The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-12-27
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF iNTEMPERANCE:

Df1nk Will Suroly D0btroy al Auebo
Precious Possessions.
| Once more we take up the subject
! that is the most important of all to
millions Of human beings.
And we urge you to use this editorial
and your W stronger personal argu-
ments with young men that may be in
danger, with older men and women
that need 10 be helped to fight the
| greatest curse.
A few things make life worth while.
Among them friendship, ambition, self
respect. honesty.
All of these and many others are put
away in the graves that are dug by
drink.
First goes ambition. The grave Of
ambition is big, and 1t is filed with
the men that began to drink with the
idea that "a little would not hurt
them" only to find out. that the little
Of the beginning means destruction in
the end.
The work done by alcohol in the hu-
man mind is done insfdfOusly-with an
intelligence devilish in its cunning.
Ambition is killed in men by drink
because the foundation Of ambition is
modesty, dissatisfaction with our
selves.
Drink nskes men egotistical. It
fills them with self-approVaL They
pity themselves when they should
blame themselves.
Drink has killed more ambition than
oil other forces in life put together.
And drink kills friendship.
One by one friends are driven from
the man that put his own selfish appe-
tite ahead Of duty and Of all other con-
sideratiOn.
Drink makes men violent one day,
/ .tearfully %repentant the next day-and
both days the drinker is unmanly.
Friendship is based upon apprecia-
ton of manliness, upon the sense Of
equality between men. ,
Drink destroys equality; it drags a
man down, and it drags him away
from his friends. '
Drink destroys ambition and friend
ship. 1t kills and buries love and
happy family life.
How many wives have chung to
drunken husbands? How desperately
they have tried to ave them only the
drunkards know. : But what drink
starts out to do, it does. 1t destroys
affection, and it destroys the family.
| The family is based upon the respect
Of the children for the father and
mother.
Drink destroys respect, for it kills
that by which respect was created.
Drink destroys the drinkers self-re-
spect.
Some Of the best men in this world
have been victims Of alcohol. There
have been more desperate struggles to
reform made by drunkards than were
ever made for any other purpose by
men holding themselves above their
less fortunate brothers.
A drunkard struggles and strives,
over and over, to save himself-to save
the self-respect that is slipping away
from him.
But eventually self-respect is buried
also in the graveyard Of drink, and
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. be found in a
grave nearby.
A mans conscience attacks and wor-
ries him, even in the last stages OF
drinking. Others forgive him again
and again-but in his good moments
he does not forgive himself.
He hates himself; his self-respect
goes. IF he lasts long enough n
sinks low enough, principle and hon
esty 60 as well.
Hope, of course, lies in the grave
yard Of drink. Its death is slow, for
alcohol deceives the man that it is de-
stroying, and it deceives him with
hope. .
Hope and health end together at, last
and they are buried and added to the
list of graves.
1t is hard to cure the man upon
whom drink has fastened it's hold. OF
such men q great majority want to, do
better.
But drink has cunningly destroyed
the will first of all. And while the
drunkard wants to do what you tell
him, he wants q thousand times more
the drink that he Graves.
1t is hard to reform a mar far down
the hill.
But it is not hard to fill with hatred
and fear Of drink the young that are
still free from it, or those that are only
beginning.
Make clear TO the young men, and
especially to children, the o a that
leads to this graveyard. Let them
know that the road is a steep hill, that
gets sleeper and sleeper as it goes
down.
At the top you can stop in safety
and look into the dark graveyard at the
foot. -
A few steps down, and you can still
turn around-but it soon becomes too
late.-New York American.
W%hiskJ's Blight.
A missionary to the Indians in Brit.
ish Columbia took a key Of whisky and