The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-10-15
he Tempersse, Young Man.

The World independent, Kansas City,
MOI under the head Young Man, Don't
Drink" has the following remarkably
trenchant editorial message to young men:
The young man who drinks strong liquor
is like the commander Of fortified city
who deliberately admits q known enemy
within its walls.
Drink is more hostile and more deadly
than any army. It has sent more men to
destruction and death than have all the
armies of the world.
by it; you may lose everything-health,
position, reputation, self-respect, man
hood, soul.
The first drink admits q demon that
every successive drink strengthens, until
some day it may be strong enough to
dominate and glut its ravenous appetite
with your brain and blood.
Don't deceive yourself about your
strength. You know nothing about that
until the test comes, and then it often ID
too late. You may never be sure you have
the strength to resist until you ahev as
serted that strength by resistance.
To resist once, or twice, or a dozen
times, does not prove strength to resist
always. It can be proved only by con.
slant and unfailing resistance: Any man
can resist sometimes. The only man who
can have absolute confidence in his power
you have the strength, use it. Assert 1t
now. One drink more is too much. Be
strong right now. It is your best chance.
And do not fall into the dangerous de-
lusion that only weak men overdrink.
Weak men do not, as q rule, overdo any.
thing. It is the strong, self-con6dent man
who drink as he does all else, with gusso
and without fear, proud OF his strength,
who come day succumbs 10 the subtle, in
sidious poison that rots his body and pal.
sizes his brain.
Strong young man! If you can to-day
mock at the assertion that one drink 10
too much some day you may think the
same OF ten drinks, and later OF twenty.
And when that day comes the, strength
that could not resist one drink, before
appetite was forTed, viii be but az
straw in whirlwind.
If YOU have not the strength and sense
TO stop drinking right now, when will you
have it? Will continued yielding give you
added strength or better sense?
When the raveled nerves Of disordered
stomach and the haccid tissues OF soften
ing brain demand whisky. will you, who
could not resist when strength and sense
were whole and craving WAS unknown
will you be better able to resist then?
It is not an abstruse question OF piety,
or ethics, or morality; it is a simple ques.
ton OF common sense and health. -.
One does not need to become drunkard
in the gutter TO be injured by whisky. 1t
is poison even in small quantities.
Few physicians prescribe it any longer
for any purpose except in hopeless cases
to dull the senses at the approach OF
death. No physician of learning and honor
administers it to the young in any case.
When impure, as most OF the CONNER
cial whisky is, it is full Of unknown dan.
gers. When pure it is more dangerous
still.
It is sometimes gwen to pups to stunt
their growth and turn them into freaks. "
The young man hoping for the highest
possible mental and physical development
should think seriously OF this when tempt
ed to put himself in the place Of the pup.
Young man, don't drink!
There's is no good in it. The only pos
sible result is harm to yourself and sor-
row to those that love you best.
Refuse the first drink, or, If you have
taken that and more, assert yopr strength
now and refuse to take another, and the
spirits of all dearest to you on earth or
in heaven will lean and listen and smile.
Take it, and devils will laugh and leer
and mock.