The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-11-05
WHY TOTAL ABSTINENCE Is BEST.

WHY TOTAL ABSTINENCE is BEST.
In morals it is never best to begin
what it is wrong 10 continue. Right
has pre-empted the ages. Vice that
has no beginning will have no con-
summation. Death is the finishing
touch of sin. Better not touch that
whose touch is death. Who tampers
with sin has already sinned. It is
wrong to concede that sin has any
rights. Wrong has no claim to hear
ing.
Why is it best to totally abstain from
the use of intoxicants? That is the
question that calls for an answer.
Viewed from any standpoint of human
interest, total abstinence is the best.
l. 1t is best from the sanitary stand
point.
(a) \ few years ago the following
statement was made in the Michigan
Christian Advocate by Rev. DR.. James
H. Potts:
THE history of Asiatic cholera, in
all lands and in all of the past vista
tions, proves that the intemperate are
its first victims. The Incorporate and
what are called moderate drinkers
make up nine tenths of its subjects"
(b) Intoxicating liquor interferes
with the normal action of all the vital
organs. Unnaturalness on the part OF
any vital organ is itself species OF
disease.
(c) Explorers and military officers
have found that drinking men can not
endure hardshlps as well as those who
are temperate.
,. Total abstinence is-best from the
standpoint of science.
(a) Science teaches that as the spur
is to the horse, so is alchohol to the
man. 1t excites energy, but it imparts
none. 1t stimulates, but does not
strengthen. 1t hastens the consump-
ton OF the fuel on hand, but it supplies
no fresh fuel.
(b) DR.. n. S. Davis, an eminent au-
thority on this subject, said few years
ago, as chairman Of the International
Medical Congress held on Staten
Island:
by all chemists and other scientific
men, alchohol is classed as an active
poison: it destroys the vitality OF the
tissues with which it comes in contact
as readily as creosote or pure carbollc
acid"
5. Total abstinence is best from the
social standpoint.
(a) The majority of domestic difficult
ties which lead to divorces are trace
able directly or indirectly to drunken
dissipation.
(b) The saloon is the poison pool in
which anarchists and assassins are
spawned ike fish. 1t is the mother OF
murder and the school of criminals.
It is the nations chief den of thieves.
We have set free the saloon and
shut up the drunkard. Now let US set
free the drunkard by shutting up the
saloon.
i. Total abstinence is best from the
monetary standpoint.
(a) DIR. Louis Albert Banks tells of a
prominent railroad official in the east
who, in fit of maudlin imbecility, d.
vulged business secret which cost him
millions OF dollars.
(b) In recent times the liquor traffic
paid New York City an indulgence fee
for single year of 81: 729, 100. That
same year the traffic cost the city S24l,-
100000. That is fairly representative
of the profit and loss all over the coun-
try. Here, as everywhere, the saloon
is destroyer.
5. Total abstinence is best from q
mental standpoint.
(a) Alchohol inebriates. According
to the standard dictionaries that
means "a disordering of the senses" "
Alchohol confuses. Clear thinking can
never be done by confused brain.
(b) The records of the asylums for
imbeciles and the insane show that in
toxicants are, directly or indirectly,
responsible for an alarmingly large per
cent of the imbecility and insanity OF
the country.
6. Total abstinence is best from
moral standpoint.
The saloon is the chief demoralizer
of society.
(a) A few years ago the largest city
in the United States paid in one year
So, 200. 900 on account of the crimes COM
mitted by the saloons il its precincts.
That same year the saloons paid that
city Sl,729,100 for license 10 commit
those crimes.
(b) Joseph Cook declared that the
saloon is responsible for about nine
tenths of all the crimes committed in
this country. Whatever has no regard
for right morals in community can
have no moral rights in that communl-
Northwestern Advocate.