The National tribune., 1906-07-05
Beer, the Colossal Demon.

Unspeakable as are the evils of whis-
ky drinking. those of beer are i'm
measurably worse. Where whisky slays
its tens of thousands. beer slays its
millions. Whisky is an active but in
termittent fiend. With many he only
stabs at times and seasons. and has his
vacations of evil doing. Beer is a slug
gish, corrosive. persistent demon that
rests not neither day nor night. Whis-
ky has the viciousness of rattlesnake:
beer. the Shiny. -noisome. unshakable
grasp of deyilfsh. Men may do good
things as well as bad tsingS under the
influence of whisky. but never under
that of beer. 1t Is deadening, stupefy
ing. callousfng, finally paralyZing. Some
men may drink whisky all their lives
and yet live the fun sheaf of years of
the psalmist. Never the beer drinker.
Many physicians to whom the question
is referred will Immediately answer by
another question: Point me out a
gray-haired beer drinker." This is inn
possible. ~Gray-haired whisky drinkers
are common. The beer drinkers body
rOts away before his hair whitens. All
physicians will at once say that of all
their patients they most dread a habit
ual beer drinker. He has no reserve,
no stock of vitality upon which to
draw. and when a disease that a healthy
man would throw off with little trou-
hie sets its fangs on him he is marked
for the grave In every large city
thousands of deaths occur every year
in which the cause is given as pneu-
monia. but the real cause is that the
beer drinkers stamina has been so low
cred that a slight cold becomes a fatal
disease. Physicians may, and do, dis
agree upon almost everything else. but
upon this they are astoHiShingly unani-
nous Everyone will testify that Il
beer drinkers life is shortened in exact
proportion to the amount of the sloppy
brew that he consumes. 1t affects him
In every way and every organ Of his
body. beginning with cirrhosis of the
liver. or what is usually called hob
nailed liver. and then attacking his kid
neys his lungs. his heart, his eyes, and
in fact every vital organ. 1t seems to
be more penetrating insidious and
deadly than whisky. because no organ
or fiber escapes injury and final break
down from it.
Nearly two centuries ago Benjamin
Franklin, then a joarneyman printer
in London. demonstrated to his fellow
workmen that the man who drank beer
even moderately was incapable of do
ing either as much work or as good
work as those who abstained from it.
We have recently another startling
demonstration, which cannot be gain
Sdlu. III tne poor showing made at the
Olympic games in Athens by the Ger
man athletes. They were far out
classed by those from Great Britain and
still more by those from the United
States. The results were so striking
that the German scientists have taken
the matter up and they admit unreserv-
edly that beer drinking produces fab
biness of tissue and a lack of stamina
that degrades a mans physical consti-
tuition and places him at diSadvan-
tage in competition with men who drink
no beer, though they may occasionally
indulge in whisky or wine.
The Reasons.
There are good reasons for this. The
alcohol in the beer Is grossly impure.
There Is from six to IL per cent of al
cohol in beer, and it is polluted with
all the vicious substances resulting from
the decomposition, rotting, of the star
chy and other vegetable matters used
in brewing. Undoubtedly in the pro-
cess of brewing there are numerous and
little known vegetable poisonS of 4 |
deadly nature developed in the course
Of the rotting of the grains used in
brewing. There must be actual decay
and change of matter in the process of
brewing and this must necessarily de-