The Washington herald., 1907-01-06
EARTHQUAKE AS A RUM cure
Great Soldering Up Time They Had
at San Francisco.
Army Surgeon Says Liquor Was Gu
on and Many DrUnkards Forgot
the Taste of IL.

The Earthquake as a Rum Cure'-that
will be the name OF a little treatise I shall
write one Of these days, when / get time. 20
said an army officer, recently transferred
from san Francisco. He was serving at
one Of the san Francisco military posts
AT the time of the earthquake, and when
the city was turned into a camp he was
one Of the detail Of army surgeons assign
ed to cooperate with the health authori-
ties in attending the sick, writes the
Washington correspondent Of the Chicago
Post.
I'd hate TO say for fear Of being accused
of cxaggeration," ne went on, how many
hopeless San Francisco soaks were shaken
out Of the rum habit by the earthquake
and fire and by the long period Of en-
forced abstinence that followed. The de
structon Of the city by earthquake ana
fire is a heroic method of curing rum
fighters, and I'm not maintaining that fl
was meant that way But 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 There were thousands
whom the sudden deprivation of liquor
hit hard.
THE poor fellows assuredly suffered
horribly. The hundreds Of waterfront
wrecks who We're on the verge of deIirium
tremens had an especially vicious siege
of It. 1 never saw or heard OF so many
human beings walking aimlessly around
with the d. is in my life. They mOaned.
howIed, begged. pleaded, and implored for
liquor. but there wasn't any chance for
them to get any.
For more than week hundreds of
men were little less than wild, and the
soldiers had all they could do TO handle
them. They couldn't eat or sleep, but
/ just tossed around and groaned. Bromidcs
and quieting drains were served out to
the worst cases, but the open air and the
positive necessities of the situation began
to affect them after the first three or four
days.
Just as soon as It was apparent that
they were fit to work. they were put at it
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 them hadn't been hungry
for food or anything else but rum for
years and years. 1t made them sleep.
The chill air, full CT ozone, helped, too,
when they had been hanging around the
foul back rooms Of grOggeries most of
their time
THE men Of the better element who
were caught in the midst OF heavy. con-
tinuOus drinking by the whisky drought
were surprised and delighted, too 10 find
how vigorous and CleaT-headed and gen
orally well they felt without their con
slant nips.
"Out of curiosity, when the saloons re-
sumed business early in July, ! kept an
eve on a large number of these fellows
Of all classes. whose cases had come I'M
der my own observation. TO note if they
would stick. Ninety-five per cent of those
I watched stuck
"a large number of other medical men
kept an eye on the situation after the re
opening of the saloons. just as I did, and
their observations conceded with mine
The great majority of the chronic rum
fighters of the ante-earthquake period
chung to the water wagon when the rum
ban was lifted, and are on board of it yet,
working amid ruins. most Of them, and
giving themselves the chance in life that
they deserve. I honestly believe.
Taking il altogether. I believe this
was the greatest sObering-up incident in
history. ANY other way of accomplishing
the same result would have been impossi-
BILE"