The Washington herald., 1915-08-15
BIGGEST FAKIR.
By ORIsON SWEET MARDEN.

They told me you never took a
drink or smoked, an l put you down
for a boob. Reckon 1 was the boob.
Stay by the watah wagon, boy Only
wish l had"
These were, the parting words of the
former champion pusilist. Jack Johnson.
as he babe goodbye 10 his successful
rival, Jess Willard, on the dock IN
Cuba.
The losing of the championship was
not nearly all that Johnson lost by
his dissipation. He lost the inestima-
BILE boon of American citizenship, the
right to the protection OF the nag OF
his country You're going nome
he said sadly to Willard, back to
Gods country. and l can't" Dissipa-
ton had led him to the commission
of a crime which forever bars him
from his native land.
Until the booze" got him, johnson
had been the worlds champion There
are thousands of men who had, ike
him, been superb successes in their
various avocations until the booze
got hold of them.
A New York man whose life is being
slowly strangled by booze" recently
said that he had never tasted liquor
until after his first reverse in busi-
ness Then he wanted something to
brace him, and finding that whisky
gave him little temporary courage
and a feeling of well-being, he con-
tinued to take a glass every now and
then until he became a slave to the
very thing which he thought was
going to help him retrieve his for
tunes Whisky, he declares, has
broken every promise it ever made
him.
1t has done infinitely worse than
that. 1t has not only robbed him OF
the very courage and initiative which
il promised to brace and strengthen,
ruined his career and his health, Dut
it has also stolen from him the most
precious of all his possessions. his
manhood. This once brilliant. we'll
educated man, with great possibilities.
is now a mere wreck of humanity.
without will power. without courage,
without hope or aspiration, lacking
everything that makes man godlike-
The biggest fakir in the world is
whisky. and the remarkable thins
a bout ii is, that although ii has never
kept any of the marvellous promises
which it has made it still continues
to delude and ruin millions upon mil
lions of human beings every day OF
every year.
How many hundreds of times every
day at public bars in our own coun-
try men may be heard uttering good
wishes while treating" one another
With alcoholic poison Here's health
to you" Success to you" Long lie
to you," or Good luck to you and
youfsr, they cry. as they drain the
glasses which are the beginning of
ruin for so many. \
/ sometimes wonder what the effect
would be upon these often splendid
young men if instead of the rousing
pledges. Here's health to YOU"
Here's success to YOU" etc, they
were obliged to repeat what the real
meaning underlying their words often
turns out to be.
Instead of a young man saying to
his friend, when he proffers him
conyivial glass and takes one himself
he should say. Here's death to your.
Here's disgrace, failure. dishonor. a
weakened body. muddled, democrat
lied brainr" Here's the loss of self
respect. the weakening of your WILL
the loss of self-control"' Here's an
insult to your family. to yourself. and
TO those who have believed in. loved.
and helped you"
The fiend in your glass laughs at
YOUR puny boast that you can drink
il or let it alone as you please, for IT
knows that millions of men whom II
has driven to fling their lives away
have made the same boast at the bar |
These are the things alcohol. under
whatever form, is doing every day. /
yet men continue to be deiuded by It's
promises.
For thousands of years lit has been |
, mocker of men. 1t has deceived
large part of the human race all the
lime. Nothing else in all history has
been such destroyer OF human
beings. such a wrecker of homes and
of ambition, and yet millions, Ike
lack Johnson, continue to let 1t make
hoods" of them.
fCcryri-ht. 1851