The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-07-17
Has lie the Right to Do So?
BY REQUEST OF A LADY.

We heard two men talking of the mer.
it's and dement's of some brother man
one said, "It is none of my business if he
gets drunk; he has the right to do go if
he likes" "That's so," assented the
other.
Mr.. Editor, we deny it, no man has
right to "get drunk" or debase his man
hood in any way. The laws of our
country give each Individual the right to
eat and drink, when and what they
please, so long as nothing hurtful is
taken, either in quality or quantity. No
man has right to drink 60 excess and
thus dwarf his energies, squander his
time and yiciate his blood, gendezing
disease, deadening intellect and debasing
his moral nature. No man can "get
drunk" and injure none but himeelf
When men become drunkards and SOU:
derers they wrong the worker and pro-
ducer. The responsibilities of life which
they should sustain must be taken up by
another. Christ said, "He that is not for
me is against me; fye do not gather in
ye scatter"
No man has right to torture or give
another pain. Every drunkard afflicts
and pain his friends. While husbands
drink and squander, wives weep and toll,
trying to sustain both her own response
bilities and his, or if she be weak and
erring both go down together, and others
must take up the burden. Parents weep
for fallen sons, children are bereft of care
and counsel. Citizens suffer, for they
must be taxed to support the paupers
and officers of the law. the jails and pris.
ous. Since the excessive use of alcoholic
drinks causes more sin and gu uffering than
any other evil, surely no man has the
right, either civil or moral, to get drunk.
Men confound their rights with their
liberties. Men are at liberty to "get
drunk" 80 are they at liberty to do other
evil; at liberty to murder, yet they have
no right to do go. Many murderers are
at liberty TO come and 60 at will, and
repeat the crime, yet they have no right
to that liberty. J. am at liberty TO enter
life of shame, but + have no right to
dishonor the name wear, nor the hus-
band to dishonor it and put me to shame.
What right has any husband to "get
drunk" and shame his wife, swell her
heart with grief, and squander his money,
his time and his health, and come home
loathsome, bloated wreck, hardly the
semblance of q man, so much of that
which is beastly and fiendish hangs about
him? Even to behold him thus is agony
to any true wife or woman. a cores.
pondent of the Chicago Times wrote once
upon time: "I'm tired of hearing 30
much about whiskey and saloons being
the cause Of crime. l say let men drink
and make beasts of themselves if they
like, for they certainly have the right;
but execute our laws without fear or
favor"
Would it not be better to strike at the
root of evil and prevent drunkenness and
crime? Suppose you do hang muir
derer, will that restore his victim, or
undo the cowardy, vengeful deed? Will
the aching of the mourner's heart be
stilled, or the anguished tears be dried :?
Were it not better to cry down drunken
ness and make it abominable in the
sight of men, punish men who drink and
neglect their families, leaving them TO
starve and shiver for want of food and
clothing? Why wait till they murder
them by some brutal blow? Instant
death is a thousand times more merciful
than lifetime of torture. The wife who
is true woman suffers death tortures
every time she sees her husband 80 de-
based. Has he any right to inaict such
torture? l say no, thousand times no !
o the agony the agony to see the one
we love so fallen; sense and reason gone,
intellect, manhood dethroned, and to be
unable to restore it. The agony of wait
ing one night for the return of sense
seems to lengthen into eternity, and that
eternity hell. And yet men claim to
have the right to thus torture. They
know by the laws of God, our country
and humanity, they have not the shadow
of such a right.-Dirs. D A. Benedict, an
Health and Home.