The Ocala evening star., 1911-04-04
TEMPERANCE TOPICS
The Worlds Verdict Against Drunken
ness
(B F. Riley, d. ID

From the earliest times drunkenness
has been classed among the worlds
crowning vices. An embodiment of all
that has been said and written against
the pestilence of drunkenness would
constitute an immense library. From
pens sacred and profane. from nations
Christian and pagan, from men of ev-
cry generation, there have proceeded
warning, protestation. admonition and
injunction against a vice which en-
slaves, prostitutes and destroys. The
crowning interdiction is put upon
when the pen of inspir-
alton catalogues it among the sins
that bar the door of heaven. " Nor
thieves. nor covetous, nor drunkards.
nor revilers, nor extortioners. shall in
herit the kingdom of Cod
The uniform record of drunkenness
throughout the centuries is one of woe
and wailing, and of the destruction of
men, alike physically, mentally and
morally. As a pestilence it has stalked
through the nations and the genera
tions with never word of commenda-
ton, but invariably attended with
condemnation. Patriarchs, prophets,
apostles, lawgivers, sages, philosoph-
ers, jurists, statesmen, all the good
and great of the the earth have sent
a resounding denunciation of drunk
enness through all the centuries. The
best of every age have denounced it
without measure as one of the most
fearful of curses OF those living in
the world today, there is scarcely a
family name that has not been smirch-
ed by this dire agent of destruction.
Nor does it cease with the ruin
wrought on the victim who falls with
in its clutch. The entailment of its
consequences through the channel of
heredity is terrible. If it only destroy
ed the original victim, that would be
awful enough, but it's transmission
from sire to son, even TO the third and
fourth generation, results in unspeak-
able consequences, and accounts for
much that enters into the science of
criminology. The roots of the major
ity of crimes run back to some ances-
trail germ that was planted in inebri-
alton. In the investigati tions of GRIMM
ologists, it has been discovered that
the taint of habitual dissipation rami-
fies through the offspring and breaks
out into different forms of vice, as the
temptations and environments of that
offspring occasion. In the constant
multiplication of the human family,
different strains and temperaments
are blended, each parent bringing
more or less of the characteristics of
ancestry, and producing in the OFF,
spring new conditions and DISPOSE
tions, the vicious of which may need
only opportunity to break forth into
some form of vice. In the Inheritance
of trait, there are certain ones in
which the mother is represented in
transmission, and others the father.
SO seriously affecting the entire man
as drunkenness does, and so wide in
the sweep of its swath, leaving scarce
ly any family untouched, il is easy to
see what has been it's compass of ruin
through the ages. Drunkenes thus
becomes the parent of much vice-of
many forms of crime. A debauched
ancestor may produce generations of
divers criminals. This is the law of
heredity, and from its consequences
there is escape.
The philosopher statesman, Glad
stone, says: Intoxicating drinks have
produced evils more deadly because
more continuous than all those caused
to mankind by the great historic
scourges, war, pestilence and famine
combined
In the same strain, Lord Bacon, the
pioneer of English philosophy, re-
marks: "All the armies on earth do
not destroy many of the human
race, nor ALLEVIATE so much poverty,
as drunkenness"
| From still another point of view,
| corroborative of that which has al
ready been said in this article, comes
a calm judicial statement from Judge
Coleridge of the English bench:
There is scarcely a crime before me
that is not directly or indirectly caus-
| ed by strong drink"
| Robert Dodsley, one of the quaint
est of English dramatists, thus terri
bly, personifies drunkenness: Death,
having occasion to chose a prime min
lister, summoned his illustrious cour-
tiers. and allowed them to present
their claims for the office. Fever
flushed his cheeks; Palsy shook his
limbs: Dropsy inflated his carcass:
Gout racked his joints; Asthma half
strangled himself; Stone and Collie
pied their violence; Plague his sudden
destruction and Consumption his GER
tainty. Last came Intemperance, with
a face like fire, shouting, Give way.
ye sickly band of pretenders. Am
not your parent? Does not sagacity
trace your origin to me? My opera
tions ceasing, where is your power?'
The grisly monarch, Death, here gave
a smile of appreciation and placed In
temperance at his right hand.
There is much grim humor as we'll
solemn fact in the testimony of the
late DR.. Thomas Guthrie of Scotland
who when confronted with the worn
and false statement, whisky is a
good thing in its place" replied, Yes
there is nothing like for preserving q
man when he is dead. If you want to
keep a dead man, put him in whisky;
if you want TO kill a live man. put the
whisky in him"
! With quaintness just as genuine,
Lincoln said of liquor, 1T has its de-
| tenders, but no defense. But no more
powerful epitome of the results of
drunkenness was ever penned than by
Phillips Brooks when he wrote: IF we
could sweep intemperance out of the
| country. there would be hardly power
ty enough left 20 give healthy exer-
| else TO the charitabl impulses"