Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-02-22

Horrors OF Inebricty.
Hall Caine, the novelist and dramat-
list. in his "Novel with a Purpose"
deals with the drink habit. Mr.. Calne
expresses the opinion that iii the ma
iority of cases the drink habit is in.
herted Mr. Caine says:
81 wrote the little novel about seven.
teen years ago. and the reason | have
not published it in book form until
now is that have always hoped to be
able TO extend and make more i'm.
portant work of it,
"The subject has interested you for
many years.
"All my life. | have, unhappily, al.
ways been in close touch with the trag
edies of drink One aspect of the drink
question has come very close to me-
that which concerns inherited alcoholic
poisoning. In my view this is at once
the most arresting and the most griev
GUS Of all its aspects.
"My experience of it goes back to my
boyhood. \ boy friend of mine had a
drunken father and had had a drunken
grandfather. He witnessed the misery
wrought by the drink crave and suffer
ed terribly at home from it. But early
Ia his own manhood the crave had
come to him as it had come to his
grandfather, and what he and his
mother and brothers had suffered his
own wife and children suffered in their
turn. He was conscious of it all and
seemed helpless. The agony of his
death was mainly that of man who
was apparently suffering unspeakable
remorse for crime he could not help
but commit.
IL can recall at least four similar
cases, and they have left the most
vivid impression of the horror of in
herited alcoholic poisoning
Like everybody else, l have seen
the tragedy of drink in a hundred ways
all my life, but l must confine myself
to my recollections of this aspect of 1t.
During my early days in London when
l lived on the edge of Glare Market
Owed In 1t for all practical purposes),
keeping house for myself two little
rooms in the old Clement inn, buying
my food and cooking 1t myself, l came
to know at very close quarters some of
the darker sides of London life. You'll
find faint echo of my experiences In
the sketches appended to the drink
story. One day | heard under circum-
stances that would take long to tell of
a lady whose sufferings under the
drink crave had led to an extraordi-
nary duplicity of life. The lady is
dead her near relations are dead, and
perhaps it will be no serious breach of
honor to say at least what she was
"She was one of the two surviving
members Of what was then perhaps
the largest colliery company in Eng
land or the world, the other member
being her brother. Both were past
middle life. neither had married. and
they lived together in fine north coun-
try mansion. The brothers life was
understood to have been overshadowed
by certain conditions OF his sisters
health. All the outside world knew
that she was subject to periodical at
tacks of illness which confined her to
her room for some four or five days at
intervals Of two or three months Dur
ing these periods she was unseen by
any of her friends or servants except
her maid and her doctor Even her
brother never visited her room, but he
always keptto the house, as If fearing
that something serious at any time
might occur. The nature of her illness
was never quite clearly stated. When
an attack had passed away she reap
peared very pale and exhausted. Ev-
erybody pitied her. The great world
OF her work people and tenants looked
upon her as Il martyr
"She was benevolent, was the Lady
Bountiful of the county. was deeply re-
ligious and built more than one church
and, think. at least one chapel She
was interested in the temperance move
ment and paid the salary of a temper
ance missionary to work among her
work people. She did vast amount of
good. At last she died-one of her peri
odical attacks killed her-and | doubt
If the world ever knew the secret of
her infrmity. 1t was drink The poor
lady was victim of the drink crave
think there was reason to believe that
she suffered from inherited alcoholic
poisoning. Down to the last she bore
the character of Il good and noble wo-
man of the purest life, but Il trust |
am doing her memory no wrong) she
lies in what is called "a drunkard's