Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-06-11
BORN DRUNKARDs.
Hereditary Defects In Children of
Drinking Parents.
San r Jones Declares -fnebrIates Are
Mads In Thfcs Ways, by H~reditt.
f6tsicians and Social Custonis
-inebricty Disease.
lcoPrRroHr. 1881

are furnishing the greatest problem OF
the scientific world. The classification
and treatment of the various diseases
and ailments OF our race furnlshes one
of the largest fields for thought, inves-
tigution and experiment. More of sym.
pathy and money is expended on the
diseased of our race than any other
class, yet the world has never given as
mitch money or sympathy In this di.
rectiofi rs Christian civilization de.
tiiands. Among all the afflicted Of OUT
race probably the druniaard, outside OF
his own mother and wife, gets the least
sympathy and possibly deserves most.
That drunkenness Is disease no one
informed on the subject will deny, and
after the drunlard passes a certain
point he is as little blameworthy for
his drunkenness as the apoplcctic for
his spasms. There Is, however, point
in drunkard's life where he is more OF
less to blame. Drunkards are made by
heredity. physicians and social customs.
Where tho daughter of drunkard
marries drunlard the children born
into that home are -fourths drunk
ards the day they are born into the
world.
The science Of heredity has never
been fully developed, but common OBJ
servation reveals to us the fact and ex-
pcriments with the lower animals con-
firm the fact that mental, moral and
physical traits of character are handed
down from parent TO child and run
back through the ancestors. The set
ter dog, the trottihg, pacing and run.
ming horse, the fighting chicken and
the various strains of cattle, with their
particular developments along various
lines, as well as the children In the
homes, teach us how various traits,
physical, mental and moral, are handed
down.
It is . sad sight to see leprous
woman carrying in her arms a sweet,
innocent and bright-eyed and chubby.
checked baby, her own child, and real.
ize the fact that, however healthy
and vigorous and perfect in form
the infant may appear, maturity will
develop that awful disease of leprosy
and the child will carry all the hideous
dcformities Of his lcprous mother.
Yet o sadder sight Is to look upon a
bright-eyed, curly haired, rosy-cheeked,
innocent little boy playing upon the
knee of his drunken father and realize
that that poor little fellow has bred in
him the tendency toward a drunkard's s
life, and unless he makes the desperate
struggle which few are able to make In
the face of an open saloon, wine and
champagne in the house, the bottle in
the pocket of o friend, and presented
glass in the hand Of thoughtless girl,
he will follow in the footsteps of his
unfortunate sire.
l visited town some time ago where
q thirteen-year-old boy went stagger.
ing down the street, presenting all the
phases of drunkenness. A friend re-
marked: THAT boy has never touched
a drop of liquor. He is the son of q
drunken father, and from infancy has
walked and acted this way" What a
horrible picture that presented, yet
how much more horrible would be the
soui of every drunkard's child II we
could sec itin its deformed tendencies
towards the drunkard's life.
When meet poor drunken man,
and by investigation find that drunken
ness has preceded him in his family for
years how my heart bleeds for such a
character. How few there are prepared
tosympathizc with him in his sad condi-
ton. Weak lungs, disordercd hearts,
feeble minds, tendencies to rheuma-
tism, scrofula, in fact common observa-
tion has taught us, without much med
ical investigation, that from parent to
child every weakness Of body or mind
end every passion or appetite has been
transmitted.
Can anything be more horrible for
the contemplation of a philanthropist
than that the hundreds Of thousands of
drunkartls in the United States to-day,
are giving to our coming generations
millions Of natural born drunkards, and
that our great Christian government
has, by her statutory laws, provided
saloons at the door Of every such nm
fortunate child, giving him every facil-
ity for developing this inborn appetizer
How silly itseema to me to put hered-
ity and saloons a one end and reform
schools, penitentiaries and Keely in
stitutes at the other, and call upon the
sober. Industrious portion Of society to
carry both ends Of this burdensome busi-
ness. Every man ID America in some wnv
touches every other man. We constr
t,,te : great brotherhood. Bv our COM