Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-09-02
A DRUNKARD,S VIEWS.

hol is the most remarkable drug in the world.
Probably all others produce their immedi-
ate and specific effects upon the persons
that use them. The case is entirely differ
ent with alcohol. You may have noticed,
for example, that when the men of house
hold take too much whiskey, it is the
womenfolk and not the men that get drunk
and act in a furious and insane way.
When write certain book, the compost
ton of which 1 have long contemplated, 1
shall devote a chapter to 'vicsrious inebri-
ations, in which the subject will be con-
sidered in all its aspects and bearings, and
in the most exhaustive manner"
"Good hesvensi Another treatise on al
coholl thought the subject had been run
into the ground long ago."
"Ierhaps SO" said the man. "yet still 1t
is susceptible of new treatment. When
Gargantus WAS upbraided for drinking too
much, and was warned that medical men
were universally of the opinion that eIces-
sive lush was productive of early death, he
replied, as you may remember, May the
devil fly away with my soul If there are not
more old drunksrds than there are old doc
| tors The valuable truth contained in this
| observation has never, to my knowledge,
| received the philosophic attention 1t de-
| serves. 1t has never been elaborated, and
| therefore it is hardly correct to say that
the subject of alcohol has been run into
the ground long ago. And. besides. ab-
| solutely no one has as Yet dealt with yics-
rious iuebristion. That task has been re-
| served for me and If / ever write my book, i
shall perform it to the best of my ability,
| which Is only another way of saying that
the work will be done for all time. The
| chapter will be such as to admit neither of
elaboration nor copfutation. The subject
| will be closed forever"
THAT eounds we'll 1t is enough like
Tom Paine to have been written by Inger-
soil. May 1 ask what is your general
| schemef"
"You may" said the man, "and as soon
Try littlei"
"No, thank you. never drink"
| excellent youth" said the man. "Ad-
mirable subject for experiment. Here's all
the h4ir off your head, Badly! And now
to proceed. The main proposition is that
when one man drinks other people get
drunk, while the man himself remains So
ber, and even becomes soberer than he was
before. The more he drinks the drurker
| they get, Just as the more one end of the
balance goes down the more the other end
goes up. For thousands of years the whole
world drank, and consequently sobriety
was extreme and universal. Think once of
the peace and quiet that reigned during
the days of the patriarchs. Recall the
resignation and even joy with which the
early Christians went to the stake aud the
lions, aud were turned into torches, and
so spread the light through Nero's gardens
and and much of the pagan world. I'm.
agine to yourself the scholastic elevation of
| ha nd he nj nj az 0f ha
fifteenth century. Ny mouth waters
when think of it Have a snifteri"
81 tell you that never drink"
81 look abroad" continued the man,
"and sdown the vista of the past, and /
behold a world of universal drinking, and
its natural outcome, or rather its natural
concommitsnt, universal contentment.
The king lay in his lordly palace and
snoozed, while his guards-knowing that
their guardianship was merely a matter of
form-lay snoozing at his gates. The noble
snoczed beside his lemsu dear. and the
swineherd beside his plump, sleek po<ker,
amid the tender mast of the umbrsg-ous
forest. FIiar Tuck and Ricbaid of the
Lion Heart drank great bumpers together
in merry Sherwood, and were as brothers,
fer the drink places master and man on
the same level. 1t is, in fact, the great
leveler, and knows no distinction of rank
or fortune; it outFourriers Fourier and
out Lssslles Lasaile. Men pretend to want
liberty, equality, fraternity! Why don't
they seek 1t where alone it is to be found
take q todf'
go to the devill Haven't told you a
dozen times THAI I never drinkF'
"You are uneivil, my friend" said the
man. "Your temper is rising. You are
losing your head Ciyiliry and civilization
go hand in hand. Here's to you in a bet
ter frame of mind"
"Ohl dry up Look againln
"And tell thee, thou insensate churl,
, what tits / sect will indeed do So though
it rack me, thou lop-eared loon, an thou
keepest civil tongue between thy jowls.
While all was thus peace and well being q
reaction began to set in against the drink.
There arose naughty men, filed with rage
and fury; vain babblers who would not Of
the wine and so became well stricken in
r water, envying the peaceful lot of them
that looked upon the wine when 1t was red
and looked often and looked hard. These
furious men cut themselves off from hu-
manity, and the inevitable result followed.
: The drinking of the rest of mankind made
, these insensates drunk, very drunk, 60 that
they murmured and grew red and angry of
:, visage. Just look at the noses of some of
> the later OF the earlier reformers-of VIII
berforce or of Clarksoni Why, they were
as dubious as Oliver Cromwell's or that of
the Holy Abbott of Msrmoustier or Martin
4 Luther. Wilt take a brace, thou dull
Drained clod, which the rude swain turns
with his share and tresds upon.
"What in thunder ails youi You don't
o talk like your usual came SELF"
q "Thst's it. Now get mad" said the
I man. 81 knew you would fly out of your
head and get drunk as soon as had taken
four or Eve drinks. You're like woman
r more like a woman than mos any man ]
ever saw. If drink, you get mad, and
. what saith the proverb but that madness
= Is short drunkf'
ct thought it was that anger lie a short
lived Madness"
; "Zall the same thing-this quibblin,
. and contrariness of yours don't like. /
. Is one of the surest signs known to tn
pharmseopea that somebody else ha
been drinking too much. 'Tslways crop
Is out sooner or later. But to return to on
g vistas.
'It is to the rise of teetotalism that w
Is must trace nearly all of the evils of on
4. present civilization, because for sever,
Il, reasons. First, because 1t was an evil /
ut itself, and secondly, because 1t brougt