The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-12-13
FIGURES THAT TALK.
Proving That Alcohol Is the Greatest De
stroyer in the World.

Proving That Alcohol Is the Greatest De
stroyer in the World.
In spite of the persistent efforts o.
too many of our fin de steele fnanciers
it remains Il fixed and stubborn fact
that figures do not lie. When, there
fore, all men come to know that the
death-rate of those engaged in the
liquor traffic is twenty-eight in one
thousand-far greater that in any
other calling-there can be no doubt
that alcohol will take its place as the
greatest destroyer that has appeared
upon earth since that solitary occasion
when the windows of heaven were
opened and all men outside of the ark
of safety were swept to their doom by
the waters of the flood.
The next vocation in order of fatal
ity is that of mining-twenty in one
thousand an occupation so hazardous
that Another Mining Horror" is one
of the most frequent paragraph head
ings in the daily newspapers. Mother
Earth, indeed, only too often proves
herself veritable stepmother, but all
the death-rolls from her various mines,
supplemented by list of all the vic
tins of earthquakes, are, when COM
pared with a number of those done to
death by alcohol since its first intro
duction, as Saul's slaughtered thou
sands to David's tens of thousands.
Should the deep give up her dead to-
morrow, it would be found that great
as is the peril Of those who go down to
the sea in ships, greater is that of those
who have to do with strong drink in
any form.
1t is said that when a newlv-enlisted
soldier first faces gunpowdcr, he i'm
AGNES every gun is pointed at him
self, but the veteran experiences much
less concern, having learned that to
kill one man in battle a mans weight
in lead must be shot away. 1t is not
so with the shots fired by the alcohol
tiend; every one of these tells. The
sun never sets upon a man who in
dulges in strong drinks without leav-
ing him in worse condition than did
the setting sun of the day before
These shots may do their work slowly,
but there are only few drinking men,
comparatively speaking, who are not
being all the while undermined in
physical, mental and moral siren 9Th
by what they fondly fancy to be the
best substitute known to man for the
tabled waters of Lethe.
Fire is spoken OF as being a bad mas
Ger. Nevertheless, fire in state of in
surrection is a far less destructive
agent than alcohol. Where one inmate
of a burning building fails to make his
escape, or some careless fire-builder
uses kerosence to his loss of life, a score
of wretched human beings die either of
alcohol, pure and simple, or of one of
the host of diseases to which alcoholism
leads the way.
Figures do not lie. This should ever
be borne in mind by those who must
needs listen to the smooth tongued ad-
vocates in the pay of Satan's viceregent
here above, or those bewildered and
bewildering logicians who, ignor-
ing major premise, contend
that God made alcohol, therefore
alcohol is not to be condemned
By man. OF these latter we can only
say: NOW, InaY IHe ROOO GOc pardon
su III good men!'-men. who do not
choose to reflect that all such reason.
ing is in danger of the reductio a5 a6-
Surdum.
Figures are the strongest supporters
of the cOmmon-sense view of the ques-
ton: TO drink or not to drink?" We
may, if we choose, turn our backs on
theology or ethics, but figures con-
front us everywhere. The hell that
awaits the drunkard may be sneered at
as fable of the dark ages, but death
we see with our own eyes, and an abnor-
mally large death rate belongs to the
category of certified facts. 1t is true
that only once in awhile does man
of to-day die, as Alexander did, from
the immediate effects of poison
mightier than Alexander; but whether
a drunkard dies thus, or whether he
cuts his throat in the frenzy of delirium
tremenS or whether he dies by inches
from the effects of an indurated liver,
the cause is the same-his case goes to
swell the deathrats produced by alco-
hoL