Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-12-06
AWFUL CURSES OF ALCOHOL
Robs Man OF His Best Friends, OF
Strength, Honor, Reason, Love,
Money and Even Life.

MOUCy dnQ ENGu GhSs
Ry SIR wILFRED T. GREENFELL.
M d.
Why don't I want to see liquor used
at sea? Because when l go dodwn for
watch below, want to feel that the
man at the wheel sees only one light
when there Is only one light to see;
that when the safety of the ship and
all 1t carries depends on the cool head,
the instant resolve and the steady
hand of the helmsman, there is not
the poor, debased creature that all
the world has seen alcohol create
even out of such gifted men as Burns
and Coleridge and hosts Of others.
have seen ships lost through col
lision because the captain had been
taking a little alcohol" have had
to tell a woman that she was a widow
and that her children were fatherless,
because her husband, gentle and low
Ing and clean-living, had been tempt
ed to take "a drop of alcohol" at sea.
and gone out into a drunkard's eter-
nifty. have had to clothe children and
feed them when reduced to starvation,
because alcohol had robbed them of a
natural protector and all the necessi-
ties Of life I have had to visit in
prisoners the victims of crime, caused
as directly in honest men by alcohol
as burn is caused by falling into the
fire.
Why do not want alcohol as bev-
erage In country where cold is ex-
IRENE, exposure is constant, and ply
steal conditions are full of hardship?
Simply because / have seen men go
down In the struggle for want of that
natural strength which alcohol alone
had robbed them of. The fishermen
that live among are my friends, and
| love them as my brothers, and | do
not think l am unnecessarily preju-
deer or bigoted when say that
alcohol is inadvisable, after one has
seen 1t robbing his best friends of
strength, honor, reason, kindness,
love. money and even life.
During 20 years experience on
the sea and on the snow in winter
an experience coming after an up
bringing in soft places have found
that alcohol has been entirely nu-
necessary.
have been doctoring sick men and
women Of every kind and I have
found that / can use other drugs of
which we know the exact action and
which we can control absolutely with
greater accuracy in cases of necessity
for stimulating the heart. / contend
we can get just as good results with
out it, and / always fear its power to
create desire for itself. It is not
necessary for happiness, for / have
known no set Of men happier and en-
joying their lives more than the
crews of my own vessel, and the
many, many fishermen who, like our
It,
I would be willing to allow that the
manufacture of 1t gives employment.
that the sale of 1t is remunerative,
that desire for 1t can be easily
created But the desire for 1t has to
be Cultivated" and once cultivated
the market" is certain to open up
for the desire becomes an Unsuitable,
uncomfortable lust in many I have
no controversy with anything that
gives employment and circulates
money, and should possibly be salts
| fed if after all the good grain and
good foodstuffs had been fermented
| and converted into this particular
kind of poison, instead of being pour
ed down mems threats, it were pour
ed into the ocean-where at least 1t
would do no harm.
/ have seen me nrobbed in many
ways, but they have been able, by the
help of God to wipe out any lasting
results of such transient losses. But
the robberies of alcohol are IRENE
diable. I buried in lonely grave on
projecting promontory, far down
the coast of Labrador, a young girl
of 49, She was some ones daugh-
| ter and some ones sister. had taken
her aboard our little hospital ship for
the last week of her life She should
desire to live All that could possibly
make life worth living for her had
been robbed from her through the
means of alcohol, ana she could not
face the home going again.
If ever have the opportunity given
to me to say word at any time or in
any place which could help to in