The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1894-04-13
THE mon. REAR AND SERPENT.

bear met him; or went into the house,
and leaned his hand on the wall, and
serpent bit him. to give his people a
lecture that has wider application.
We postpone two articles prepared for
this week, to make room for ia part OF
this sermon, in response to request
for its publication. After referring to
the evils suggested by the text, Mr.. Sew
erance makes the application upon the
subject of temperance, as follows:
l apprehend there are tier1er lions, and
grizzlier bears, lying in wait for us than
we are inclined to think. The subtlest
foe this nation has to deal with lies
coiled up, seemingly very innOcuous,
in the cup. Its fangs are always full of
poison, and when it strikes it always
hurts, 1t would seem that the subject
of intemperance has been harped upon
until everybody is tired of hearing more
about, or thinking more upon it. But
how can we lay it aside as long as it's
dark and hateful shadows hang porten-
tously over so many homes?
1t is not an evil shut up in the dark
continent of Africa, but it stalks forth
in open day in civilized America. 1t
seems as though it were here determined
to stay. 1t is no use to array our stat
istics any farther to convince men of its
nature and power. The whole world
knows that it is father to nine-tenths of
all the crimes that arr committed, either
directly or indirectly; that its path lies
through poverty and Indebtedness, such
as make life continual burden; that it
necessitates almshouses and asylums of
all kinds; that it taxes the people beyond
all seeming endurance to build prisons,
hold courts, and maintain law; that 1t
estranges human hearts and breaks up
families, and destroys all its kindred
ties.
The evils of intemperance have been
seen and set forth until we are all panied
at the sickenipg rehearsal. 1t does not
seem to be of much use to tell men that
the money paid for liquors in the tenn
perance State of Vermont would buy all
their bread-stuffs, support all her com
mon schools, pay all her clothiers' bills
and put money in her treasury. Such
pictures, like cheap chromos, have lost
their potency. They are solemn facts,
nevertheless. 1t may not he of much
use to say that there are from seventy
five to hundred places right in the
town of Bennington, where liquors are
dealt out to men in quantities sufficient
to make them drunk. 1t may be equally
futile to say that men are allowed to
stagger about the streets in open day in
state of intoxication without arrest
But such has been the oft repeated fact
within the past six months.
Simply to rehearse these facts does not
seem to cure the evil. 1t does not drive
men from drinking to tell them that the
drugs they are pouring into their sys-
TENS are all poisonous authorizations.
The chemical tinkering of the beverages
now used in this country is frightful.
One of the rankest poisons in Common
use is fusel oil. This element enters
largely into most of the adulterated
drinks sold at the bar. Nearly thirty
years ago, had run of typhoid fever.
My physician was drinking man, and
when / was able to return to my parish
in New Hampshire, weak and much
emaciated, he said | needed a tonic
which was very expensive, and that he
would send to the city and get itfor me-,
1t came, ali ounce bottle, marked fusel
oil, for which he charged me $500.
He gave me directions for it's use. one
or two drops in cup of milk after each
meal, saying that must keep the bottle
in the bottom of the cellar, buried in a
box of sand, and continue its use until
gone. 1t would be better for the world
if all the fusel oil it contained were
buried 5000 feet deep. The first dose
tingled like an electric shock all through
my system. 1t flew to the brain and
nearly dazed me. 1t caused burning
sensation in the stomach almost un-en-
durable, and was disagreeable to every
faculty of my perception. The next day
tried it again. 1t seemed to put the
L. - ~ -,
making it palatable. prepared it, held
it, dreaded it, and finally shut my eyes
and drank it. This was the last dose
ever tried to take. l called the physi-
clan of my parish and showed him the
tonic that had been given me in Yer
mont. He discontinued it at once; said
it was the rankest poison that could be
distilled from alcohol have no doubt
that had persevered with it, according
to the prescription given me, / should
have become a diunkard. Out of SO
samples of liquor taken at random from
the open bars of New York, 81 of these
contained fusel oil. Pure brandies ii
should be said, have not one trace of fu-
sci oil in them. Now what does this
poison do in the liquors manufactured
from it? When small quantity of drink
produces headache and dizziness, it is
due to the fusel oil that has entered in
to the mixture. 1t will make a man
drunk quickest of all the elements that
enter into modern intoxicants.
1t is so powerful an agent that when
mixed with alum, sub-carbonate of
potash, burnt sugar, elderberry, gypsum,
spirits of cognac, Cayenne pepper, juni-
per berries, cOriander seeds, prusie as
cid, mustard, ANGELICA root, and tanic
acid, it never fails to do its work. II
will make men act as beastly and bad as
they know how to act. If intemperance
could be INDUCED in secretly, it would
not relieve the case from its criminality.
People do try to hide their practice of
drinking. But it will tell its own story
all too soon for their reputation and com.
fort. A New York correspondent re.
Gently published IN his weekly letter to
a religious journal, that intemperance
was not by any means confined to the
men in that city. The wives and daugh-
tiers of the 'best families" are as much
the slaves of appetite as their fathers
and brothers. He adds, that the habit
once begun grows much faster on
women than on men, and more certain
to stay. They can hide the red blotches
at first, but soon they get beyond the
enameler's art, and the secret is out,
when they go down fast to the pit So.
cial life has its perils. and fear it is not
altogether confined to the large cities.
| Shall we fold our hands and do nothing
l Il l. II. "a