The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-01-11
EARTHQUAKE CURE FOR DRINK.
Big Soldering Up Time They Had a
San francisco.
From the New YORK su,

From the New York Sun.
The Earthquake as a. Rum Cure'-that
Gill be the name of a little treatise l shall
write one of these days. when L get the
time" said an army surgeon recently
transferred from San Francisco.
I'd hate to say, for fear of being ac-
cuscd of eNaggeration," he went on, how
many quite hopeless San Francisco soaks
were shaken out of the rum habit by the
earthquake and fire and by the long per-
sod of enforced abstinence that followed.
The destruction of a city by earthquake
and fire is a pretty heroic method of cur
ing rum fighters, and I'm not maintaining
that it was meant that way. But L am
here to say that it worked out that way in
hundreds of instances that came under my
own observation.
after the earthquake the sale Of rum
was shut off tight.
San Francisco always was a hard
drinking town. There's something in the
climate out there that makes drink taste
pretty good.
The poor devils ~assuredly suffered hor-
ribly. The hundreds of waterfront wrecks
who We're on the verge OF del.irium ire
mems had an especially vicious siege of it.
I never saw or heard of so many human
beings walking aimlessly around with the
IL. rs In my life. They moaned, howled,
begged, pleaded and implored for liquor,
but there wasn't any chance for them to
get any.
For more than a week hundreds of men
were little less than wild men. and the SOL
diers had all they could do to handle them.
These men could not at first be put 10
work with the rest of the men. They were
100 weak.
'"Fhey couldn't eat or sleep. but lust
tossed around and roaned. Bromides and
quieting drains We're served out to the
xunrEr "a DIT Il 111. II: - -.
positive necessities of the situation began
to bring them around after the first three
or four days.
They began to eat q bit. rho coffee and
the rough fare of the camps helped them.
They got their snare of the tobacco served
out to all hands, and that put a bit Of
spirit nto. them.
lust as soon as 1t was perceived that
they were fit to work they were put at 1t
at the point of the bayonet. They worked
and the work was the great thing for
them. The labor drove the liquor out Of
their systems and made them hungry
and hundreds of 'em hadn't been hungry
for food or for anything else but rum for
years and years.
ut made them sleep. The chill air, fun
of ozone. helped. too. when they had been
hanging around the foul back rooms or
sroggeries most of their time.
cit was positively bully TO see the way
1hoSe chaps cane around once the first
misery of Their condition wore off and
they got TO leading the normal life. They
tiled out, became husky and strong:
1T was astonishing to note what really
good looking fellows many of these fellows
became under the influence of abstinence
from rum, hard work, coarse but whole
some food and clean living. And the
thing surprised them as much as it did
those OF US who We're merely studying the
situation.
'A!e 10 flag the booze thing even at
ter they begin peddling it again. was a re-
mark | overheard among them "a dozen
tones Il day. If / felt any better l
couldn't stand it. Haven't felt like this
since 1 was a kid. Didn't believe | ever
would feel SO chesty and bully again. No
more suds-I'm through
The men of the better element who
were caught in the midst of heavy drink
ing by the rum drought were surprised
and delighted, too. to find how vigorous
and clear headed and generally fine they
felt without their constant rips.
'Out of curiosity, when the saloons re-
sunned business early in July, / kept an
eye OIL q large rumble of these fellows of
ail classes, whose cases had come under
my own observation. to note if they would
STICK N.nety-tive per cent. of those
watched stuck.