The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-10-03
THE GREAT DESTROYER.
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE Of INTEMPERANce.

Tie Use Of AicoIsetIo Liqtess Produces
Moral Insanity -s Old Ire sutterins
T. For ,hS SiDEon teash .sxhpSA Re
sponsibility of DrinkIse srents.
As shadow, foliows sssbS 81 20 surely
does harm follow thu ~ u btrong drink,
says Dr., T D. CSth1 emphatically,
"fhe central point I wish to emphasize ie
that moral insanity follows all use of alco-
hoI, and is present in all inebriates to .
greater or less degree"
flesh, 80 surely will alcoholics injure both
body and mind of those who drink it. The
boast of the young man, Drink does not
hurt me-" is false-absolutely false. He
does not know himself. He ia reckoning
without his host. So able man as Dr..
HarloN, superintendent of the Maine In
sane Hospital, wrote me a remarkable LET.
ter. he states: 1T is quite frequent oc-
curreuce 70 have patients brought to us,
between, the ages Of fifty and seventy, who
in early life were given to the use of alco-
holic drinks, but had reformed and lived
temperate lives ten, twenty or thirty years
prior to the appearance of their malady,
showing c2nclusively, TO my mind, that the
alcohol taken thus early left damaged
brain doubiy susceptible to mental de-
rangement."
I have in mind man who inherited an
excellent constitution, but who in early
manhood took to the cup. Later he radi-
cally reformed, and there never was Q
more abstemious man for the next thirty
years, yet as age came on he began to
turn in mind back to what he had been
in the days of his indulgence. He reac.
quired the same looks on his face, the
same motions and actions of body, the
same wonderings and haliucinations Of
mind as when he used to drink. His
daughter said it was pitiable to see him,
it was such painful reminder of his for
mer condition she 80 muck witnessed, Ehe1.
she was little girl.
But worse than all this is the damage
done through the drinker upon his of-
spring They suffer to q degree beyond
his:o ThinkSofa Q whole large family,
'soealled SONS snd daughters, every, one
nadesa fool or near IL BY parental drink
ing. Go, and down the town and OBJ
serve the idiots, the .undefs:wits, the
stunted heads and bedies, the h4tyous and
hysterical and othetNiss, injured bodies
and minds and as1s Nhsthls donesit? And
in almost all cases ianer through their
parentsSis the proper IHswer. A school
teacher investigated th8 ease Of one Of his
scholars that had the appearance Of being
drunk. The fact vss deEeloped that nok
the pupil, but bis fsther did the drinking.
l personally knew man past middle life
who from q young mani lad the unsteady
step, the broken and heatating speech
and other nervous Irregularities character.
istic of the appearance OF old topers. l..
charged him with drinking. He denied.
then spoke to some OF his friends, and
was told to my surprise that he never
drank, but that these drunken Symphonic
were begotten in him by his drunken par
entage, running back several generations.
No, it is not safe to drink, either. direct
ly or indirectly; the misehief will leak
out. Consequences must follow, though
they may not be expressed till in the third
or fourth generation: Can one take fire
into his bosom and not be burned s@No
more can one indulge in strong drink and;
escape. There is somewhere or at some
time an inevitable retribution. Drink and
be damned. Such is the close logic, or let
alone and be safe, you and your posterity.
e. Chenery, NJ. D., in the National Ad-
yocate .. ,.rs. ..a.'