Mississippi leader., 1894-06-19


saloon come the new
HELEN NJ ooo'Ah recruits from the oc-
casional drinkers, the social circle glass,
those poisoned from the mothers medi-
cine chest or by the physicians hands,
men and women strong in the faith Of
their superior will power ''to drink or
let it alone" These fill up the ranks
made vacant by those who have fallen
victims to this slow but sure and insid-
disease with the Americans, and being
disease Of the nerves it is, with deadly
effect, transmitted from one generation
to the next. It must be checked, or it
will degenerate the whole race physic-
ally.
A more serious Indictment is that its
victims while under the spell are irre-
sponsible agents, as much so as madmen
who are incarcerated for the safety Of
society in asylums for the insane. A
large majority of the crimes committed
in this crime ridden generation are at
| the hands of men suffering with alco-
holic insanity. In the press of today as
| write / find this item:
HE DESERVES LYNCHINo.
CELMA, Tenn, March 9.-This hamlet has
been shocked by horrible tragedy. George
A. Smith, a farmer As years old, went home
drunk on Wednesday night, killed his infant
child and brutally pounded his wife, whose
throat he afterward cut Leaving the bleeding
victims, he went to the house of his sister-in-
law, whom he found in bed sick. Grasping
her by the hair, he pulled her out and beather
but she escaped and alarmed the neighbors.
Smith is being pursued by enraged neighbors.
who will lynch him.
This man Smith, when under the in
f1uence of this brain poison, is no more
responsible for his acts than any other
maniac. Yet men, these Outraged
neighbors, will add another to the hor-
rible list of mobs that have become a
national disgrace within the past dec
ade, while the helpless women and child
spoken of in this paragraph, beaten and
murdered, join the vast army of such
victims reported daily as sufferers in
the same manner. There is this differ
ence between insanity from alcoholism
and that from other causes-men drunk
are insane from choice of action, while
other maniacs are SO from no known
cause or choice of conduct.
Those who have visited the ruins Of
Pompeii will remember the man caught
in the ashes of Vesuvius, when "dead
drunk" as he lies in the glass case
sleeping as peacefully as babe, all un-
aware of his pending doom, too drunk
to use the. sense of self preservation as
did the dog, the Roman slave and the
mother who lie in cases near him. These
bespeak the possession of sense, in their
struggle for life, so terrible as to cause
their lava incrusted bodies to tell the
awful agony through which they pass
ed until tears of sympathy start as we
behold their bodies after all these CEN
turies have gone by. Observation and
human experience teach that from the
day the man of Pompeii became drunk
to the day Of Mr.. Smiths crime alco-
hol is brain poison, the sale and use
of which should be carefully guarded
by we'll executed laws, in the name of
public health and the general welfare
of people.
The dangerous increase of disease
from the widespread use of liquor can
best be appreciated when we remember
that 80 years ago we consumed only
four gallons per capita of this poison
where now we are consuming about 10
gallons per capita
1t is plain from this that, unless the
Americans become speedily alarmed by
this condition of things, few genera
tions hence and we shall not possess
physical, mental or moral power suffi-
cient to cope with this insidious enemy.
An additional danger is upon u.s. The
temptations to make money and the de-
mands of the government to derive rev.
enue from this traffic are so great that
the vilest decoctions are being COM
pounded and poured down the throats
of drinkers to make sure that the rev.
enue to dealers may cover all costs.
This revenue getting acts as AN anses-
thetic upon public conscience. which
sleeps while this powerful enemy
marches ON toward national dishonor
and destruction.
shall take no space to touch upon
the industrial phase of this traffic more
than to say that in this year of unprece-
dented ''hard times" public souphouses
and charity bread distributions, when
million homes are in distress and 8, 000,-
900 of would be workers are enforced
idlers, if the over 81, 200, 600, 600 ex-
pended last year by our people for in
toxicating liquors had been expended in
the legitimate avenues of home build
ing and home furnishing none would
necessarily be fed or clothed by the hand
of charity, Notwithstanding the money
policy of Grover Cleveland and John
Sherman has closed the avenues Of trade
for six months or more, while Wall
street bleeds the wage earners and agri-
culturalists by its neat little game, made
possible only because the masses are
drunk with rum and party.
II is not necessary to multiply the tns'