The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-04-23
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS A6OuT
THE VICE OF lNTEMPERANcE.
Whisky's Terrible History is written in
the Misery and Shame and Ruin Of n
Hundred Generations - Strong Drink
the Cause OF Most of the Murders.

Time, last Monday afternoon: place. a
room in New York tenement house;
| dramatis personae. a man, woman, four
little children, and an invisible monster,
20 be later on materialized and unmasked.
! The woman is in bed holding close to
herself her two.day.old babe.
The three children, all sick with scarlet
| fever, are in another be in the same room.
The door opens and in comes the man,
the husband OF the woman and the father
| )f the four little children.
=. He looks wild; His eyes are bloodshot!
| His face is swollen. Under his eyes are
great puffsl He shakes like a leaf in the
wind!
A moment he stands trembling in his
shoes, and then he cries out to the little
Money! Give me some money!"
Il have none" answers the woman; "you
| know / have none"
The Withholding man curses He raved
about the room like a madman, The
mother and the three sick children tremble
| with fearl
Money! say, money" cries the man
once more. "You know i have none" tho
! wife again replies.
The man whips out pistol and aiming
at the woman with the little babe in her
arms, fires. once, twice, three times!
| The wifc's mother, hearing the noise,
rushes in and the sill smoking weapon
is turned on her! Screaming, she at.
tracts the attention of the police, and the
man is arrested-as he stands waving his
| revolver and cursing, while he gazes at the
| form of his wife on the floor.
1t is a terrible picture. It is difficult
for us to look upon it as having been an
| actual occurrence.
A devil, fiend, might have shot at that
| poor, weak woman with the little bit of a
| babe in her arms; and such devil or fiend,
| having done so might have stood over the
/ nrOstrntp form and pnrspI If ns tbp lfn
| ebbed away.
But how could human being commit
such a deed?
1t was not human heing who did that
deed. 1t was the work, Of the invisible
monster we spoke of--which monster we
now drag into the light and call by its
| true name--whisiy.
1t was whisky that did that deed. The
man had been drunk for four straight
weeks; and when he went into that room
! where his wife and children were he was
not a man, but demon.
| The whisky had dehumanized him. 1t
had destroyed his love for his family, wiped
out his tenderness OF heart, killed his
humanity, and left rampant in him only
the mad, senseless rawlings OF the drink.
crazed maniac.
He did not see the mother. he did not
see the little two-day.old babe upon the
mothers arm-he simply shot at the thing
which, according to his disordered fancy,
! stood between MN ana the nre-Water Tor
which he thirsted!
We have told the story in the fewest
plainest words possible, and but little else
remains for us to do.
The man who drinks whisky. even
though he may drink it in what he calls
moderation, cannot say that he will not
| yet become the murderer OF his own flesh
and blood.
1t will naturally occur to the reader
| that it is a story that is likely to be re.
| peated in any home where whisky is all
| lowed to enter.
| Men are pretty nearly alike the world
over. Whisky is the same sort of thing
| everywhere, and everywhere its effects are
| identical.
1t is an enemy with which you can take
no chances. 1t has no honor and no heart.
! Cold .blooded as the grave and venomous as
hell, its tactics are always the same First,
TO tempt, then to deceive, and finally to
| destroy.
Whisky is the one thing with which no
one can afford to experiment.
Experiment? There is no experiment
US if we fool with it!
Its terrible history is written in the
misery and shame and ruin OF a hundred
generations,
The great world.poet knew we'll what he
was about when he made one OF his char
acters exclam:
30, thou invisible spirit Of wine, if thou
hast no other name to be known by, let us
call thee devil"
a devil it is. pure and simple, gloating
over the wrecks it makes. laughing in
fiendsh glee above the ruin it works
| Rum has no conscience. The sanctities
OF life find no favor in its eyes. 1t has
no veneration for the kindnesses that make
lie beautiful.
Commanders have been known to fill
| their soldiers with whisky Just before TAX
ing them into battle. Why?
Because they knew that the whisky
would inflame their passions, deaden the
natural kindness of their hearts, and so
enable them to kill their fellows with the
better grace.
The effects of the stuff are degrading and
! brutalzing,
1t makes no difference how noble one
may be to begin with, it is within the
! power of alcohol to make a murderer of
| him.
A large percentage OF the murders com
| mitted in the world are inspired by strong
drink
Crazed by rum men do things of which
they would be quite incapable if sober
and in their right minds.
OF course this is an old story, a very
! old one; but in the presence OF a tragedy
! like the one we are now considering we
cannot resist the temptation to tell the
o,d story just one time more.
We love the young men. Apart from
| the fact that in them lies the hope for the
! future of our country. we are interested iu
them for themselves alone.
And because this is we say to him:
| For Gods sake, for the sake of your
mothers love, if she is alive, of her mem,
ory if she is dead, and for the sake of
| all that YOU hope to be in this world-let
whisky alonc.-New York American.