Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-09-29


appeared before our advancing civili-
cation. the trails of the adders of in
toxication are even more multitude
nous now than ever before
Serpents Everywhere.
The serpents of intoxication have in
creased so rapidly that they are now
innumerable. We hear their hiss ir
almost every legislative hall. We see
their eyes cleaning out of almost ev-
e.y palace. We find them lying under
the orange blossoms of the marriage
altar, as well as in the detention hos
pitfalls for the patients who have their
rooms filled with the coiling serpents
of delirium tremens. We find many of
our statesmen paralyzed by the glance
of this adder's eyes, as a poor, little
frightened sparrow might tremble and
crouch untd she falls into the open
mouth of the blacksnake which has
charmed her. We find that even a few
of the ministers who fill the pulpits of
the gospel of Jesus Christ are terror
lied by the sight of the serpent of in
toxication, because the rich brewer
may be the president of the board Of
trustees or the wealthy distiller's fam
lily may be the largest contributors to
the financial support of the church.
The curse of sinful intoxicants is uni
versal; therefore all Christian people
and that includes you and me-should
band themselves together for its ex-
tinction. We should deal with the SER
pent of strong drink in the same way
the trave-ers over the western prairies
deal with the rattlesnakeS. There it
is universally obeyed law that every
man shall kill every rattlesnake he
may see. 1t ought also to be a uni
versally obeyed Christian law that ev-
cry Christian should strike at the hid
eous head Of the Satanic adder of in
toXication whenever it reveals itself
or lifts its fatal poisonous fangs to
strike
There are four distinct reasons for
hating this serpentine evil of intoxi-
cantS, four distinct reasons to wage
against it unsparing and relentless
warfare. The first is because the SER
pent of intoxicants destroys q mans
brain, dethroning his reason and utter
ly running his mental capacity for any
kind of important work. AS mer-
chant he will enter into wildcat spec
ulations until often his whole fortune
Is swept away. AS a physician he Will
unfit himself for the sickroom AS
lawyer he will ruin his practice, be-
cause he can no longer plead in the
courtroom 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 way. Make way.
Leave him alone! He drinks. He
drinksr'
When man begins to drink intoxi-
cants. his mental usefulness is inevita-
bly, weakened. The temperance lectur-
crs sometimes neglect to press home
this appalling fact when they dwell
upon the vast amount of money which
Is annually spent in a national LIQUOR
DILL They tell us that one seventy-fifth
of all the American race is every year
engaged in the manufacture and the
sale of intoxicants. They assert that
$9OO,OOO0O0 Is spent annually for ac-
cursed drink. They affirm that great
army of over $4,000 men and women
living in the city of Chicago devote
their entire time to running the places
OF evil resorts which are chiefly kept
open through the influence of strong
drink. The amount spent every year
n hi &C.
but that is one of the least of the evils.
Many rich man could easily afford
to spend $1,000 or $4,000 or even 500
600 annually for liquors if the evil end
ed there. But no man. not even John
ID. Rockefeller. rich as he is. can af-
ford to drink intoxicating liquors..
When a man is addicted to strong
drink. he is heading toward mental as
well as physical, depletion and annihi-
lation.
FarreachinG Results of Drink.
The evil results of a mans mind
long weakened by intoxicants are very
farreaching. We read with amaze
ment ROW g boa constructor can swal-
low down a calf or kid or deer ap-
parently five times wider than the
natural size of the serpent's throat.
But every country boy has seen the
same phenomenon upon small scale.
snake with a throat hardly larger
than your little finger will give chase
to large. fat toad. 1t will then gather
together the two hind legs of the toad
and by suction slowly draw the whole
body down it's throat and into the
stomach. Then. if the country boy
will pick up the snake by the tail and
snap him as he would a whpcorG, the
serpent's mouth will open and the toad
will be elected. alive and we'll, as was
Jonah when thrown from the mouth
i of the big fish after he had been
voyaging for three days in its internal
cavity. But. though the student of
serpentology may wonder at the size
of big toad which a small snake is
able to swallow. his wonderment ought
| fO no u0fllinO ..orpr,o rod to tho ,,++ox