The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1890-10-30
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
the CURSE Of INEeRlETY


THE CURSE or INEeRiETY.
why sensible Girls should Not Marry
Men Addicted to Drink.
To the specialist who makes study
Of inebriety. nothing can be more I'M
pleasant than to advise in relation to
marriage with these drink victims
Very often the advice of the physician
is final, both parties agreeing to abide
by his decision, and in most cases both
parties blame him. either openly or in
secret, and suppose different result
would have followed from different ad
vice. Two parents of much wealth and
good position in society consulted me
as to the marriage of an only son to an
only daughter. The son being genteel,
periodical drinker the parents of the
daughter hesitated. A family physi-
clan urged the marriage as means of
saving the young man. Both parties
appealed to me. and my decision was
adverse. The young lady married a
poor clergyman, and was early left q
widow in feeble health. The voting
laan drank to great excess and died by
his own hands. Both parents are firm
in the conviction that my counsel was
in error.
Appeals are constantly coming to me
from ladies who are engaged to drink
ing men; from mothers and fathers Of
such daughters, asking advice, giving
histories of talented, brilliant ine-
briatea, who have every qualification to
make home, except this tendency to
uso spirits to excess. Not unfrequent-
~ clergymen and physicians urge such
suorr iusoe,- aad-uay opinions are con-
demned as unreasonable, but most un-
fortunately for the parties, the result of
tho experiment is sad confirmation of
what should have been realized at first.
/ do not hesitate to advise most emphat-
ically against all marriages with ine-
briates, or even moderate, or occasional
excessive users of spirits. The reasons
for this position may be grouped as fol-
lows:
l. A moderate and an occasional ex-
cessive user of spirits is like person
who has hacking cough and occasion.
al night sweats, or slight hemorrhage.
He may recover and never have con-
sumption, yet there can BE- no doubt
that he has strong tendency, aid is
threatened with consumption. There
is every reason to believe that some
time in the future he will die of this
disease. In the same way the moderate
user of spirits may never be any worse,
but there is strong tendency, and
stronger probability that in certain con-
ditions and surroundings THAT can not
be foreseen), he will become an inebri-
ate. All experience proves that the
persons who use spirits in so-called mod
GRAFTON, and do not become inebriates,
are so from accidental circumstances
and conditions, beyond any will power
to shape or determine The reason is
beyond their control or knowledge, and
they are the few exceptions that only
prove the rule. All such cases have
the early symptoms of a grave and fatal
disease, and no human foresight can de-
termine what the future will be. 1t is
certain that no marriage association,
no sentiments Of love or duty, can be de-
pended upon as 4 remedy.
2. Persons who have been or are per.
form or stop drinking at marriage. Such
persons are always defective, especially
in the higher brain centers. The high
est faculties of the brain. conscientious
ness, sense of duty, and right and
wrong, and moral obligations, are dulled
and more or less palsied. Alcohol of all
other drugs, attacks the highest and
last formed powers of the brain; break
ing down and dissolving from the very
pinnacle of life. This failure of the
higher brain powers is apparent when
the man is under the influence of spir-
it's but is covered up when sober, and
concealed, but exists just the same
The brute, when drunk, may seem like
an angel when sober, yet the brute
qualities are all there, and may come
out any time from the application of
the proper forces. The angel nature is
only the shadow of what he could or
should be, and every drink excess de-
velops The brute and destroys the angel.
The man who has been Intoxicated has
more or less permanently injured the
best powers of his brain, and his future
is unknown to himself, and can not be
deter mined by others. TO marry such
a man, and expect him to be cured by
this means, is as irrational as to hope
that broken bone or diseased lung can
be healed by this method. Confirmed
inebriates have married, and continued
temperate after, but there are no rea-
sons for supposing that marriage was
the cause or means of determining who,
and what conditions of life would end
in this way. While the inebriate NAV
never drink from the time of marriage,
he will always be weak, broken-down
man. His brain and nervous system
can never act along healthy ranges of
life.
g. There is no fact more certain than
that the weakness and disease of the
pare nts will go down to the next gen.
Grafton. The sin of bringing into the
world diseased and defective children is
almost objectionable. and the sin of
marrying an inebriate and having de-
scendants tainted, and switched off on
the side track of ruin and dissolution,
isliterally crime that can never be at
toned for. My advice is always, never
n AIRY an inebriate or moderate drinker
oil spirits. If the man is anxious to
show his strength, let him remain six
or eight years temperate before he is
encouraged to enter upon such a state.
Let him prove with all reasonable GER
taihty that he is restored and will not
again suffer from drink excess. Almost
excellent Temperance reformer. who
prays and works for the coming of a
better, purer age, cele brated with great
joy the marriage of his daughter to a
periodical inebriate whose history and
heredity showed that the race he sprang
from was nearly extinct. The man still
drinks. and three little children have
come into the world to swell the ranks
of defects and incapables, to add to the
sorrow the grandfather so earnestly
prays to have diminished.
The regulation of marriage between
inebriates and insane is of far more
practical value to the world than all the
legislation on divorces. If Temperance
people would exercise common sense
here, many dark freside would be