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

he phllanthropi,t who rra'.> oul
police report the record, u oul
criminal courts and he iucrca.ing
frequency Of arrests og women fo.
being ipund drunk on tie streets, OF
discovered in their homes n.rlectn.
or abusing their children when mad
p'ncd by drink, is overcome with di>-
conragrncnt from the fccin. hat the
srcat aggregate Of misery from th; :
-pnrce i, 10, diminishing, aud can
let"r hr overcome. The un,ioDk f,
dark. when one reflects that no land
however sunk IN barbarism. III, island
Of the sea, however remote. has yet
beer discovered, where there has not
| been found some ntoxicant. Numbers
less are the plants from which. by
penetrating their cunning secret. a
means Of obtaining brief oblivion
has been obtained, popric~. barley,
grasses. SUGAR, pepper. fruits Of yari
Gus names, and nuts. With Il thousand
other things. have been squeezed,
pressed, pounded, trituratcd. distilled.
and fcrmcntcd, to find some form of
misnamed u4uu ritz, History shows
that the Chinese lad their snntschv
before the Christian era and the
Egyptian basreliefs depict all forms
of revolving helplcssncss through
drink, even to that Of an aristocratic
lady in that stage of incbr;ation where
the outraged stomach rejects it's 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 ''thc ancicnts'
had the remotcst 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 lesscning-all appear
anccs to the contrary Notwithstanding.
In Grccian history we read that
Nerxcs left as his most striking cpl
taph ''tiat he was able to drink more
wine than any man in his doninions.
Alexander the Great organized
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, Il cold
wind springing up, the winner and
forty Of his companions died before
morning; and Alexander himself, who
our young fancics exalted as sort Of
dcmigod, died at thirty-two after a
drinking bout that lasted two days
and two nights.
Rome passed through IA season of
unbounded intcmperaucc before it's
downfall. We read of one man who
was knightcd under the name 7'ri-
congius Three gallon man. - be-
cause he had been able to drink twelve
quarts OF wine at Il single draft. The
boozing Of our Saxon ancestors, on
mead and mctheglin, is sufficiently in
dicatcd i'll such books as Kingslcy's
"llcrcward;" and III 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 dcbauchery: 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 IIoi-
land immense amounts of gin were
poured out from mammoth distillcrics,
iaI The nation, which had moderated
rs drinking under Cromwell, went
back to more than it's former excesses
under the Dutch William; and in his
reign the production of gin was stimu-
lated as all encouragement Of agricul-
turc. The effects were so disastrous
as 10 give pause to all thoughtful peo-
pie. The price of this intoxicant was
ridicuously low, and shops could be
seen in London placardcd Drunk for
a penny; dead drunk for twopence;
clean straw for nothing Previously
people had used beer, which was less
destructive; but now Parliament be-
came alarmed, and Parliament passed
law, in 1916, prohibiting the use Of
gin. The celebrated Gin Law is in
tcrcsting, as we'll as instructive, as
the first step taken among civilized