The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-06-08

drink. In Pontiac, Illinois, at the
state reformatory, six hundred and
fifty of the thousand boys who are
there, under the age of eighteen
years, come from drunkard's homes.
1t is estimated that in England from
sixty thousand to one hundred thous-
and victims of strong drink die every
year.
The late Honorable Cnauncey NJ.
Depew, president of the New York
Central Railroad Company, in talk
to railroad men, said:
Twenty-Five years ago, | knew
every man, woman, and child in
Peekskill, and it has been a study
with me to mark boys who started
in every grade of life with myself,
to see what had become of them.
81 was up last fall and began to
count them over, and it was an in
structive exhibit.
Some of them became clerks, mer-
chants, manufacturers, lawyers, and
doctors. 1t is remarkable that every
one of those that drank is dead, not
one living of my age. Barring a
few, who were taken off by sickness,
every one that proved wreck or
wrecked his family, did it from rum
ana no OJ0er cause.
"Of those who are church-going
people, who are steady, industrious,
and hardworking men, who were
frugal and thrifty, every single one
of them, without an exception, owns
the house in which he lives, and has
something laid by, the interest on
which, with his house, would carry
him through many rainy day"
When man becomes debased with
drink, he doesn't care, and all his
finer feelings are crowded out.
President William H. Taft, in an
interview in The Defender, New York,
August, 1906, declared himself an alb
stainer and told young men it was
the best plan; and in 1908 he turn
ed his wine glass down and said it
was going to stay down forever. In
his Yale lectures he declared for To-
cal option.
The United States government de-
mands total abstinance of all rural
mail carriers, railway mail agents,
and all working men in navy yards.
A recent rule of the Civil Service
Commissioner requires an investiga-
tion of the drinking habits of all ap-
plicants for government positions
required by one of the largest ship
building concerns in the world, by the
| largest capital bank note company in
the world, and by the large employ
ment agencies and business houses.
Recently in a large manufactory in
! the western part of the, State, six
thousand workingmen signed the
| pledge-"No drinkers wanted"
q n
physical, mental and moral injury
wrought by the use of alcoholic
| drinks, every young man may well
take into account the damaging eff.
feet of such a dangerous habit upon
his business prospects. Careful bust.
ness men are becoming more and
more unwilling to take into theil
employ any person addicted to liquor
drinking. Within the past few years
the officers of several railroads, hav'
ing found that a considerable portion
of their losses could be directly
traced to the drinking habits of some
one or more of their employees, have
ordered the dismissal of all persons
in their service who were known tC
use intoxicants, with the additiona
provision that persons thus discharg
ed should never be reinstated. AL
mercantile agencies now report
the habits of business men in this re
spect, and some life insurance com
panies refuse to insure habitua
drinkers, regarding such risks al
"eXtra-hazardous."
Modern life has left no place fol
the drunkard and is fast oustins
even the moderate drinker.
The saloon breaks up every righ
relation, honesty, industry, kindli
ness, alike in the home and on tn,
street, in business, politics and pleas
ure.
The only safe way is, touch not
taste not, handle not"