Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1901-10-04


The past hundred years might be
| called "the century of alcohol" an ap-
| pellation that the present one bids fair
! to deserve, too, unless common sense
triumphs. Today alcohol is taken regu-
larly by seventy-five per cent of all
human beings save those we are
pleased to call "uncivilized," and the
| average man and woman of our times
drinks more and oftener than man and
woman ever before did in the history
OF the world. Do not remind me OF
the great drinking bouts of medieval
times and of the port-wine aristocracy
of bygone days. Some of our forefath-
ers were hardy drinkers-so much the
worse for us-but the fact doesn't off
set the statement above set forth.
Eighteenth century Englishmen and
the old Germans often got drunk
grant that-but as a general thing
liquor and beer were luxury with
them, kept for certain occasions and
served with more or less state. They
occasionally. INDUCED in orgies; we
incline for chronic alcoholism. IN
olden times the peoples tipple, the
international drink of the masses, was
water. Today it is not. We speak OF
the Germans as beer drinkers; whisky
and the Kentucky colonel are synony-
nous terms; the frog eating" French
man has made way for the "absinth
fiend;" the smaller Latin races are
wine drinkers; Russia is stepped in
vodka, Poland and Scandinavia in
schnapps. The population of all these
countries is more or less aleoholized.
Why? Because chemistrys glorious
achievements have made it possible to
draw the popular poison from some Of
the cheapest substances to be found in
any land. Alcohol now sells at ridicu-
lousy low prices. It's cheaper than it
was ever before. Means for drunken
ness more plentiful and cheaper,
drinking more popular, and no hope
for egeneration-this is the situation
in nutshell. Let me state before
hand, as the result of far-reaching in
vestigation, that no one becomes an
alcoholist out OF sheer wickedness;
that very few people even face bar
with the intention of getting drunk.
IT'S the habit of drinking that produces
alcoholism and the misery following in
it's wake. 1t is the generality, popular
ity of the thing. Because all do it,
every one must suffer. Chronic alco-
holism, engendered by habitual drink
ing in moderation or out of it, is re-
sponsible for the wholesale degenera-
ton OF the races. Habitual drinking
not only Injuries health, but likewise
the character and the family sense of
man or woman. But the difference be-
tween acute and chronic alcoholism is
often merely a question of consump-
ton. A person who gets drunk at
stated intervals-every month, or ev-
cry three months-and in the mean
time drinks nothing but water, cannot
be called an alcoholist. The respecta-
BILE member of society, however, who
feels insulted If asked whether he ever
drank to excess, but who consumes sew
eral glasses of beer at lunch and bot
tie Of wine with his dinner, aside from
a glass or two of liqueur, this man is
the very type of chronic alcoholist.
His face and figure show it, his inside
is full of liqyor-stigmata. He probably
suffers from nervousness while at the
same time he is subject to undue ex-
element. He is too fat in spots and
his heart does not work right.-Profes
sor A. Forel Of Leipsic in Philadelphia
Times.