The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-12-11
TEMPERANCE.
roTHING TO NE.

roTHING TO NE.
"'Tis nothing to me-" the beauty said,
With a careless toss OF her pretty head;
!"The man is wax who can't refrain
From the cum 4 say Is fraught with pain,
It was somethI ITO her in after years.
When her eyesy ere drenched with burning
tears, =.
And she watched, in lonely grief and dread,
And starlad to hear staggering tread.
"It's nothing to me-" the mother said:
81 have ro fear that my boy will tread
The downward path Of sin and shame,
And crush my heart and darken my name"
It was something to her when her only son
From the path OF life was early won,
And madly quaffed Of the flowing bowl.
9,hen-a ruined body and shipwrecked soul.
"It's nothing to me-" the young man cried;
In his eye was flash Of scorn and pride.
81 heed not the dreadful things you tell;
can rule myself, know full we'll !"
Twas something 10 him when in prison he
The victim Of drink, life ebblng away,
As he thought Of his wretched child and wife
And the mournful wreck Of his wasted life.
INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL ON MANS LONGEVITY.
DR.. Crothers, of Hartford, who has had
long experience in the management OF insti-
buttons for the inebriate and insane, says
that "inebriety is the active cause OF from
fifteen to fifty per cent, of all insanity; from
ehirty to eighty per cent. Of all idiocy; from
sixty to ninety per cent of all pauperism,
and from fifty to elghty-ave per cent OF all
crime," then asks the question, WHO can
estimate the relief of the taxpayers by the
removal Of the perils to both property and
life from drunkenness2"
DR.. Day, of Boston, In his late annual re-
port of the Washington Home for the Treat
ment Of Inebriates, says: son the individ-
ual the effect Of vicious alcoholic indulgence
is disease of the body. Sooner or later 1t
must succumb. Disease OF the mind Is not
far off. 1t may be delirium or insanity"
DR.. Formal found in the dead house au-
topsies of the Phila ephia Hospital that In
$50 chronic alcoholists nearly ninety per
cent had fatty degeneration Of the liver, six
ty per cent. had congestion or a dropsical
state of the brain; the same number an in
famed or degenerated stomach. while not
quite one per cent. had normal kidneys.
To be convinced Of the cause OF 80 much
pauperism in the country, We have only to
examine the statistics OF the liquor traffic In
tia United States. According to the re-
port of Internal Revenue Commissioners
Mills. for the year 1882, the patrons OF the
saloons paid $600,000,000 for whisky and
S6l7. .258 400 for beer. a total Of 81, 1886, ,259,-
46O. the interest Of which for one minute ut
six per cent. per annum is $85l5.6s." This
would more than pay off the National debt,
and would feed and clothe all the poor Of the
country.
When we look abroad over the world and
take birds eye view Of the evil effects OF
intemperance In its various aspects, its pro-
duction Of disease and death, the destruction
of happiness and home, pauperism and
crimes 1nnumerable, with general demoralt-
cation, we are astonished that any thinking
man, much less a physician, should come to
the conclusion that drinking men and drunk
ards enjoy greater longevity than total ab.
stainers. Medical Progress.