The Republican., 1894-08-23
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
THE SALE OF PARALYSIS.
Alcohol as a Destroyer of Health, Moral
itY and ProspcritN.

hedrt still beating. the form perhaps
unwasted, but the hand powerless, the
foot bound more fast than by fetters of
iron. the tongue refusing to speak the
words of affection, counsel or com
mand. To escape this the man of
wealth will spend money like water,
and the physician will send him to
wander afar over land and sea to flee
the whitening touch of Palsy's grisly
hand.
Yet this dread plague is now on sale,
and daily purchased at fabulous prices
by thousands of the American people.
Whoever has seen drunken man or a
drunkard has seen a case of paralysis.
There is paralysis of muscle. 1t mani
tests itself early in the lips and tongue,
so that, like the EPhraimites who could
not say 'Shibboleth' at the fords of
Jordan, the victim can not say cen
tcnary celebration and soon the baby
words good night become too much
for the stammering lips. The eyes
grow heavy, the head droops, the hands
lose their grip. the feet stumble, and
soon, in one chaotic mass, what was a
man rolls under the table or into the
gutter.
There is paralysis of vital energy.
Never was there anything more decep-
tive than the idea that alcohol is a sus-
tanning power. 1t is from first to last
paraly2er Its very stimulus is due
to paralysis. Why does the blood fly
to the face and surface of the body till
all tingles with the glow? Why is the
brain stirred to momentary vigor and
unwonted brilliancy? For the same
reason that a railroad train dashes
down the grade when the brakes refuse
TO work. Every artery is provided with
an elastic coat which acts as brake
restraining the flow of blood. Alcohol
paralyzes the delicate fibers. the re-
straining agency lets go, and the blood
rushes in full tide on its way. 1t is as
if the throttle of a locomotive should
Dc set wide open and the engineer be
powerless to close it. But what is the
result OF throwing all the blood in the
body swiftly to the surface and back
again? The same as the result of pour
ing hot tea from the cup into the
saucer The tea or the blood is cooled.
and the infalla bic test of the chemical
Thermometer shows that the tempera-
ture OF the whole body will fall within
short time after the taking of alco-
hol. Hence it is that the drunken man
50 readily freezes to death.
Pure health for every human organ
ism depends or the constant and
prompt removal of the waste matter
OF the system. every vein and cell send
ing to the surface through some one of
myriad outlets the material that has
done its work and become dead matter
foreign to the animal economy. If we
check this process by closing the lungs
or skin or any other channel, the
man speedily dies, poisoned by his own
"orruptions. Alcohol checks this re-
moval Of waste matter. The man
"bloats, as we say, perhaps prides him
self on his fullness of flesh. and goes
about an incarnate sepulcher, ready to
die Of lociljaw if he runs a splinter into
his hand, or TO become the ready prey
OF any disease.
There is paralysis of intellect The
man of intelligence. or even of high
ability, utters naudlin folly with the
confidence that it is supreme wisdom,
and takes the laughter that greets his
idiotic absurdities as a tribute to the
brilliancy of his wit. Poor mental
paralytic. In fair. bright day. on
calm sea, a commander orders an i'm
possible maneuver, persists in it
against all remonstrance of his subor-
dinate officers, and sends great
battle-ship, with four hundred
men, to the depths of the blue Mediter-
ranean to rest till the sea shall give up
its dead. The current explanation is
that the commanders usually clear
mind was clouded by alcoholic mists.
Whether that was the fact may not be
surely known. But this is sure; all the
world instantly feels that, if true, this
was sufficient cause. All men know
that a few glasses of liquor would be
equal to producing just that result
There is no wisdom that may not be
turned to folly by the paralysis of drink.
There is paralysis of affection. Alco-
hOl makes the man who comes home
one day with love and tenderness for
wife and children to come home the
next night an incarnate fiend, more
dangerous to that family than a savage
from the Jungle. 1t leads him to drag
them through years of poverty, hun
ger. cold and wretchedness, while he
squanders upon himself and his vile
comrades in the saloon the wages that
might support them in comfort.
There is paralysis of will. Who has
ever tried to help the drunllard who
has not found this failure of that god
like power? Here pledges fail. Here
resolutions die. The man who knows
that every step to the saloon is step
to shaIHc, woe, and death, goes. drawn
by an invisible but resistless power. as
if under an enchanter's spell He has
come to what Coleridgc called com
pletc impotence of volitionH
There is one greater depth, and
that is paralysis of conscience.
While conscience lives. even with
enfcebled will and mighty appe-
tite. there is hope. There IS something
in the man to which we may appeal.
But alcohol dcadens, and at last par
alyzcs, the moral sensibilities. so that
eight-tenths of the worlds crimes are
committed and most of its vices per
petratcd under its power. Either the
liquor instigates to the crime, or it is
taken expressly to deaden the con-