The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-11-27
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
The TRUTH ABOUT WHISKY.

AS il to Offset the effect OF the news
of the prohibitory enactments of the
warning nations, now appearing in our
papers, the liquor people are making
their advertisements more numerous
and more alluring. To reach and in
fluence the public they do not scruple
to ascribe to liquor qualities which
science shows that it does not possess.
Richard G. Cabot, M. d., writing in the
Temperance Cause dealing with re-
cent example of this distorting of the
truth in liquor advertising, says:
"A man named William Allison
Gray writes in recent issue of the
Boston Post an advertisement, head
ed in large letters, Telling the Truth
About It. 1T is whisky, and about
that narcotic he enumerates six un-
truths which, as he presumably knows
them to be untruths, may be assumed
to be lies.
THE first is that alcoholic bever-
ages are wholesome and whisky is
the most wholesome of them all.
Strange, isn't it, how quickly the war;
ring nations prohibited these whole
some beverages at a time when their
people need all the nutrition they can
get! Curious that the transportation
companies don't allow their EN-.
ployees to take, while on duty, any of
these wholesome beverages! OF
course the truth is they are not whole
some, but poisonous.
THE next untruthful assertion
made by Mr. Gray is that because
there are germs in beer, it is moro
unwholesome than whisky. The same
might be said of bread. There are
about the same germs in bread as
there are in beer, and either bread or
beer may become sour from the undue
multiplication of these germs, many
of which are now prescribed in the
fashionable remedy-buttermil But
the community is SO frightened by the
mere name OF germ and SO hypno-
tized by the idea of purity that it can
sometimes be fooled by attaching the
dread name germs to the yeasts.
This leads us to the third and per-
haps the commonest method by which
the whisky dealers mislead the pub
lie and this is the old trick of talking
about the purity of whisky. No one
is impressed by the purity of Sim
4294--Buleti npbt pbt Il
pie prussic acid or morphine. Yet it
sometimes does fool some people to
tell them that the common poison
known as whisky is particularly pure
Pure lies are no better than mixed
lies. Pure aSsaSsinations are not SUI
perior to assassinations mixed up
with other human events.
In a final brilliant remark, Mr..
Gray sweeps together three false
statements into single sentence.
First he says that whisky is thirst
quenching. Any one who knows any
thing about it is aware that it creates
demand for more of the same; i'll
other words, it creates thirst. Next,
he tells us that is stimulates appetite,
which is just as true as that morphine
encourages sleep. Alcohol and NOR
phine each pervert the system into
going through its rightful functions
for time, as soldier may be pro-
PEELED from behind towards the enemy.
Before long, morphine robs us Of
sleep; before long, whisky robs us OF
appetite The last and most aston
fishing mendacity of the whole group
is the statement that whisky is food
assimilating. There is an abundance
; of unaSsailable evidence that it slows
or checks digestion; no evidence what
| ovnp that IL assists If
"Of course, whisky is never stimu-
; liant, as is assumed all through this
advertisement. 1t is always a mar
cotic< Whisky can dull the pains OF
indigestion and SO allow its devotee
to push along during the development
of disease, past its more curable
stages, until the breaking point or
the relatively incurable stage is
reached Whisky is a narcotic and u
poison and | doubt not that this is
known as well to the man whose as.
; sertions / have been contradicting as
it is TO every one else who cares to
know the truth"