Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-11-03


Pittsburg.
At the recent convention in PittSburg
| of the Catholic Total Abstinence union
William H. OBrien of st. Louis, supe-
rior commander of the Knights of Fa-
Their Mathew, delivered a notable adj
dress on Strong Men which aroused
much enthusiasm among his hearers.
He said in part:
The allurements OF dissipation find
an easy prey in the man who mas
achieved apparent success without
moral guidance, unless the avarice OF
miser or INSCRIPTIONS ambition leads
him to as unhappy an end.
This leads me to the conclusion that
the drink habit is worse than the sin OF
avarice or unworthy ambition. Each
of the three is opposed to the good OF
our neighbor and brings its blight on
| tie life of its slave, but the sin of drink
prostitutes q noble mind to a grovel-
ing appetite and has its inevitable train
of evil for family and children.
The wretch who knows no God but
money or power may possibly injure
! only himself. or his eXertiOns may be
! even made to run in channel OF good
for others, but what benefit may
drunkard's life be to his wife, his child.
i or his neighbor?
| To seek enjoyment through drink not
only shows a depraved appetite, but
supposeS low order IF mentality as
we'll What to healthy minded. moral
man is so pitiable as q maudlin mind?
What more cheerful and exhilar" ting
than natural, intelligent, care free
pleasure?
If there is feast Of reason, who are
its most competent guests? If there is
q flow Of soul, who should most ra-
tionally participate? If there is hos
pitality, when our brother asks for
bread shall we give him a serpent:
And what serpent has slain more thou
sands than the serpent Of the still!
Must we dethrone our own reason ana
that Of our guest that we may enter
tain him?
Yet the influence Of the liquor traffic
who can measure? And what could 1t
effect unless the arrogant and the rich
are allied with the ignorant, who know
naught but to follow their british in
stincts? For q M, n to engage In the
liquor traffic seems to me to make him
willing to resort to any extreme to
maintain 1t. If he Is without reflection
as to the misery it entails he Is too lg-
norant to be enlightened. If he sees
this misery-and how can he be so
! blind as not to?-and persist in 1t, his
heart is adamant, and his ear opens
only to schemes for its perpetuatlon
and extension.
, Therefore my conclusion is that for
; the true and permanent advancement
and extension Of total abstinence we
need education Of the whole man. Let
us build up the gentleman with moral
fiber and not multiply the polished ras-
cal, lofty in his assumption Of knowl-
edge, but weak at the core with no sus-
. tanning principle to shape his life.
! In 90 per cent Of the cases where men
have fallen and in ALL or nearly all,
! the cases where men have failed in life
fine cause is apparent to the casual as
, well as the close observer. What Is II,
then, that Is so besetting to our felloW
men. that in the one case causes them
to fall when they have arisen to lofty
and honorable places and in the other
case prevents them from occupying the
places that men in this country and at
this time should enjoy? 1t Is the intox-
icating drink habit, which in its lnsld-
iousness spares no one and whose ten
tacles are spread all over our land, ar
fecting all classes Of our people ana
leaving in it's wake wrecked lives,
homes, businesses and professions, as
well as deserted churches.
1t is singular indeed that men should
proclaim themselves strong when be-
fore them they see the wrecks on the
shoals Of intemperance and nave not
the mental strength to steer their lives
in the safe channels Of total absu-
nence. 1t looks as If they in their bac-
chanalian dreams were possessed or
some demon for the time that led them
OF and on by easy stages until before
realization came to them they were
gone, seldom if ever to be brought back
to their natural selves in the condition
that they once were. They may be able
after the shock comes to abstain in fu-
ture from drinking intoxicants. but
even if they do the iii effects are ap-
parent and felt in some of their phys
ical organism. and the excuses OF the
father are oftcntimes visited on tn"
child and thereby handed down to their
posterity.
After all. IT is the strong man that is
the total abStainer. He is the one that
can resist and avoid the nefarious
treating habit He is the one that can
stand out and proclaim that he has
mind that can control his appetite. He
Is the one in view of these facts that