Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-07-28
Why Did
 Noah Drink?
BEING EXTRACTS FROM THE
 GREAT LECTURE ON TEMPER
 ANCE BY T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

"There has, in all ages and climes, been tendency to the improper use of stimulants. Noah, as if disgusted with the prevalence of water in his time, took to strong drink. By this vice, Alexander the Conqueror was con quered. The Romans at their feasts fell off their seats with intoxication. Four hundred millions of our race are opium eaters. One hundred millions are the victims of the betel nut, which has spe- eially blasted the East Indies. Three hundred millions chew hasheesh. The Tartars employ murowa; the Mexicans, the agaye; while a great multitude that no man can number, are disciples of alcohol. To it they bow. Under it they are trampled. In its trenches they fall. On its ghastly holocaust they burn.
 Drunkennessl Does it not jingle the burglars s kcyl Does it not whet the assassin s knifel Does it not cock the highwayman g pistoll Does it not wave the incendiary torchl Has it not sent the physician reeling into the sick room; and the minister with his tongue thick into the pulpit? Did not an ex- quisitc poet, from the very top of his fame, fall gibbering sot, into the gut ter, on his way to be married to one of the fairest daughters of New England, and did he not die of delirium tremens, almost unattendedl
 Tamerlane asked for one hundred and sixty thousand skulls with which to build q pyramid in his own honor. He got the skulls, and built the pyramid fallen as prey to whiskey could be piled up they would make Q vaster pyra- mid.
 We can't regulate intemperanee.
 We are in this country, at this time, trying to regulate the evil by tax on whisky. You might as well try to reg. ulate the Asiatic cholera, or the small pox, by taxation. The men who distill liquor are, for the most part, unscrupu- lous; and the higher the tax, the more inducement to illicit distillation. New York produces forty thousand gallons of whisky every twenty-four hours; and the most of it escapes the tax. The most vigilant officials fail to discover the cellars and the vaults and sheds where the work is done.
 Oh, the folly of trying to restrain an evil by government tariffsl If every galoln of whisky made, if every flask of wine produced, should be taxed a thousand dollars, it would not be enough to pay for the tears it has wrung out of the eyes of widows and orphans, nor for the blood it has dashed on the altars of the Christian church, nor for the catastrophe of the millions it has de-. stroyed forever.
 There is no cure but prohibition.
 Once under the power of this awful thirst, the man is bound to go on; and if the foaming glass were on the other side of perdition he would wade through the fires of hell to get it. A young man in prison had such strong taste for intoxicating liquors that he cut off his hand at the wrist, called for bowl of brandy in order to stop the bleeding. thrust his wrist into the bowl and then drank the contents.
 Stand not, when the thirst is on him, between man and his cupsl Clear the track for him! Away with the chil- dren; away with the wife; away with the Cross; away with the Bible; away with heavenl "Give me the drink Give it to me! Though hands of blood pass up the bowl-tbe drink give it to me! Though it be pale with tears;