled him to carry his point. For years after
my friend had to avert his eyes whenever he
met his lost protege iii the company of young
rowdies, and with similar emotions one must
often listen to the brandy-inspired merriment
Of persons whom one has known in the DAYS of
their spontaneous gaycty.
And moreover, even that counterfeit merri-
ment is only flash breaking the gloom of a
deep night; at heart there is not a more lis
NAL creature of chaos and darkness than a hab
itual drunkard. Tobacco make its yotaries ner-
vous, and the jaundiced, petulant humor OF the
representative Chnaman is chiefly due to his
fondness for strong tea.
We cannot hoEe TO abolish drunkenness fill