The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-09-27
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF lNTsMPeRANcE.
Social Drinking and lnebriety-It is Only
Little Way From the "Good Fellow"
With Hosts OF Friends 10 the SoddeD
Drunkari With No Friends.


With Hosts OF Friends 10 the SoddeD
Drunkara With No Friends.
Personal opinion is largely o matter
of education and environment. No
where. perhaps. is this fact more
strongly emphasized than in the CON
fcting beliefs regarding the liquor
question.
In broad and general manner it
must be conceded that all respectable
people do not sec the importance of
total abstinence.
Those who have been reared in
homes where wine is served as mat
ter of ordinary hospitality, see nothing
Objectionable in such practice; or, If
they do. it has too many adherents
among the rich and powerful to oc-
casion much criticism. The thing we
are accustomed 20 we accept without
argument The custom that is sane
toned by social usage is too often
adopted without question.
All this, of course, refers to drinking
in so-called moderate and harmless
way. Wine is thought by many to
give a dash Of brilliance and Old World
splendor to festive occasion. 1t is
expected to promote Sociability and
provide an element of wit and sparkle.
But the hostess who serves it does not
expect her guests to use her hospitality
as an excuse for inebriety. She may
consider young man weak if he can.
not drink in moderation, but she GER
tainly despises him if he drinks to ex-
cess.
There may be touch Of incongruity
about the method that sets ball roll
ing, and then cavils because it keeps
on till it gets to the bottom OF the
hill. But it illustrates even more
strongly one great fact of these strenu-
Gus times, that sobriety is necessity.
1t is not only a duty, in the broadest
and most comprehensive sense, but it
is an absolute necessity, if one would
reach anything like the best results
of which The is capable. Business re-
quirements demand it, and social po'
sitio1 echoes the demand; for those
who are most lavish. with wines at
their own table are often the first to
Ostracize an offender.
Sometimes the offender is one Of the
most brilliant members of some exclu-
sive circle. Alcohol is a great con-
noisseur where victims are concerned.
1t chooses the brightest and best. And
many a woman who unwittingly has
helped to cause some other mothers
sorrow sits in loneliness and suffers the
agony of heartbreaking grief because
her own gifted boy is drunkard.
No one starts out deliberately to be-
come an inebriate. 1t is always an ac-
cident And the accident is generally
due TO one of two causes. Either the
liquor was taken as medicine, or IT
was taken as q social diversion, until
6nally it became necessity.
The advocates of social drinking ap.
parentIy do not realize it's danger. The
startling statistics and the sickeninG
details Of the drink curse either do not
reach their. knowledge, or else they
are regarded as the baSeless eXaggera-
tons Of temperance fanatics.
This is not difficult to understand.
for if one were to depend on public
manifestations of inebriety for infor'
nation along that line he would have
but faint conception Of the true con-
dition. As rule, drunkenness is not
allowed to f1ount itself in public places.
Occasionally q drunken man stumbles
onto q home-bound car in such con-
dition that he makes a sad appearance.
Or some one staggers through the
streets or creates disturbance. But for
the most part such spectacleS are not
as frequent as might be supposed.
But those who are close TO the heart
of the temperance work know that ii
Is impossible to exaggerate the horrors
of the situation. They know that no
pen can picture the ravages of the
deadly stuff, and no Imagination caB
fix limit to its far-reaching effects.
1t is only little way from the good
fellow who takes social glass with
his friends to the poor drunkard who
has no frends-or at least none outside
Of his own family; for usually there is
faithful wife who is begging and
pleading with him. or there is heart.
broken mother who is praying and
hoping that some time the tide may
turn; and often there are little children
who family understand the blight on
their young lives. Such devotion
speaks we'll for what a man must have
been before whisky gained control OF
his life.
Whisky is a great despOiler. Those
who see man only after he has como
under its power have but faint con-
ception of the changes it has wrought.
Banner Of Gold.