Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-10-29
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DRUNKENNESS NOT MODERN.
In Thirty Centuries There Has Been
No Change in Causes and Eff
fects of Intemperance.


A thousand years before Christ,
Homer, in his Odyssey. sang of fair
enchantress, Gree, whose palace.
spite of all its fine appointments, was
really "a sensual sly" ana whose
guests, as soon as they had quaffed
her cups, were transformed into
beasts,
And they so perfect in their misery,
Not once perceived their foul distig-
urement
In the very same age, Israefs poet.
king, Solomon, was painting, with in
imitable skill, the horrid likeness OF
the drunkard, his woe, his folly, and
his fate. The picture has flashed
before each succeeding generation an
inspired danger signal, powerful de-
terrent from intemperance.
The very antiquity of the picture il
Illustrates the fact that drunkenness is
no modern vice. 1t is not the acct
dent of civilization. 1t is as old as
the time of Noah and older. 1t was
probably provoking cause of that
nameless depravity which was
drowned out in the awful judgment OF
the flood. Each succeeding genera
ton has suffered the crushing weight
of this dreadful woe; each been
burned, bitten, and poisoned by this
vice; from each has burst the sor-
rowful despairing intersection, OH"
Alas"
This picture, 5000 years old, is an
exact likeness of the drunkard of
to-day. In 30 centuries there has
been no change in the causes and eff
fects of intemperance Those who
-tarry at wine, by the increase of the
subtle and powerful appetite, are COM
PEELED to seek stronger rotations
(mixed wine). The graduation from
light wine. to red wine and the high
ly alcoholized wine with its eyes and
beads, is inevitable Then follow the
facial signs of inebriety (redness of
eyes,; next quarrelsomeness, cause
less wounds, and the inf1aming of sex
ual passions; finally, incipient demen-
tia, which makes the drunkard obliv-
ious to personal danger, and to in
dignities visited upon him by hooting
mob or officer of lava dementia,
however, in which the appetite per-
sistently asserts itself, the worm dieth
not, the fire is not quenched. all is
forgotten, all is lost; but among the
debris of the mind, heart, and man
hood the conqueror stalks,
And careth naught
For the awful ruin he hath wrought.
No truly philanthropic spirit can
push this direful picture aside No
Christian can do So unless the Bible
permits him to say: I'm not my
brothers keeper" But if neither phil
anthropist nor Christian, whether he
will or no, the citizen must, from
self-interest, sooner or later give at
tention to this mirror which Solomon
holds up before our times. There is
blood-spot upon the hand of our
American civilization 1t will not
"out." Here's the smell of blood still;
all the perfumes of Arabia will not
sweeten the hand Self-interest and
defense will soon compel the govern
ment, aside from all suggestions of hui
manity, to take stand against the
traffic which produces a deteriorated
manhood, insanity, pauperism, crime,
and death
Some means of defense are here
suggested:
l. Total abstinence is the Ulyssian
flower which disarms the modern
Gree of her Internal spell. 1t will
save our boys and young men from
being converted into beasts.
2. Many perish for lack of knowl-
edge. Scientific education in the pub
lie schools on the subject of intemper-
ance is the duty of the state.
3. The enforcement of all existing
temperance laws by every honorable
means.