The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-12


 that every man shall kill every rattle
 snake he may see. It ought also to be
 universally obeyed Christian law that
 every Christian should strike at the hid-
 eous head of the Satanic adder of in-
 toxication whenever 1t reveals itself of fatal poisonous fangs to strike.
 There are four distinct reasons for hat ing this serpentine evil of intoxicants. four distinct reasons to wage against 1t unsparing and relentless warfare. The
 first is because the serpent of intoxicants destroys a mans brain dethroning his reason and utterly ruining his mental ca pacity for any kind of important work. As a merchant he will enter into wildcat speculatfons until often his whole for tune is swept away. As a physician he will unfit himself for the sick room. As a lawyer he will ruin his practice, be- cause he can no longer plead in the court room as he once could plead. And everywhere the cry will be raised about this poor. drunken mental wreck, no matter in what sphere of life he may live: Make wayl Make wayi Leave him alone! He drinlSs He drinks!
 When Q man begins to drink intoxi- cants, his mental usefulness Is inevita-
 bly weakened The temperance lectur- l ers sometfs1aes= neglect to press home this appauling fact when they dwell upon the vast amount of money which is annu- ally spent in national liquor bill. They tell us that one-seventy-f1fth of all the American race is every year engaged in the manufacture and sale of intoxicants. They assert that 5000, 900 is spent an- nually for accursed drink. They affirm l that great army of over 5000 men and
 women living in the city of Chicago de-
 vote their entire time to running the ;. places of evil resorts which are chiefly kept open through the influence of strong | rip1-
 upon national liquor bill Is appalling
 but that is one of the least Of the evils. | Many rich man could easily afford to
 spend S5000 or $l0000 or even s20,000 an-
 nually for liquors if the evil ended there. But no rich man, not even John D. Rock
 feller, rich as he is, can afford to drink
 intoxicating liquors. When man Is ad-
 dicted to strong drink he is heading to-
 ward mental as well as physical deple- ton and annihilation.
 FarreachIne Results of Drink. l The evil results or a mans mind long 1 weakened by intoxicants are very far 1 reaching. We read with amazement how a boa constructor can swallow down a
 calf or kid or deer apparently five times
 wider than the throat But every coun- 1 try boy has seen the same phenomenon
 upon a small scale. snake with a l throat hardly larger than your little fin- ger will give chase to large, fat toad. It will then gather together the two hind legs of the toad and by suction slowly draw the whole body down Its throat and into the stomach. Then, if the country boy will pick up the snake and snap him as he would a whipcord the serpents mouth will open and the toad will be elected, alive and we'll as was Jonah
 when thrown from the mouth of the big fish after he had been voyaging for three 1 days in its internal cavity. But though 1 the student of serpentology may wonder
 at the size of a big toad which small I snake Is able to swallow his wonderment ought to be as nothing compared to the
 utter astonishment with which he sees
 the huge meal which the serpent of in-
 toxication can swallow after the brain l of It's victim has been wrecked by strong 1 drink. Without any apparent effort 1t 1 can swallow down the merchants store,
 the minister's pulpit, the lawyers office,
 the surgeons operating table, the me- l chanic's bench. the engineers engine. the
 sea saptain's ship. And, mark you in
 order that the Solomonic serpent may ac- | complish this gastronomic feat its vic- | tim does not have to be intoxicated all
 the time. All that the minister has to do to lose his pulpit is to reel as drunk l ard-just once All that the engineer has
 to do to wreck his train Is to be drunk 1 just once. All the physician has to do to
 
 tient is to be drunk-just once. On ac-
 count, therefore of the becloudment of | a mans intellect and the unseating of
 the human reason through the influence
 of the wine cup I hate the Solomonic ad-
 der with an intense hatred. l hate It
 with unutterable loathing l hate 1t as | God wants every Christian to hate sin.
 The serpent of intoxication can destroy
 a mans heart as well as his head. We
 read of a bridegroom who took his young | bride to a cabin upon the hilsides of the l Rocky mountains. The young husband l unknowingly built his home over den | of snaks. After the married couple had l retired for the night they had lighted on
 that cold winter night warmed the dor mant serpents into life. They came forth
 into the room of the sleeping couple.
 They crawled up upon the bed. They | buried their cruel fangs In the flesh or l man and woman alike, and the nuptual l couch became the bed of death. When l husband looks upon the wine when IL IS red he always builds his home over l den of vipers. He lets the poisonous ser
 nents crawl up into his bed and not only l slav his body, but also poison his love | for his wife and his children, for his parents and his brothers and his sisters for all who ought to be near and dear 10 him and whom he ought to love better than his own life.
 The Heart of Drunkard.
 The drunkard's heart through the touch of inc adder of intoxication not only be- comes A poisoned heart, but the merciless heart of an inhuman monster. In order to drink A drunkard Is willing practically | +o go to any extreme. He is ready to let wife and children starve. have known | two drunkards who were willing to sell | ther own flesh and blood Into a lie or 1 crime in order that they might get liquor 1 with which to satisfy their diaooiicai | thirst. These two drunkards were not l men of the lowest social rank They were | men who were born in as good iamliles l as vo,,rs or mine But why continue this | strain? Is there any need or my longer
 dascr,hing how the sery nt of intoxica-
 .io,s aa, destroy a mans love for his
 .tsa and hts children? No. In the rags
 of Inc factories we see it, in the scandals
 of tne divorce courts we read 1t; in the | borrors of the reformatory schools We 1 can nrove it. Let us pass on m our ln- l dictment of this coiling serpent or tne ] wine cup. r as+-o,.. The solomonic serpentine evil destroys i n ran,s soul as well as the temporal use l fulness of his brain and the loVlng power of bis heart. This Is not pleasant SUD- | sact to touch It is not pleasant because 1 ynanv If us have had friends, dear 1 friends. who have met or are today on 1 tha u,av to meet a drunkard's doom. But nv brother. we must be true to the nv 1 ing as well as to the dead. If you hao . loved one who was contemplating the | commission of heinous crime, what would YOU do? Why, you would go 10 1 that friend and say: Brother, If ycu do | this you will have to pass many years m