Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-04-24
RUM AS A CONSCIENCE DEADNER.

which he treats it. We quote the fol.
lowing at length from the article:
A sober man scruples to do that
which q drunken man will execute
without hesitation. These words EN-.
body the essential motive that induces
people to have ecourse to supplying
drugs and drinks. People employ them
either for the purpose of sitting re-
morse, after having performed an &C.
ton disapproved of by their conscience,
or else in order to induce a state of
mind in which they shall be capable
OF doing something contrary to the
dictates of their conscience, and to
which the animal nature of man is i'm
polling him.
A sober man has conscientious scru-
Piles to visit lewd women, to steal, to
commit murder. A drunken man, on
the contrary, has no such scruples.
Hence 1t is that if a person wishes to
do something which his conscience
forbids him to do, he first stupefes his
faculties.
l recollect being struck by the state.
ment made by a man cook on his trial
for the murder of an old lady-a rela-
tive of mine-in whose service he had
been living. From the account he gave
of the crime and the manner in which
it was perpetrated, it appears that he
had sent his paramount, the maid serv.
ant, out of the house, and the time had
come for him to do the deed, he seized
a knife and repaired to the bedroom
where his intended victim was, but as
he drew near he felt that in his sober
senses he could not possibly perpetrate
such a crime. "A sober man has con-
scientious scruples." He turned back,
gulped down two tumblers of brandy
that he had provided beforehand, and
then, and not before, felt hat he was
ready to do the deed, and did il.
Nine tenths of the total number of
crimes that stain humanity are COM
mitted in the same way. First take a
drink to give you courage"
OF all the women who fall, fully one
half yield to the temptation while un-
der the influence of alcohol. Nearly
all the visits made by young men to
disorderly houses take place when their
faculties have been blunted and dulled
by intoxicating liquor. People are
well acquainted with this property of
alcohol to deaden the voice of con.
science, and they deliberately make
use of it for the very purpose.
Nor is this all. Not only do people
cloud their own faculties in order to
stile the voice of conscience, but,
knowing what the effect of alcohol is,
whenever they wish to make other peo-
pie perform an act that is contrary to
the dictates of their conscience they
purposely stupefy them in order to
render them temporarily deaf to its re-
monstrances. In war, soldiers are al.
ways made drunk when they are about
to BIZ sent into close hand to hand
combat.
During the storming of Sebastopol
all the French soldiers were completely
intoxicated. After the storming of q
fortress in the Central Asian war, when
the Russian soldiers showed no incli.
nation to plumber and kill the defense.
less old men and children of the place,
Shobeleff ordered them to be duly piled
with brandy till they were drunk.
Then they rushed out to accomplish
the deadly work.
No man can read this terrible ar
raignment of the effects of alcohol in
bunting the human conscience with.
out feeling that the power and iniu.
ence of the monster evil should be
curtailed at every possible opportunity.
The statement has been made in print
by the writer repeatedly for years that
by far the larger number of offenses
against good order, against morality
and against the laws, have their in
ception in rum. The indictment is
neither denied nor defended by the
friends of the traffic. There are a few
offenses which from taeir nature re.
quiIe an unclouded brain. 1t is said
that professional gamblers-men who
live like birds of prey, robbing other
men by games of chance-do not drink
before nor during a game, though all
gambling houses have adjacent ga.
looms or side boards, where the silly
victims of the gambling mania are en-.
couraged to indulge in drinking. 1t is
money always in the gamblers pock-
cts to have their victims brains cloud.
ed, their eyes dulled and their judg.
ment destroyed, as ii is much easier
to pluck them in that state. The gam
bier himself keeps clear headed and
clear eyed, that he may the more easily
divest his victim of his money. 1t is
said too that some professional burg
lars keep perfectly sober when on a
marauding expedition, because every
sense must be on the alert against pos.
sible detection and danger.
But there are a small portion of the
crimes which stain the annals Of HUI
mainly. No doubt the eminent Rus
sian writer is within, rather than be.
yond the mark when he says nine
tenths of the total number of crimes
are committed under influence of
alcohol.