The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-03-17

special tax on the succession to all
estates over fifty thousand dollars.
Property must become more and more.
a personal, and less and less an heredi-
-tary,j right. Aprogressive inheritance
tax is necessary to insure such a dis
tribution of wealth as will prevent the
building up of an intrenched aristoc-
racy. This would do for the next cen
fury what the founders of the Consti-
tuition did for ours, in abolishing
primogeniture and entail. And this
is the certain trend of economic devel-
opment.-ReU,+. g. II. Dryer, d. D., an
N. Y. Methodist ReUieU, for February.
THE ETHICS OF WINE-DRINKING AND To-
BACCO-SMOKING.
People explain their use of stimulants
and narcotics, such sfjbrandy, wine,
beer, tobacco, hashish, opium, NOR
phia, ether, etc, by saying: 1T is
pleasant; every ,oae drinks; it keeps up
the Spirits or, "To drive away mel
ancholy the habit is universal; every
body smokes, y etc. But it must be very
evident that the man who, placed by
circumstances, of his own acts, in a
position that forces him to choose be-
tween the infiction of hardship and
misery upon the family that is dear to
him on the one hand, and abstinence
from Supplying stimulants and mar
cotics on the other, chooses the former
alternative, is impelled to the choice
by something far more potent than the
desire to keep up his spirits, or the
speculative consideration that every
one else does the same. "
The real reason for the extensive use
of these stimulants and narcotics is,
that they stupefy and deaden the con-
science, and conceal from ones self it's
records. ,
A sober man scruples to do that
which drunken man will execute
without hesitation. People employ
stimulants and narcotics, either for the
purpose of sitting remorse, after hav-
ing performed an action disapproved
of by their conscience, or else in order
to induce a state of mind in which they
shall be capable of doing something
contrary to the dictates Of their con
science, and to which the animal nature
of man is impelling him.
A sober man has conscientious
scruples about visiting lewd women,
stealing, or committing murder. A
drunken man, on the contrary, is
troubled with no such scruples. Hence
it is that if a person wishes to do some
thing which his conscience forbids, he
first stupefies his faculties. The cour-
age inspired by drink is responsible for
nine-tenths of the total number of
crimes that stain humanity.
Of all the women who fall, fully me
half yield to the temptation under the
influence of alcohol. Nearly all the
visits ofyoung men to disOrderly houses
take place when the faculties have
been blunted by intoxicating liquor.
It is we'll known that alcohol deadens
the voice of conscience, and people de-
liberately make use of it for this pur-
pose, not only upon themselves, but
upon others. Brigands, robbers, pros
titutes, cannot dispense with alcohol.
Every one knows and acknowledges
that indulgence in these things is a
consequence of remOrs of conscience;
that in certain immoral avOcations
stimulants are used to stihe the con-
science; that a drunken man is capable
of accomplishing acts, from the mere
contemplation of which, in his sober
moments, he would have shrunk in
horror. About this there is no conflict
of opinion. 1t is admitted on all hands
W4Ul1OuU COC NO. Leu, Y CN11SO ~ say :
when these Supplying stimulants are
INDUCED in, not in consequence of re-
morse for vice or crime, but by persons
who follow professions which we do
not regard as immoral, and are taken
not all at once, in large quantities, but
continually, in moderate doses, it is
taken for granted-nO man can say
why-that these Supplying stimulants
have no effect upon conscience, and
certainly do not sti1e or even deaden
it's voice. People who indulge moder-
ately in drinking alcohol and smoking
tobacco, fatter themselves that they
take these things, not at all to silence
conscience, but solely to please their
taste and obtain pleasure.
But if you give the matter a little
serious, unprejudiced consideration
without attempting to cover and excuse
ones own actiOn-it is impossible not
to see that the habit of indulging in in
6xicating stimulants, in large OF small
quantities, periodically or continuously,
in the higher or lower circles, is always
induced by the same cause, namely,
the need of muf1ing the voice of con
science, in order not to be compelled to
take notice of the Earring discord be-
tween actual life and the acquisitions
of conscience. 81 Z
Therein lies the cause of the univer-
salty of. the habit of indulging in brain
poisoning stimulants, among others in
tobacco, which is probably the most
widespread and baneful of all.
1t is claimed for tobacco, that it
gladdens the heart of the smoker, clears
up his thoughts, attracts and gratifes
him, but that under no circumstances
has it the effect possessed by alcohol,
of para1yzing the activity of the con-
science. But careful analysis only is
needed of the conditions under which
the craving for tobacco manifests itself
most strongly, to acquire the convic-
ton that brain-clouding by means of
tohaccn- fumes ike hrainclondinp hv