The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-08-20
Real Handicap to Genius.

There has been much sentimental sophlstry
written about the dissolute habits of brilliant men,
1t has even been argued that geniuses achieved
their best work in drink, when every obseryant man
knows that the intellectual druIkar accompllshcs
the minimum of deeds in spite, and not because Of
his drunkenness. An inherited appetite IS made
the excuse for others. but Investigation has proved
that not one drunkard Ill ten likes the flavor OF
whisky The cowardice of weallings prompts
them to evade worry by getting drunk; ldeness
invites the search for new sensations and new I'M
pressions and thousands become the slaves of
habit which started as an adventure; billiards be-
come bright for moment under the influence OF
alcohol only to drop below the low level of their
normal mentality when their weak brains are sat
uratcd with the fumes of a debauch.
In these DAYS of matcrialism the question SIS If
a sin :" is seldom asked as to drunkenness Docs
it pay!" or rs it unhealthy arc far more popular
lines of inquiry. and IN their answers, perhaps
more apt to stem the tide of Drunkenness which
is rising from wear to year. DrunkardS generally
know the true answers to these questions. They
will tell you that it is less of sin to be drunk than
to steal and they do not steal; that they have no
special use for money, or that they don't what
disease they die of. since they must die anyway.
There is nothing curious mystifying about the
development of drunken habits III the individual.
There are pathological as we'll spiritual reasons
for the permanence of the habit, once formed But
there are millions of drunkards in the world who
do not realize the effects upon their own lives
brought about by the excessive use of stimulants.
In this connection it should be admitted by
every drnker of alcoholic beverages that one drink
results in incipient drunkenness. The rest Is a
question of degree. The resultant evils are proper
Tomato to the quantities of liquor consumed. 1t Is,
after all, matter of comparison; drunk. more
drunk, most drunk; the effects keeping step with
the degrees, but nature in its perversity or in its
logical sequence, always demanding the superlative
as the last penalty of the initial positive
There was time when the employer who OBJ
jected to his employees bibulous habits regarded
as meddlesome and impairment Now he is in the
same relative position the powder mill superin-
tendent who objects when his helpers insist on
smoking their pipes in the magazine. To say that
it was the Whisky that did the talking" may pass
for excuse for the ncoherent braggart, but then
whisky begins to falsify goods, incapaciate work
men, and disgust customers, 1t can hardly be con-
sidered impcrtinent meddlesome for the owner
of the business his conscientious managers to
object. In these days. as a matter of cold and
concrete fact the young man must choose between
liquor and success One spells failure first last
and all the time. The other is incompatible with
drunkenness in any degree. Even the moderate
drinker is the material and making of the ADAM
doned sot. There is no middle ground between
drunkenness and success; they are Ike fusel oil
and water, antagonistic and unmixable.