The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-31
FOR SUNDAY CLOSING.
RumselIers. Brewers and Church
People Working Together.
FAIR SHUT, SALOONS WIDE OPEN.
Poison in the Cocktasf-Physfcians DIS
agree as to the Effect OF Alcohoi
on the Human System.

the most interesting assemciages among
quaint and unhackneyed surroundings
that visitor 10 the city or even veteran
New Yorker can see anywhere near the
metropolis in midsummer. IS to be iounu
in Prohibition Park, on Staten Island
The great question which has been agItat-
ing many thousand minds during -the
''silIy season." in whose midst We sun
ind ourselves, is whether the Columbian
| Exposition at Chicago should be closed
on Sunday. Two powerful forces
are being exerted from New York and IT'S
vicinity for closure. Prohibition Park, IN
which many notable Americans gather
every summer TO speak and hear speeches
in favor of total abstinence from all alco-
holic liquors. is now the seat OF much
prayerful endeavor to influence the man
ayers of the fair, as the Prohibitlonlsts
think, to cooperate with them against
the Worlds Fair Orgy" as Sunday open
ing is somewhat dippantly referred TO, oy
shutting up the exposition on the one DAY
upon which our Prohibition friends seem
TO think the free and independent Amerl-
can citizen delights in getting drunk and
enjoying himself. General Weaver, the
Peoples party candidate fo- the presi-
dency; ex-senator John J. Ingalls and Sem
ator Roger q. Mills, together with some OF
the most famous physicians of this city,
are among the notable people whose
philippics against the curse of rum have
walked and are still waking the echoes OF
Prohibition Park The influence which
New Workers of wealth and prominence
are now exerting most powerfully in favor
OF the closing of the fair on Sunday may
turn out to be inspired by the great brew
ing industries of this city. No organiza-
tion is more complete and united and
fruitful in resources than that which is
called the liquor interest" None Is
more tactful and far-seeing in its methods.
II. as some Prohibitionists hear with vast
astonishment, the organized distillers and
brewers are their most powerful allies in
the movement TO shut up the fair on Sun
day. and SO drive visitors to the dives and
drinking resorts OF Chicago for amusement,
no one need be surprised. But the LIQUOR
dealers do not hunt their quarry with
brass band.
At notable little social gathering not
long since in Arden Inn, on the south
shore of Staten Island, a quaint and beau
tiful resort, whose walls, four feet in thick
ness and apparently built of indestructible
stone, show the embrasures from which
Dutch cannon frowned out 200 years ago
over the quiet waters of Princes bay,
some famous medical men of New York
were present. 1t is difficult for writer to
assure himself whether prominent doctors
are more enraged or delighted by men,
ton in print of their names and doings,
so / will omit the names of those
who lent professional celebrity to this par
ticular occasion. But some things were
said there we'll calculated to shock the
man about town, the moderate drinker
and the devotee of cocktails anywhere in
this broad land. 1t seems that at med
ical congress, held in this very Prohibit
ton Park, curiously enough. under the
auspices of DR.. Orlando B. Douglas, pres
ident of the Medical Society OF the
County OF New York: Dr. L. d.
Mason. consulting physician to the
Fort Hamilton Asylum for Inebriates.
and other well-known professional
men here, the question as to whether alco-
hol Is a food or poison was discussed in a
way decidedly calculated TO stimulate the
curiosity of the laymen. Some OF the pa-
pers read were upon these topics: How
to Deal With the Drunkard;" I'm What
Way May Physician Effectively Help 10
Stay the Rayages of Intemperance;" as
Alcohol Poison" and should Alcoholic
T.
the Direction of Medical Adviser"
Even in the silly season" the spectacle ofa
plain American citizen Juggling his family
physician around town with him and buy-
ing prescription for from 81 TO IS every
time he wanted TO buy glass of beer or a
cocktail Is well calculate d TO promote the
gayety OF nations. Bat your teetotaler is
deadly serious: he never seems TO see a
joke! There was very little in the news
papers here or elsewhere about the doings
and sayings of this medical congress. II
Is question whether scores of thousands
OF persons technically described as mod
crate drinkers would not have been
drawn down to Prohibition Park 10
drink in these medical discourses with
wonder and alarm If half the things
said at the supper table at Arden Inn
about the proceedings were founded in
fact. According 70 some of these eminent
speakers seven out of every ten men NE
pass on Broadway are as deliberately poi
sonIng themselves with the deadly cock
tail and the insidious gin fig as if they
ate arsenic and drank strychnine. And
the joke OF 1t all was that the eminent
medical men who participated in the SYM
postum were a. the time nearly without
exception imoibing some alcoholic stimU-
liant or another in some pleasing midsum-
mer form.
DR.. William II. Porter, who is professor
of clinical medicine and pathology in the
New York Post Graduate school and
hospital. said in his paper:
Zach additional dose or notion NJ
alcohol introduced into the body leaves
the animal economy more poorly nour.
lshed and more quickly and positively
depressed Just 50 soon as the ey.
hllarating effects of the alcohol have Dassa3
away. With each succeeding draugbt
and Its consequent depression the de-
mands OF the system for renewed stimuIa.
ton are more and more urgent, until the
nnal picture OF the insane drunkar,i is n~a
scented TO US. All the vital powers of the
body are positively deterioratiDp untiI
both the physical and mental COURAGE ia
reduced 10 SO low an ebb that all chance ~
restoration and recovery are nearly de-
stroyed"
DR.: Porter mercifully, however. took the
posltlon that alcohol Is not poison per
Sc, but should be classed as a medicine
lie even went so lar as TO say that he
thought 1t could be used with great All
vantage where the mental and physical
powers had been much oyertaxed i'm Gases
OF extreme exhaustion, so mighty are r.
powers of alcohol to call into action ~
reserve forces OF the system. In msnT.
cases physicians have by the use of alcohol
saved lives which must without It's ma
have been sacrificed; but it should he -
garded as dangerous medicinal aysn+
and ne admitted under no circunsta3cas
10 the common list Of food stpffs for da;{,-
consumption Alchoi, said he. shouli
never De introduced into the system excent
In connection with disease processes r.
retFogade conditions. Here. however l. -
cramo OF comfort for the aged man aho,,,
town. Inc jQulcIOuS use of alcohol 49,