The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1891-04-25
ALCOHOL AND MURDER.
Tolstoi Gives the Effect of Drink in Dead.
eninG the Human Conscience.

Tolstoi Gives the Effect of Drink in Dead
enins the Human Conscience.
\ sober man scruples 10 do that which
drunken man will execute without
hesitation. These words embody the
essential motive that induces people to
have recourse 10 stupeivlng drugs and
drinks. People employ them either for
the purpose of sitting remorse, after
having performed an action dlSapproved
by their conscience, or else IN order to
induce Il 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.
sober man has conscientious
scruples TO visit lewd women, to steal,
10 commit murder. A drunken man.
on the contrary, is troubled with no
such scruples Hence il is that if
/ person wishes TO do something which
bis conscience forbids him to do, he
, first stupeiies his faculties.
/ | recOlleCt being struck by the
! statement made by man cook on his
7 trial for the murder of the old lady
relative of mine-in whose service he
/ had been living. From the account he
gave of the crime and the manner in
/ which 1t Was perpetrated, II appears
. that when he had sent his paramour,
! the maid servant. out of the house and
/ the time had come for him TO do the
+ deed. ne seized Il knife and repaired to
! the bedroom where his intended victim
was, but as he drew near he felt that
/ IN his sober senses he could not possibly
/ perpctrate such Il crime. A sober
man has conscientious scrup!es." He
turned back, gulped down two tumbers
I of brandy that he had provided be-
fore, felt that he was ready 10 do the
/ deed, and did it,
Nine tenthS of the total number of
+ crimes that stain humanity are
committed i'll the same way: First
/ take Il drink to give Won courage
! OF ali the women who fall fully one
! half WELD to the temptation under the
/ influence of alcohol. Nearly all the
visits made 10y young men to disorderly
! houses take place when the faculties
/ have been bluntcd and dulcd bv
/ intoxicating liquor. People are we'll
acquainted with this property of alcohol
( To deaden the voice of conscience. and
they deliberately make use of II for
/ tins very purpose.
Nor is this all Not only do people
cloud their own faculties in order to
! stliie the voice OF conscience, but,
! knowing what the effect of alcohol is,
whenever they wish TO make other
/ people perform an act that ls contrary
to the dictates of their conscience they
/ purposely stupeiy them i'll ORDER
to render them temporarily deaf
j 10 Its circumstances. IN war,
! soldiers are always made drunk
/ when they are about TO be sent into
close handto-hand combat. During
the storming of Sebastopol all the
French soldiers were completely in
toNicatcd After the storming of
! fortress III the Central Asian war, when
the Russian soldiers showed no inclina
ton to plumber and kill the defenscless
, old men and children of the place,
>koucleh ordered them to be duly
piled with brandy till they were drunk
! Then they rushed ont TO accomplish the
/ CHASTITY work. IoiSfoi IN The CoHcDpo-
/ i0ru Rcrit,r