Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1891-04-20
1.-THE WHOLE WORLD DRUNK" !"

Count TOIstoi's Remarkable Semsa-
tiOnal Article In n Late Review.
To what extent can smoking stine the
voice of conscience? questions Count
Tolstoi IN the Contemporary Recie1C.
We have no need to seek for the ma
terials for a solution of this question in
exceptional cases of crime and remorse;
it is amply sufficient to observe the be-
havior of the ordinary-one might al
most say of any-smoker. Every smoker,
abandoning himself to his passion,
loses sight of, or rides roughshod over,
certain of the most elementary rules of
social life, the observance of which he
demands from others, and which he him
self respects in all other cases, whenever
his conscience is not completely silenced
by tobacco.
But not only is the smoker nuisance
to his neighbors; he also damages his
own spiritual and mental capacity. For
the more man stupefies himself with
these stimulants and narcotics, the more
stolid, quiescent, and stagnant he be-
comes intellectually and morally. 1t
follows, therefore, that by far the greatest
part Of all that is done in this world Of
ours, both by those whose profession it
is to guide and teach others and by those
who are thus guided and taught, is done
in state of ebriety.
Is it conceivable that people not drunk
should calmly set about doing all the ex-
traordinary things that are being ac-
complished in our world, from the Eiffel
Tower to obligatory military service? 1t
is utterly inconceivable.
None but drunken men--men who
never have lucid interval of sobriety
could do these things, could live ON in
spite of this perpetual, irreconcilable,
terrible conflict between life and con-
science, in which not only in this matter,
but in all other respects, the people of our
world live and have their being.
At no other period of the worlds his
tory, feel convinced, did mankind lead
an existence in which the dictates of con-
science and their deliberate actions were
in such evident conflict as at present.
1t seems as if the human race in our
days had got fastened to something that
is holding it back, impeding its prog
ress. There would seem to be some
64OeEudI cause WHICH Dl0ueTS IL
from attaining the position that belongs
to it of right, in virtue of consciousness.
The cause in question-or, if there be
several, the main cause-is the physical
state of stupefaction to which the over
whelming majority of human beings re-
duce themselves by means of alcohol and
tobacco
The deliverance of humanity from this
terrible evil will mark an epoch in the
life of the race, and apparently, this
epoch will arrive in the near future. The
evil is already recognized. a change in
the consciousness of men in reference to
the use of brain poisoning stimulants
and narcotics has already taken place;
people are beginning to realize the terri
BILE mischief they produce, and they are
manifesting this feeling in acts; and this
impercepible change in their conscious
ness must inevitably bring in its train the
emancipation of humanity from the in
fuence of all such brain poisons. This
emancipation of mankind from the thral-
dom Of brain poisons viii open their eyes
TO the demands of their consciousness,
and they will forthwith begin to put their
life in harmony with its dictates.