The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1894-10-25
THE INCARNATION OF EVIL.

AS long ago as 1872 Sir Mathew Hale
wrote that he believed himself well
qualified by his position as judge to de-
termine the real effects of the drinking
of alcohol, ''and by close observation l
have found that if the murders and
manslaughters, burglaries and robber
les, the riots and tumultS, the adulter
les, foundations, rapes and other great
enormities which have happened in my
time were divided into five parts, four
of them would have been the issue of
excessive drinking" In 1850, the ply
sicians of London drew up memorial
saying that there were 1900 cases of
fatal illness due to alcohol alone.
Bishop Benson declared that the very
temper and nature of the people of
England had become changed by gin.
sour people," he said, 'are what they
never were before; cruel and inhuman.'
John Wesley said that all who sold
''spirituous liquors to any who would
buy are prisoners general. They drive
men to hell like sheep. A curse is in
the midst of them" DR.. Darwin,
father of Charles Darwin, testified
''that when chronic diseases arise from
the use of ardent spirits they are
liable to become hereditary, even to
the third generation, and, if the cause
is continued, to increase till the family
is extinct" "Of ISL maniacs in two
hospitals, 391 were made such by in
temperance" says DR. Massey.
Cholera records are especially inter
esting as showing in Russia, accord
ing to DR.. Huber, 'that persons ad
dicted to drinking have been swept
away like flies Another physician
writing from Warsaw, said: "The dis
ease spared those who led regular lives
Out of 100 victims 90 have been ad
dicted to the use of alcohol" The re
! ports of the march of the cholera
through America have been Of the
same sort. In 1888, DIR. Sewall wrote
that cot the 254 cases in the Parl
hospital there were only six temperate
persons" and they had recovered
while 1872 of the others had alread,
clan of Bombay, Ramohun Finger
writes that "peOple who do not u.s.
opium or spirits do not catch the dis
order even when with those sick"
A careful investigation of poorhOuse
; returned the estimate that pauperisn
1 would scarcely be known in Americ
L but for rum. In one county home GU
, of 1,134 paupers 1859 were victims o
i alcohol. In another county in Penn
: sylvania out of so at public charge 4
i were found to have been brought t
0 their reduced condition by intempe1
ate drinking. The proportion in tn
/ poorhouse of Oneida county, in tn
), state of New York, was very nearly tn
" same.
/ But it is hardly worth your while
go further into this class of testimOn.
L Let us return for moment to tn
u words of some men of distinguish
II literary ability, men whose positio
l. should entitle them to hearing, eve
u in the presence of our university chal
IL cellors and college presidents. Carly
IL said, my complete conviction goe
H. and for long years has gone, in rega1
=, to that matter, that gin is the mo-
u authentic incarnation Of the evil pri1
10 ciple-the black throat into whiC
w. wretchedness of every kind whlr
a. down, calling on delirium to help it
IT, Ruskin says, drunkenness not on
III leads to crime; it is crime Shake
IN peare says: 80 thou invisible spirit
Ill vine. il thou hast no name to be ca
10 cd oy, let me call thee-devil. ''-Selecte
Almost a New York Daily.