Blue-grass blade., 1891-12-12
THE RUIN OF RUM.
Facts Which Should lie Weighed /
DRINKING Nen.

Drinking Men.
During the year 1850, the people Of
the United States consumed so, 900, 900
gallons of distilled spirits, 10000, 900
gallons of wines an / 800. 900, 900 gallons
OF malt liquors, making total of 40,
300, 900 of alcohol. beverages. This
cost the consumer ), at the very lowest
estimate, $50 COG 900, or about S13 per
capita for the total population of the
country, men, women and children. In
estimating the nations drink bill
however. we must add to this enor-
nous total the time lost from work. and
that lost because of sickness and crimes
due to drinking.
1t is estimated by DIR. N. s. Davis, of
Chicago, that this cost at least as much
more, hence .he total drink bill of the
nation for the year 1890, ran up to the
enormous total of sl,6OO,O 900.
1t must I. remembered, too, that the
consumers of liquor got absolutely
nothing OF Talue to themselves for this
enormous expenditure of money. Rum
does not aid to a mans health, nor to
his strength. 1t answers no purpose
OF clothing, nor of fool. In negative
results. look at the wasted fortunes,
ruined lives and homes. Men who do
not indulge in drink can do better
work, and can work more steadily, than
those who indulge. Why then does
anyone drink?
A large number of people begin
drinking, at least, because of erroneous
ideas as to the nature of alcoholic bev-
erages and their effects upon the
human body Before chemistry an
alyzed rum, IL was supposed to be
stimulating, warming, soothing and
restorative. All these. in the clear
light of science, are now seen to be fall
lacies. Yet the belief is strongly
rooted in the minds of thousands that
indulge in liquors for this purpose; es-
peeially faIlacious is the idea that any
alcoholic beverage contains nutriment
in any marked degree. A fve-pound
loaf of bread contains as much actual
food as man would obtain in a year
If he drank from eight to ten quarts of
beer daily. At that rate of drinking,
by the end of the year a man would
have swallowed barrel of alcohol.
Beer contains about four per cent. of
alcohol, wines about fifteen per cent
ami distilled liquors from fifty to sixty
per cent The question then presents
itself: What is the effect of this al
cohol upon the physical SYSTEM"
The answer of science is that alcohol
Is poison, pure and simple. A slow
poison, if you will, but one whose eff
fects are directly proportioned to the
amount taken, and to the rap idity with
which it is imbibed. Because it does
not kill instantly, men think that there
Is no foundation for its classiica-
ton as poison. Its effects.
when steadily taken, are detrimental
to all the great bodily organs. 1t
causes permanent structural changes
in the liver, the kidneys, the stomach,
the blood-vessels and in the nervous
tissue. In the liver and kidneys it pro-
duces two incurable diseases-cirrhosis
and Bright's disease. 1t Injuries the
brain by hardening it, and consequent
ly Injuries the mental powers of those
who imbibe it, and it is the testimony
of the highest medical authorities that
the habitual use of alcoholic drinks
lessons the natural duration of life
from ten to fifteen years. That is to
say, a man who would, did he remain
temperate, live to be seventy years old.
will, as moderate drinker, die some
where between fifty-ive and sixty
years Old.
Besides its effect upon the brain, al
cohol has very de lcterious power
over the mines and morals of the vic
Tins. Prof. Axel Gustafson declares
that alcohol holds preeminent place
as a blood poison, and that suicide, in
sanity. idio,y and various kinds OF
mora mania are directly traceable to
its influence on the brain. More than
this, the habit of moderate drinking
greatly increases the danger to any pa
tient who may be attacked by disease.
This is because alcohol reduces the vi
tally of the system and its power of
resistance.
These are facts which should be
brought home to every man, and
United States. Every mother should
know them, and teach them To her
children. Every father should not
only be able 10 warn his SONS of these
evils, but shoIld set them a personal
eXa mple of abstinence. The crying
lie cd of the times is for the disSemina-
ton OF just lch scientific knowledge
among the masses of the people.
There is no ol;ties in it. IL is simply
ma king known the facts which science
declares to ~ true. The temperance
reform, to lie permanent, must begin
with the inii -idual Toledo Blade