The Falls City tribune., 1910-10-14
EaA6haQ|gs'E|
STRONG DRINK is RUINOUS
Men P~re-emlnent 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.
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 it
was, these twin stars of the armament
of literature scintillated ftfully for
only a 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..
L 1A'ip III an tACIdDRc.
The age of Johnson may be termed
the golden age of English literature.
Its sky was studded with br%illiancy.
but how long did the light last? Men
OF such transcendant gifts as Gold
smith, Savage and Shenstone did not
know the meaning of life. Their brief
careers were spent i n%riotous living
Charles Lever, prince of Irish novel
lists, represented the Irish squires and
gentlemen as hard-headed, hard-drink-
ing, r~ollicking fellows, whose chief
amusements were fox hunting, love
making, and breaking one another's
heads. For the most part this por-
trayal was true, but there we're some
notable exceptions to Levers crea-
lions 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 tee~totalers,
at least temperate. Grattan, Flood,
Wolfe, Tone, Fitzgerald and Emmett
were temperate. O'Connell 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 liuuor.
Ills 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
g Gladstone only touched light
wines on rare occasions. Morley. aBl.
four. Spencer, Harcourt. Salisbury,
Chamberlain, all early took their
places beneath the temperance ban.
ner. At royal receptions and ambas-
sadors' balls nom 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 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.
touches intoxicating liquors.
Could the Wrights and Curtiss, Yep
pelin and Bleriot have conquered the
air with rum-drenched 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 abstainers.
Drink saps the vital organs and
dulls the brain. 1t has stripped the
crown from the brow of manhood and
engirdled 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 oil
failure. 1t has wrenched the sword
of victory from the hands of conquer
ors, turned it into a seourge and driy.
en- them from tie arena of fame into
the darkness of Cbecuri.y; from royal
brows it has t]Een ~ll.nerial crowns
and dashed them in.o fragments on
the stone of d5.eSt and iSaoH y.
The men who rade Aaetica we're.
with some ne abe exec lions. of alb
stemious habits and austere lives.
Liquor never a Ids, but always sub
tracts, SO far from being a stimu.
liant, it is an anaesthetic; it deadens
instead of quickens. Science has
olassed 1t as a sporific or narcotic.
Instead of helping man up 1t drags
him down: instead of placing him on