Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-01-08
THE WAR oF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE ON
PHYSICAL MANHOOD.

DlNhh mANuoOD'
For three hundred years the discov.
cry of alcohol was kept a secret by
physicians who knew it as a medicine.
Why? Because they foresaw the evils
that would result from a general
knowledge of its characteristics. True
men were those physicians, and true
prophets as well.
After hundreds of years more have
passed, all observes bear testimony to
the fact that their fears were well
founded. Better for the world if their
secret had been buried when they were
buried. No true scientist today will
deny that their medicine has become
poison-death dealing whether taken
into the system in large quantity, or
long continued in small doses-a poi
SOL ever at war with man 8 vital forces,
breeding diseases innumerable.
High medical authority declares that
1.-The variety of the diseases of which
alcohol is the cause is infinite in num-
Der, and reaches every organ of the hu-
man body" that there is not a disease,
that flesh is heir to, that it has power
to prevent or control"
1t does not require medical knowl-
edge to convince us that the stomach,
kidneys and the brain are each the
seat of innumerable diseases alarming
~ fatal to our people; o need we
wonder, when we remember that to
these organs alcohol is peculiarly and
speedily damaging.
DIR. Hammond says, in speaking of
alcohol as a medicine: II am free 20
say that, weighing all the points for
aud against, mankind would be better,
not only physically, but mentally aud
morally, if its use were altogether
abolished"
Greeley's Arctic expedition proves
tlat it does not only weaken man q
power to resist extreme cold, but all
h%ardships that call for great physical
endurance.
The trainers of professional athletes,
whether for the fighting ring, the row.
ing contest or any other similar test,
forbid entirely the use of alcohol until
training is complete and trial past.
Who knows better than they its dam.
aging effect on the physical man? The
records Of the bestinsurance companies
of the world tell us that mortality of
drinkers, as compared with sober men
i as two to one. Is it any wonder, then
that the death rate is high in cities
where there is a saloon for every zoe
people?
How dreadful we thought the NOR.
tality during the war of 1851 to 1865,
when we buried 200, 900 each year. II
was dreadful; but will the uninformed
masses of our saloon voting people be.
ileve us if we declare that every yea
they live, more than hat number &c
down to death through the ailments
brought on by drink? As in war, many
more die of diseases consequent upon
war, than are killed by balls. so il
d. drink, many more die of disease conse
gent upon drink, than are killed by
drink. Every man seems born with vi
tal forces to sustain life for a certain
period, and nothing tends to weaken
that vitality and u short his naturaI
life as does excessive drink. But worse
still, it transmits its hurtful tendencie,
from parent to child with inexorabl,
certainty. Hence it is, that this Chris
tlan country is rearing a class of hu
man beings, who are only human be
ings because in human shape; in al
else they are lower than brutes. The,
know nothing but their crimes, and en-
Joy nothing but their misery. This i
their legitimate interchangeable en-
forced misfortune; it is our yoluptar,
fault-our sin.
If the rate of mortality among farm
ers is but twelve in one thousand. ap(
that of liquor dealers twenty eight il
II thousand does it not seem that Ii
quor has much to do with the physica
MANI We rejoice that in our publ,
schools, our children are being laugh
how deadly ale the effects of alcoho
upon the human system, that as mel
aud women they may deal more wisel,
with the poisonous stuff than we hav,
done. For this teaching we are indebt
ed to the Woman's Christian Temper
ance Union whose works of faith an,
labors of love are blessing the nation
and stirring the world, May each pas
sing year multiply their forces a thou
sand fold. E, Ray, in Our DANCE
Signal, Asheville, N. C.