The Washington herald., 1916-09-22
Mankind's Worst Enemy-Drink.
BY oRIsoN SWEET MARpEN,

How many hundreds of times every day at
public bars in country may be
heard uttering good wishes while treating" one
another with alcoholic poisonl Here's health to
you'll! Success to you!" Long life to youW or
Good luck to you and yours" 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 those rousng pledges they were
obliged to repeat what the real meaning under
lying their words often turns out to be.
Instead of Here's health to youw Here's
success to you!" young man should say when
he profers his friend convivial glass and takes
one himself: Here's death to you! Here's dis
grace, failure, dishonor, a weakened body, a
muddled, demoralized brain Here's the loss of
self-respect, the weakening of will, the loss of
self-control, unutterable sense of the loss of
manhood. Here's insult to your family, dis
grace to yourself and to those who have be-
lieved in, loved and helped you! Here's some
thing, my friend, which if you put it inside of
you will make you despise yourself, something
which will marbleize your affections, harden
your heart, that you will neglect, and even
be cruel to your wife and children now so dear
to you'll This enemy you are taking into your
mouth will brutalize you, will make you do
things you loathe. 1t will rob you of health,
strength ability. your good qualities, all the
things that make you a man. 1t will bring pow
erty and wretchedness to your family, and will
make your children despse your memory"
How many times zone drink more" has prom
ised relief from worry, sorrow, melan-
choly, Encouragement, relief from disappointment
and all sorts of heartaches, but has always de-
ceived him. For many years this perpetual de-
ceptlon has been going and yet he continues
to trust Every time he is blue, discouraged,
dlsheartened in trouble, he resorts to this
same old enemy who has always deceived him
and has never given him anything more than a
temporary release, and he pays for it all at a
fearful cost of self-respect and terrible re-
action.
know of nothing so deceptive as are these
stimulants, because they seem to do just what
they do not do. The habtual drinker suffering
from the reaction of the stimulants feels sure
that if he drops into the saloon and gets another
drink he will give Nature a boost and be him
self again. He does not realize that every time
he does Nature will demand price in les
sened power; that the reaction will take more
from him than he gained by the artificial stimu-
lus, for every draft from her must be paid
there is no ultimate cheating of Nature a parti-
cle-and he who tries to draw out Of his physi-
cal bank each day more than there is in it faces
physical bankruptcy.
Whisky drinking drug taking, and all sorts
OF dissipation tend to kill all that is finest, most
delicate, and most exquisite and beautiful in the
nature, and they tend to create abnormal appe-
ties. They develop moral color blindness so
that the Nrctm no longer distinguish the
finer shades OF ethical values. They tend to
deaden the finer sensbities to destroy the finer
tastes,S destroy the judgment, to coarsen and
harden the nature, marbeize the affections so
that men who in their early married life were
extremely kind, generous to their wives and
children, often become so hardened their afec-
tions so marbleized that they are utterly indif-
ferent to their families and their needs-their
necessities and comforts. They not only become
so hardened, their tastes so depraved, that thew
have no scruples in using the money for their
own dissipation which should go to their fam
lies, but they also become abusive and brutal
to their wives and children.
Oh, what a picture in millions Of homes of
wretchedness, men and women robbed OF every
thing that is worth while health, character.
ProsPects-everything gone-still following that
awful decever whskey-the wrecker OF the
worlds hopes, the baster of prospects, the
bllghter Of ambition. the destroyer OF everything
that is worth while
How little do youths and older people realize
that many Of the things they consider their
Hlehds, helptul eXhllarators, their mortalest
enemies How little do they dream when they
hFSt make acquaintance with them that their feet
are fast taking hold upon hell itself
The intoxicant that makes YOU feel good is
your mortalest enemy. 1t is subtle, insidiouslv
stealing from you that which is priceless. 1t
is sapping your will power undermining your
ambition, killing your efficiency blighting your
self~respect. 1t will mar your whole career.
Ihe crown prince has made failure of his
Nerdun campaign after fearful sacrifice of men.