The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-11-15
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF iNTEMPERANcE:

The Rev. Thomas B. Gregory Tells In the
New York American What Moderate
Drinking is Doing For France-A Tor.
rible Enemy TO Personal Health.
The French Government is face to
| face with the most serious problem it
| yer had to deal with.
France is dying from alcoholism"
or will be pretty soon unless something
is done to prevent it, and that some
| thing the authorities are trying hard
to do.
All France is being placarded with
large posters describing the evils of al
coholism, and imploring the people to
refrain from the use. of all alcoholic
liquors.
Tracts upon the blessings of temper
pnce and the evils of the drink habit
are being scattered throughout the Re-
public; the clergy are preaching upon
the ravages that alcoholism is working
among the people, end the whole force
Of the Government is being centred in
the one grand effort to save the nation
from the destruction with which it is
threatened,
Let it be said just here that the trou-
BILE in France is not that Of drunk
enness, as that term is generally IN
derstood. The claim, long made with
pride by the French people that they
are a nation of moderate drinkers" Is
4 perfectly correct one. 49,
1t is this moderate drinking"-not
drunkenness, but continuous, respect
\ able alcoholism, the screwing up Of
nerves and heating of blood, day and
| night. year in and year out-that is to-
day threatening the very existence OF
the French nation! q,
A drunken man, other than a for
| eigner, is q rare sight in France, and
| yet while very few Frenchmen drink
| excessively, nearly all Frenchmen
drink .moderately"-with the result
that they are being actually threatened
| with national extinction!
It is an open secret that, for a gener-
| alton or more, France has been losing
| it's vitality. It was only :. little while
| ago that the fact appeared that the de-
| creased vitality was due to alcoholism,
the poisoning and weakening and gen.
| eral decentralization Of the system by
! the steady, though moderate, use of
spirituous liquors.
That France is in a most dangerous
way is clearly shown by the statistics
| gathered by her OWL Government oh-
Gals. . .
Suicide, insanity, tuberculosis, dia-
betes, Bright's disease, epilepsy and
| idiocy are alarmingly on the increase.
The physique Of the French people
is being undermined. Their blood is
turning white. Moderate drinking is
killing them.
For a decade or so the birth rate has
| been abnormally low, as compared with
| the death rate. The "desire to live"
| and to perpetuate ones self is losing
its hold upon the French mind.
Government, alarmed ny the steadily
decreasing birth list, Is obliged to offer
rewards for maternity!
There are here and there in France a
few spots that are unalcoholized, and
in those areas the human animal is
still strong and vigorous, as he was In
Caesars day, as he was even SO late as
the time of Napoleon the First.
In the unalcoholized departments
there are not only a great many more
children, but a much greater percent
age who reach the adult age.
The comparatively temperate depart
ment of Gers loses annually but ninety
one children in their first year; the
Nord, strongly alcoholized. loses 2S4
out Of the same number; the Seine In
ferieure 256, and so on in proportion.
And so, it appears, the moderate
drinking of the great French people is
slowly but surely destroying them.
Brilliant, affable, generous, brave.
among the oldest Of the friends of lib
erty and Of man, with q past that Is
glorious to reflect upon, the French
people must soon do one Of two things
wipe out their alcoholism. or at the
hands Of that alcoholism perish!j
We of America would do well to
carefully note one of the posters that
are now being placed throughout
France. 1t reads as follows:
"No one requires alcohol either as
food or tonic.
"Alcohol weakens q mans self-con-
troll while exciting his passions, hence
the number Of crimes committed under
its influence.
whisky rapidly produces alcohol
ism. but milder drinks, such as beer
and cider, produce, after a time, alco-
holic poisoning with equal certainty.
1.-THE sins of alcoholic parents are Wis
tied on their children. If the children
survive infancy they are threatened
with idiocy, epilepsy and consumption.
SIN short, alcoholism Is the most ter
rible enemy to personal health, to fam
lily happiness and to national prosper
ity."-New York American.