The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-05-18
Alcoholism-Its Antiquity and Univer'
SALTY.

The philantlropist who reads our
police reports-thc records Of our
criminal 'courts-aud the increasing
frequency of arrests of women for
being found drunk on the streets, or
discovered in their homes ncglccting
or abusing their children when mad
dened by drink, is overcome with dis
couragemcnt from the feeling that the
great aggregate Of misery from this
source is not diminishing, and can
never be overcome. The outlook is
dark, when one reflects that no land
however sunk in barbarism, no island
Of the sea, however remote, has yet
been discovered, where there has not
been found some intoxicaut. Number
less arc the plants from which, by
penetrating their cunning secret, a
means Of obtaining brief oblivion
has been obtained, ,-poppies, barley,
grasses: sugar, pepper, fruits Of vari-
Gus names, and nuts. with thousand
other things: have been squeezed,
pressed, pounded, triturated, distilled
and fermented, to find some form of
misnamed aqua ritn History shows
that the Chinese had their sontscAu
before the Christian era, and the
Egyptian bas-reliefs depict all forms
Of revolving helplessness through
drink, even to that of an aristocratic
lady in that stage of inebr;ation where
the outraged stomach rejects its un-
welcome contents. Several of the
Pharaohs issued stringent mandates
against drunkenness; but there is no
reason to suppose that any Of the
people whom we call "the ancients s.
had the remotest idea Of the perma-
nent physiological havoc that persis-
tent drinking works in the human
body; they looked only at the outward
and visible sign Of an inward and in
sidious destruction; but, thanks to
the light of science, a true knowledge
of all the evils that the use Of intox-
icants breed is spreading, and the dis
ease of drunkenness is really diminish
ing, and the voice which comes in it's
train is really lessening-all appear
ances to the contrary notwithstanding.
In Grecian history we read that
Xerxes left as his most striking cpl
taph "that he was able to drink more
wine than any man in his dominions.
Alexander the Great organized a
drinking contest, offering prize to
the man who could drink the most.
Promachus took the prize, after
drinking fourteen quarts of wine, the
others coming near to him; but, cold
wind springing up, the winner and
forty of his companions died before
morning; and Alexander himself, who
our young fancies exalted as sort of
demigod, died at thirty-two after a
drinking-bout that lasted two days
and two nights.
Rome passed through season Of
unbounded intemperance before its
downfall. We read of one man who
was knightcd under the name Tri-
congiius-" "Three-gallon man, y be-
cause he had been able to drink twelve
quarts of wine at single draft. The
boozing of our Saxon ancestors, on
mead and metheglin, is sufficiently in
dicated in such books as Kingsley $
"Hereward;" and in England drink
ing-habits, from king and court down,
were universal. Only the fact that
intoxicating drinks were very costly
saved the common people from ruin
Gus dcbauchcry; but in the century
that brought the Pilgrims to our shore.
the common people learned that alco-
hol could be made chcaply from grain:
and in Switzerland, France. and Ilol
land immense amounts of gin were
poured out from mammoth distillcrics,
.le,. The nation. which had moderated
is drinking under Cromwell, went
back to more than its former eXcesses
under the Dutch William; and in his
reign the production of gin was stimu-
lated as an encouragement OF agricul-
turc. The effects were so disastrous
as to g,-c pause to all thoughtful peo-
pie. The price Of this intoxicant was
ridicuously low, and shops could be
seen in London placarded Drunk for
a penny; dead drunk for twopcnce;
clean straw for nothing. Previously
people had used beer, which was less
destructive; but now Parliament be-
came alarmed, and Parliament passed
a law, in l736, prohibiting the use oi
gin. The celebrated Gin Law is in
tercsting, as well as instructive, as
the first step taken among civilized