The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1910-11-03
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STRONG DRINK is RUINOUS
Men 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-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 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 G
Peters in an exchange.
The age of Johnson may be termed
the golden age of English literature
Its 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 / nriotous living
Charles Lever, prince of Irish novel
rnnrn1nV, fnI h., lat. n.
gentlemen as hard-headed, hard-drink
Ing, rollicking 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 were 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 teetotalers,
at least temperate. Grattan, Flood,
Wolfe, Tone. Fitzgerald and Emmett
were temperate. O'Connell seldom
drank 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 Doll.
tics. both In the past and present cen.
turies. have been strictly temperate
men. 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 none of these men could
be induced to take liquor in any form.
The well 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 writers OF Germany,
France, Italy and other European
countries at the present day.
The same is notably true of emi.
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 desistng to obey the call
of exhausted nature.
| Edison, the wizard OF electricity,
never 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
J men, knowing well the dangers that
lurk in the sparkling glass. shun 1t 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
| engfrdled Ii with a crimson band OF
shame; 1t has plucked the flowers
from the garden of success and in
their place has strewn the weeds of
ioiiuASs A. WltilCHtu the SWORD
of victory from the hands of conquer.
ors. turned 1t into scourge and driy.
| en- them from the arena of fame into
the darkness of obscurity; from royal
I brows II 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 stimu
liant, 1t is an anaesthetic: II deadens
instead OF quickens. Science has
classed II as a sporific or narcotic
Instead of helping man up II drags
him down; instead OF placing him on
the sun-crowned heights OF success
and honor 1t places him in the gutter
of failure and shame.