San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-07-05
THE TRUE TEMPERANCE.

zthat we so readily condemn. The man
who stuffs his stomach with food, but
esteems drunkenness the deadliest of
all sins, forgets that the same wis
dom that said look not upon the
wine when it is red" also said, Put
a knife to thy throat if thou be.a man
given to appetite" 1t is little sim
gular that the reformers, usually
called Temperance people" are in
fact not temperate at all, but the re-
verse. How it has come that so much
stress has been of late laid on over
drinking and so little on over eating
is one of the reform puzzles of this
generation. That it is so, is sufficient
for the purpose of this discourse,
which aims not to tell man what he
should or should not drink, but how
he should be temperate in all things,
governing his appetites and his pas
slons wisely and judiciously.
There is not an intelligent, broad
minded Psychologist in the country
who will deny that over eating is
more injurious to the human system
than over drinking. More injurious
because it is more general and less
considered. For the one drunkard
there will be found a dozen gluttons.
1t is perhaps little singular that the
clergy, the great preachers of temper.
ance in the common and perverted
sense of that word, are such lovers of
- table, SO generally given to good
~lslng. The admonition to put knife
to their throats at table, is one more
honored in the breach than in the OBJ
servance, in their opinion. One will
hardly doubt this who has seen
hearty parson at table, surrounded
with all the good things that his hos
tess could provide for him, enjoying
every morsel and only stopping when
his capacity was exhausted.
Not that all preachers are gluttons,
or that those who preach temperance
rjp thinking alwayspracticeit in eating.
Nott all, but that those who preach
the one do not practice the other al
ways, and that this is an Inconsistent
cy in then. yH'he Light preacher has
no excuses to offer for drunkenness,
any more than he has for any other
species of intemperance, belt gluttony,
or passion or any other excess, but he
desires to point out that over drink
ing is not the only intemperance ard
that it is in fact the least Of th9 Hany
that are so generally overlooRd. 1t
\ is because these others are overlook
I'd, and because the htemperance of
\er drinking has aad an undue
hence giveAitl the pulpit and
press az the conventions,
dedicated to the
crate in other things beside
Big.
to any physician and ask him
dleeases are engendered and
e4ed and fed by over eating
|oul will be astonished at the aw-
Analogue. Ask him what diseases
incident to over drinking and you
be astonished at the comparative
w upon the list Ask him what
pdency is to perpetuate the dis
of all kinds, in the children
born of these over eaters and
hkers, and you will see that
q ofQ9er eating are to the full
reaching and destructive as
bf over drinking. Pursue your
cations a little farther and you
nd that intemperance in all
as its evil outcome in the per-
1ose who indulge in this in
and in their children as
IS of the wheel, those
Imselves on their shape
themselves within an inch
lives, the party politicians
who devote all their hours
sss and none to their fami
gamblers. the fanatics OF
ass are Incorporate. The
allow their tempers to run
|h them, and the women who
Eovernable tongues, are all OF
5 incorporate, and more of
" so. than the poor fellow who
IN enemy into his mouth to steal
his brains.
E Apot the intent of this sermon
- any unnecessary structures
bon the habits Of the time, but it is
fact that as nation we are mar