The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-03-02
THE MODERATE pRlNxER.
He Is More Harmful Than tho Hshitusl
Drunkard.

''Oh, ! only take a glass now and
then with a friend, or when | don't
feel quito well. l defy any man to say
he ever saw me drunk"
And so we say to you, misguided
man, that for this very reason, because
you drink but are never drunk, that
you are the bane of society. You, and
not the drunkard.
There is no greater snare to the
young man just beginning life than
the companionship of the moderate
drinker.
He had better thousand times have
for his friend the man who lies half
the time dead drunk in the gutter.
For your moderate driDSer Us very
often man of good morals, ~ The
world goes, and he talks loftily OF
schemes for raising mankind and puri
flying society. He always puts some
thing in the missionary and he
goes to church, and helps to pay the
minister, and he makes speeches at
Fourth of July celebrations and Sab
bath-school picnics, and altogether is
considered very good citizen, while
his neighbor who began with lust
one glass, but had not the will-power
to stop there, and went to the depths
of drunkenness and despair, is despised
by all, and hooted and scoffed at as he
staggers along the streets.
But Mr.. Smith, the moderate drink
er, knows where to stop, and so retains
the respect of his acquaintance. And
when the young man at the beginning
of his career of ruin is demonstrated
with by his friends he looks surprised,
and refers to Mr. Smith.
"Why, look at Mr.. Smith. He has
always taken glass when he felt like
it, and am sure there is no man stands
any higher than Mr.. Smith"
Young friends, such of you as are
taking a pattern by Mr.. Smith, pause
moment and consider. How do you
know that, like him, you can stop be-
fore you leave the ground of safety?
How do you know that your will is
strong enough to keep you back from
the brink OF the precipice toward which
you are advancing?
Every one has not an appetite which,
when once aroused, can be controlled
by the will. Nine-tenths of the men
who begin by taking lust one glass"
end by becoming drunkards. How do
you know that you are the lucky tenth
man?
Again, we repeat, moderate drinkers
are the bane of society, because their
example is one full of insidious fasei-
nation, and the danger is never seen or
realized until it is too late. No man
was ever influenced to drink by the
sight of one of his fellows lying beastly
drunk by the roadside.
Beastly, did we say? We beg to cor
rect ourselves. Beastly is not the word,
for beasts never degrade themselves to
the level of men in this respect
A brute beast is a creature to be
honored beside the poor wretch who
prostitutes his manhood, sinks his NOR
al responsibility and falls to the degra-
dation of sot
Think you that any young man who
sees the bloated, disgusting wreck of
humanity, which we cali the drunkard.
passing along to the lookup in the
hands of the police, desires to become
like him? Is it any temptation to him
to go and do likewise? Does the sight
make him anxious to become drunk
ard? Never!
He shudders. with disgust, and hur.
ries by.
No, the drunkard never tempts any
man to become like him; he never en-.
tees the young man of socalled good
habits to drink. 1t is your gentleman
ly, perfumed, refined, respectable, mod.
crate drinker who wears glossy linen
aud broadcloth, and passes for wor-
thy member of society.
Society! forsootb Out upon such
society!
Men and women of to-day, we who
would do good to your fellow-men,
who would strengthen the weak and
lift up the fallen, cast out from your
friendship and your homes this mod
crate drinker. Place him under ban.
Let the light of truth shine upon him
and show him in his true colors, which,
beautiful though they may be- are
beautiful only with the baleful glitter
of serpent's skin.
And when you pass the miserable
drunkard as he lies helpless beneath
the fiend of rum-when you draw your
virtuous robes around you with a shiver
of disgust, and pass by on the other
side, remember that, loathsome and re-
pulsive though he may be, his example
is thousand times less baDeful than
that of the respectable moderate drink
err whom you receive into your houses,
and feast at your tables, and accept as
companion and friend for your fami
Lies Kate Thorn, in n. Y. Weekly