The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-12-04

ALCOHOL ARRAlGNED.



Facts Which Should BE Weighed by
Drinking Men.
During the year 1890, the people of
the United States consumed $4,000, 600
gallons of distilled spirits, 10000, 600
gallons of wines and 300, 900. 900 gallons
of malt liquors, making total of 420, =
900, 900 of alcoholic beverages. This
cost the consumers, at the very lowest
estimate, $500 900, 900, or about $13 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 the total drink bill of the
nation for the year 1890, ran up to the
enormous total of $1,000, 900.
1t must be remembered, too, that the
consumers of liquor got absolutely
nothing of value to themselves for this
enormous expenditure of money. Rum
does not add to mans health, nor to
his strength. 1t answers no purpose
of clothing, nor of food. 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, it 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-
peciallv falacious is the idea that any
alcoholic beverage contains nutriment
in any marked degree. A five-pound
loaf of bread contains as much actual
food as a 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,
and 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 win, but one whose eff
fects are directly proportional 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 it's classified
ton as a 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-vcssels and in the nervous
tissue. In the liver and kidneys it pro-
duces two incurable Observation-Disclosures
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 Illc NATURAL uuFdllOH OK lie
from ten to fifteen years. That is to
say, man who would, did he remain
temperate, live to be seventy years old,
will, as a moderate drinllor, die some
where between ffty-fve and sixty
years old.
Besides it's effect upon the brain, al
cohol has very de leterious power
over the minds and morals of the vic
tins. Prof. Axel Gustafson declares
that alcohol holds prominent place
as blood poison, and that suicide, in
sanity, idiocy and various kinds of
moral 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
especially to every young man, in the
United States. Every mother should
know them, and teach them to her
children. Every father should not
only be able to warn his sons of these
evils, but should set them a personal
example of abstinence. The crying
ne ed of the times is for the dissemina-
ton of just such scientific knowledge
among the masses of the people.
There is no politics in it. II is simply
making known the facts which science