Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-09

Mother. mother, I'm going under!"
were the last words Of the great Napole-
on's only son. And even thus says
Professor Hartmann, physical man
might cry to his mother earth. our ma
chimes are getting more marvelously per-
feet from year to year, but their lnven-
tors and managers are sinking into pyg-
miles,
The successor of Schopenhauer goes on
to state facts which seem to leave no
doubt that in point Of the average capa-
city for bodily achievement our ances-
tors were giants compared with their in
t~ellectually superior descendants, and
goes SO far as to question the correctness
of the general impression that manki
will continue to grow weaker and
WISER Our common stock of knowl-
edge he says. lis towering like those
pyramids erected by the toll of success
sive generations: but debility will reach
a degree that can hardly help affecting
our moral and mental vigor. which, after
all, depend largely upon a firm physical
substratum."
SOME SAVING KNOWLEDGE.
On the other hand. however, it is i'm
possible to deny that our increasing
stock of erudition includes a good deal
of redeeming sanitary knowledge. We
dIt UetteI HOuSeu ana better QfeSSeu
than our medieval forefathers; our cit
les have ceased to be seed plots of con-
tagious diseases. There was a time when
municipal functionaries, analogous to
what we call health officers. considered
1t sufficient to order the removal Of
'large-sized dead quadrupeds and isolate
plague-stricken paupers. Dead cats,
dogs. rats. meat scraps and garbage
We're permitted to accumulate till the
hii1ncEc nf facfacirr nffo .+,all 1,o~. a.
to obstruct traffic, in which case the
street commissioners carted them off to
some suburban Gehenna, where they
We're dumped into ravines and left TO poll
lutte the contagious water courses. The
streets. with rare exceptions. We're so
narrow that ventilation would have been
difficult even if the pent-up burghers a
thought it worth while to open their
ring-glass windows. Diseases We're at
tributed to diabolical possessions, and
by way of cure the exorcists prescribed
prayers, penance and p~ilgrimages. Epi-
leptics, who could not take up their beds
and walk, risked to be shackled and
thrashed, in the hope of inducing the
demon to flee to a quieter tenement.
OUR PROGRESS CHECKED.
Science has delivered us from numerous
other sanitary superstitions, and it is
not easy to believe that all those adj
Vantages should have been offset by the
substitution of steam power for man
power. Nor can the mitigation of the
medieval marriage laws be supposed to
account for all our ailments and pains,
in form. variety and degree beyond de-
scription." but an all-sutficient e%Nplana-
ton may be found in the development of
the stimulant ha bit. Poison vices. alias
tipple passions. have multiplied till the
~life-saVing power of the human organism
has often 20 defend itself against the
simultaneous attacks of half a dozen diff
feren: enemies. Every year almost
brings forth its crop of new tonics. and
it is not a case of Notwithstanding banes
superseding each other, like the foilies
of fashion. The old vices stay and con-
tinue to grow, while the new ones strike
their roots deeper and deeper. Tea and
coffee have failed to crowd out brandy.
Choral has not hindered opium from
doubling the list of its victims in the
course of the last 30 years. The intro
duction of half fermented wines Cali
fornia champagne, etc.) was expected to
moderate the demand for stronger
liquors, but it has done nothing Of the
kind. The old friars who could not go to
bed without a night cap of beer kegs
might see their exploits s1umped IN mod
ern lager saloons. Pacific coast topers
have learned to love the products of their
grape press, but do not love beer the
less. The old and the new grow side by
side, like mushrooms and monkshood.
GROWS WITH EACH GENERATION.
Experience has proved that topers, de-
scended from a long lineage of tipping
ancestors, are harder to cure than new
perverts. The chance of graduating the
habit diminishes with every generation,
while the geographical spread of seduct-
i've Stimulants proceeds at an almost in
comparable rate of speed. During the
first 400 years of their irresistible prog
ress the land-devouring Romans had con-
quered only Italy and a few islands of
the western Mediterranean. During a
period of equal length King Nicotine has
almost achieved the conquest of the
world. b fumes cloud the pleasure
resorts of Stockholm, Cape Town, Mel
bourne and Calcutta. With the aid of the
Spaniards a habit originally unknown
south of the isthmus has infested all
South America. The Peruvians are in
veterate smokers: he wild Arancanos of
southern Chile approach the borders of
civilization to barter hides for leaf to-
bacco. In Bolivia half breed mothers
may be seen twisting cigarettes for
babies hardly old enough to toddle. Die
tator Ffancia of Paragua tried to wean
his subjects from foreign luxuries, but
found himself unable to suppress the
c~ontraband traffic in cigars, and finally
compromised the trouble by permitting
the establishment of "a government to-
bacco factory.
NOT TO BE STOPPED.
Fifty years ago Buenos Ayres streets