The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-05-01
TEMPERANCE AND GREATNESS
ton That the Worlds Great Men
Have Been Drinkers.

JrOlleu creature, Is TO be pltleu.
But scores of hard drinkers, very
hard drinkers, have made great
names for themselves. Alexander,
Pitt, Poe, Johnson, Mirabeau, Grant,
Daniel Webster, Alcibiades, Charles
James FoX-to say nothing of the
venerable Noah. Where are the tee
totalers to match this list? They do
not exist"
The writer then calls upon advo-
Gates of total abstinence to explain
how so much has been achieved in
spite of the universal popularity #
the rum Acmon."
TO which we reply, simply because
every generation has had it's item
perance fanatics" who have not al
lowed the rum demon" to do his full
work. Should he ever succeed in CO.
tanning the supremacy, we should
soon cease to produce great men, or
women, either, and, from being the
| dominant race of the world, we
should become the most abiect. The
implication of the article that the
rum demon deserves any credit for
our present position and achieve
ments, seems too puerile for serious
consideration. Yet "such things pass
for arguments" among presumably
rational people, even in the twentieth
century.
THE universal popularity of the
rum demon!" Certainly the women
of the w. C. T. U. do not deny that
the rum demon" enjoys a danger
GUS degree of popularity, one which,
in their judgment threatens the life
of our nation. Therefore the w. c..
7. U. exists. Neither do we deny
that it is easier to make a list of
drinkers than of total abstainers, be-
cause evil is always better known
than good. If prominent man
drinks to excess all the world knows
| it. If he is a total abstainer, ''the
world pays little attention to that
| fact.
While we can readily mention" such
"really great men" as Lincoln, Glad
stone and Whittier, who were teeto-
talers, better text for a temperance
lecture could hardly be found than
this very list given by the liquor or
gan. First Gen. Grants name is to
| be cast out. Gen. Grant was not even
hard drinker. 1t is question
whether, during the years when he
acquired his fame, he drank at all
| We know that enemies slandered him.
that he was reported drunk at the
| battle of Shiloh, but thar is acllnowl-
edged on all sides now to be a vile
SANDER. We were personally ac-
| quainted with a captain who served
under him, a man of unquestioned
| truthfulness, whom we have more
than once heard say that, though he
had many times been in Grants tent
when liquor was served, he never saw
| Grant drink it and he had repeatedly
heard Grant say: Help yourselves
gentlemen, you know that l do not
touch it."
We are at loss to know what
Johnson is meant. We freely ac-
knowledge that Andrew johnson dis.
graced himself and the nation by be-
ing drunk at his Inauguration as vice
president. But if he is a "really
great man." we shall have no trouble
whatever in making up a list of "re
ally great" teetotalers. If DR.
Samuel Johnson is meant, we have
only to say that he does not belong
to the liquor list. Macaulay, in his
| c1y +ah Of TAh -, Lo
clopedia Britannica, says explicitly
that Johnson was a water drinker
unlike Boswell, who was a wine bib.
Der. That he was a Greatly great
man" no one questions and he may
well be mentioned second in the list
of great teetotalers.
Alexander was indeed a hard drink.
er and died in a drunken debauch
perhaps to drown his sorrow be.
cause there were mo more worlds to
conquer" He indeed made ''a great
name for himself" but whatever real
service he might have done humanity
by maintaining a world kingdom was
destroyed by his untimely death.
Mirabeau, one of the gratest Of
French statesmen, died a victim of
his own excuses at the age of AZ, at
the beginning of the French revolu-
ton, when he was the one hope of
securing for France a constitutional
: monarchy, the only possible means
by which his country could have been
saved from the reign of terror"
He made great name for himself,
in spite of the fact that he was a
Every hard drinker;" he undoubtedly
would have made a much greater
name had he been a teetotaler and
no one can tell what might have
been his service to his distressed
country.
Poe? Yes, and everyone knows
under what dark eclipse of dissipa-
ton his genius so soon went out.
Alcibiades, by the brilliancy of his
genius, made a great name for him.
SELF" but his life history gives cause
for only regret that a man of such
gifts should have so wasted them.
He thought only of himself, injured
his powers by his excuses and be-
trayed every trust reposed in him in
his efforts to make for himself a
''great name"
| No one of all the list but eyem-