The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-11-17
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STRONG DRINK IS RUiNOUS
Nor Pre-emInent for intellectual At
taInments All On Side Of
Temperance.

such brilliant lights as Burns and
Poe have been cited to prove that
strong drink is an incentive to fire the
imagination to lofty heights of fancy
impossible to be reached in sober
moments
Both Burns and Poe were victims
of the drink habit and both geniuses.
but their cases so far from supporting
the claim Of alcohol to usefulness ar
! CUES against It.
II Burns and Poe, God-gitted as they
were. had kept their faculties clear
and their reasons undimmed. what
might they not have done? The for
mer might have become the Homer
OF the Eastern and the latter the
! Dante Of the Western World AS II
was, these twin stars Of the armament
OF literature sctntilIated ftfully for
only few years. They simply reeled
through life until they came to the
verge of premature graves and tot
/ tered into them ere half their time on
/ earth was spent. writes Madison c.
| Peters in an exchange.
| The age OF Johnson may be termed
| the golden age OF English literature
| It's sky was studded with brilliancy.
! but how long did the light last? Men
! OF such transcendant gifts as Gold
/ smith, Savage and Shenstone did not
/ know Che meaning OF life. Their brief
| careers We're spent / nriotous living
Charles Lever, prince Of Irish novel
lists, represented the Irish sQuires and
| gentlemen as hard-headed, hard-drink-
/ ing, rollicking fellows. whose chief
! amNsem"nts were fox hunting love
making, and breaking one another's
/ heads. For the most part this por-
/ travail was true, but there were some
/ notable exceptions to Levers crea-
tons among the gentry Of Ireland.
The men who did the most for Ire
land, who reflected an undying glory
/ On h"r cause, were. if not tcetotalcrs.
/ at least temperate Grattan Flood.
/ Wolfe Tone, Fitzgerald and Emmett
/ Wer" temperate O'Conncll seldom
! drank glass OF wine The Duke of
/ Wellington was an abstemious man.
ParneIl in the heyday Of his fame
could not be induced to touch liquor.
His head was always clear in the
house, and this was the secret Of his
political foresight, which enabled him
TO accomplish so much.
| The great leaders Of English polj.
tics, both il the past and present cen
| turleS, have been strictly temperate
men. Gladstone only touched light
vines on rare occasions Morley aBl-
four, Spencer, Harcourt. Salisbury.
Chamberlain, all early took their
| places beneath the temperance ban
ner Al royal receptions and ambas-
/ sailors balls none of these men could
| be induced to take liquor in any form.
The we'll known literary men of
/ England in our time have almost TO
a man been temperate. Dickens.
though he drank a glass Of ale be-
times, never exceeded discretion.
| Reade, Besant, Paine, Buchanan. Ten
nyson and Browning were all on the
side Of temperance
The same can be said of the leading
/ statesmen and writer's of GERMANY.
/ France Italy and other European
countries at the present day.
The same is notably true of emi-
neut Americans Have any of our
/ great inventors been drunkards? They
have spent their days and nights in
ceaseless activity, perfecting their de
signs with clear brains and steady
/ hands. only desisting to obey the call
/ OF exhausted nature
Edison, the wizard of electricity.
never touches intoxicating liquors.
Could the Wri hts and Curtiss. Zep-
/ pelin and Bleriot have conquered the
air with vum-drenched brains and
/ jangling nerves?
Our great scientists and medical
men, knowing we'll the dangers that
Turk in the sparkling glass, shun it as
| they would deadly poison Kelvin,
/ Crookes, ROeutgen and Koch have all
been total abstainers.
Drink saps the vital organs and
dulls the brain. It has stripped the
crown from the brow Of manhood and
engirdlei it with a crimson band OF
/ shame, it has plucked the flowers
| from the garden Of success and in
! their place has strewn the weeds OF
] laIIult. IL has NIcuCleQ Inc sword
/ of victory from the hands of conoler,
! Ors, turned it into a sc0urFe and driv-
| en- them from the arena OF fame into
/ the darkness of obscurity; from royal
! Srows it has taken imperial crowns
and dashed them into fragments on
the stone OF defeat and ignomy.
The men who made America were.
with some notable exceptions, of alb
| stemious habits and austere lives.
Liquor never adds, but always sub
tracts. SO far from being a stinu.
liant, it is an anaesthetic; it deadens
| instead of quickens. Science has
classed it as a sporific or narcotic.
Instead OF helping man up it drags
him down; instead of placing him on
the sun-crownel heights of success
and honor it places him in the gutter
I Of failure and shame.