The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1910-11-03
sEA6AQg!sE
STRONG DRINK is RUIMOUS
Men Pre-eminent for intellectual At
tainments All On Side of
Temperance.

temperance.
such brilliant lights as Burns and
Poe have been cited to prove thai
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
or the drink habit and both g~eniuses,
but their cases so far from supporting
the claim of alcohol to usefulness ar.
CUES against 1t.
If Burns and Poe, God-gifted 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 scintillated ftfully for
only a few gears. 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
or such transcendant gifts as Gold.
smith, Savage and Shenstone did not
know the meaning of life. Their brief
careers were spent 1 ~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
amusements were fox hunting. love
making, n breaking one another's
heads. For the most part this nor.
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 her cause, were, If not teetotalers
at least temperate. Grattan, Flood.
Wolfe, Tone. Fitzgerald and Emmett
were temperate. O'ConneIl seldom
drank a glass of wine. The Duke OF
Wellington was an abstemious man.
Parnell 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 poll.
tics, both In the past and present cen.
turtles, have been strictly temperate
men, Gladstone only touched lieht
wines on rare occasions. Morley. all
four, Spencer. Harcourt, Salisbury.
Chamberlain. all early took their
places beneath the temperance ban
ner. At 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 Ia
a man been temperate. Dickens.
though ne 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 csn 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 emf
nent 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 Wrights and Curtiss. Zen.
pelin and Bleriot have conquered the
air with rum-d-enched brains and
jangling nerves?
Our great scientists and medical
men, knowing well the dangers that
Turk in the sparkling glass. shun It as
they would deadly poison. Kelvin.
Crookes, Roentgen and Koch have all
been total a~bstainers.
Drink saps the vital organs and
dulls the brain. 1t has stripped the
crown from the brow of manhood and
engirdled lit with a crimson band of
shame; it has plucked the flowers
from the garden of success and Ia
THAR place has strewn the weeds of
failure. 1t has wrenched the sword
of victory from the hands of conquer.
ors, turned 1t into a scourge and driy-
them from the arena of fame into
the darkness of ~obscurity; from ROYAL
brows it has taken imperial crown
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
So far from being a stimu
liant. it is an anaesthetic; it deadens
instead of ~quickens. Science has
classed 1t as a sporifc or narcotic.
Instead of helping man up It drags
down; instead of placing him on
the s~un-crowned heights of success
honor 1t places him in the gutter
of failure and shame.
/
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