Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1896-05-23
Noxious Infinitesimais.

Many make failure OF their part in
the drama of life through dissipation.
They have enough intellectual equipment
and good address and gcniality unbounded.
But they have a wine closet that contains
all the forces for their social and business
and moral overthrow. so far back as tho
year g59 King Edgar Of England made
law that tho drinking cups should have
pins fastened at n certain point In the side,
SD that the indulgcr might be- reminded TO
stop before he got to the bottom. But
there are no pins projecting from the sides
of tho modern wine cup or beer mug, and
the first point at W hich millions stop Is at
the gravelly bottom Of their own grave.
DIR. Sax Of France has discovered some
thing which all drinkers ought 10 know.
He has found ont that alcohol In every
shape. whether Of wine or brandy or beer,
contains parasitic life called bacillus potu-
manic. by powerful microscope these
living things are discovered, and when
you take strong drink you take them into
the stomach and then into your blood,
and, getting into the crimson canals of
life, they go into every tissue Of your body,
and your entire organism Is taken posses
sion Of by these noxious inilnitesimals.
When in delirium tremcns IA man sees ev-
cry form of reptilian life, IL seems IL Is
only these parasites OF the brain In exag-
gerated size. 1t is not hallucination that
the victim is suffering from. He only secs
In the room what Is actually crawling and
rioting In his own brain. Every time you
take strong drink you swallow these mag
eots, and every time the imbiber OF alcohol
in any shape feels vertigo or rheumatism
or nausea IL Is only the jubilee OF these
fn1., 4. a..
discovery Of some gcrmicide that can kill
the parasites of alcoholism, but the only
thing that will ever cxtirpatc them is
abstinence from alcohol and tcctotal alb
stinencc, To which l would before God
swear all these young men and old.
America Is fruitful country, and we
raise large crops ~ wheat and corn and
oats, but the largest crop we raise In this
country is the crop Of drunknrds. With
sickle made ont of the sharp edges of tho
broken glass Of bottle and dcmijohn they
are cut down, and there are whole swathes
of them, whole winrows OF them. and IL
takes nil the hospitals and penitcntiaries
and graveyar,ls and cemeteries 10 hold this
harvest OF hell. Some of you arc going
down under this evil, and the never dying
worm Of alcoholism has wound around
you ono of It's coils, and by next New
Years day II will have another coil around
you, and IL will after awhile put coll
around your tongue and n coil around
your brain, and coil around your lung,
and n coil around your foot, and a coil
around your heart. and some day this never
dying worm will, with one spring. tighten
all the coils mt once, and In the last twist
of that awful convoluiion you will cry
out, "Oh, my Godr' and he gone. Tho
greatest Of dramatists In the tragedy Of
THE Tempest sends staggering across
the stage Stephnno, tho drunken butler,
but across the stage Of human life strong
drink sends kingly and quccnly and
princcly natures staggering forward
against the fnniIights of conspicuity, and
then staggering back into failure, till the
world is impatient Tor their disappearance,
md human and dinbolic voices join In
kissing them of the stage.
Many also make failure In the drama
Of life through Incidence. They are al
ways making calculations how little they
can do for the compensation they get.
There are more lazy ministers, lawyers,
doctors, merchants, artists and farmers
than have ever been counted upon. The
community Is full Of laggards and shirk-
crs. / can tell IL from the way they crawl
along the street, from their Hardness In
meeting engagements, from the lethargics
that seem TO hang to the foot when they
lift 1t, 10 the hand when they put It out,
TO tho words when they speak.
The Misplaced.