The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-07-20
TOTAL ABSTINENCE
BY GEORGE W. MORROW.

Ban Johnson the baseball magnate,
tells us that no player Is signed up
until no pledges himself not to use
intoxicating liquor during the base
ball season"
And Connre wack,
player. says. alcohol slows a man
down. l don't bother with the young
aters that drink"
Ex-Governor Patterson, of Tennes-
see, after a humiliatine PERSONAL ex-
perience says, Abstinence Is tho only
guarantee of temperance and the de-
struction OF the saloon Is the only
guarantee OF abstinence"
Edward Box SAYS: NO young man
will find total abstinence q hindrance
TO his success, social. commercial or
otherwise"
DR.. Lorenx, of Austria who came
over to this country some years ago,
at a banquet In. New York refused
wine, and explained: ''Gepflemen,
am not preaching temperance to the
fraternity, but ! am a surgeon and
the success of my business depends
or my brain being clear, my mus
cles firm and my nerves steady, and
no man can drink alcoholic liquors
and keep his brain, his muscles and
his nerves where / must keep mine.
Charles Lamb, one of the brightest
spirits ever extinguished by drink,
wrote mournfully in later years.
Gould the young man to whom the
flavor OF the first glass OF wine Is
delicious look into my desolation
ana be made to realize what an aw-
full thing 1t Is for a man to feel him
self going down. down. down, with
! open eyes and passive will. to his
certain destruction and with no pow
er OF will to stop in his mad career,
how he would turn away from the
first temptation TO drink"
Luther Benson. a reformed drunk
ard of Indiana, had such an expert
ence and was so wrecked in body and
mind that he declared that 'the
amount of alcohol that would cling
to tho point of a cambria needle drop
ped on his tongue would set him
wild"
Edison says he doesn't drink be-
cause he has "a better use for his
| brain"
Tho Supreme Court decision in
Mississippi reads we'll: "Whiskey is a
| good thing in it's place. There's moth
ing like 1t for preserving a man when
| he's dead. II you want to keep a
dead man put him in whiskey. II you
want to kill a man put whiskey in
| him"
| Recent Investigations in Germany
! developed the fact that out Of every
! 100 deaths from hearts disease so
! per cent were drinkers Of beer OF
| liquor.
| old line Insurance companies OF
England recentl~ gave out these fig
ures, drawn from observations cover
| INK half century. A young man
| twenty years OF age, total abstainer
1 - IL.
/ III g months old.-A second young man
twenty years or age a moderate drink
er will die at tho age of fifty-one
thus shortening his life fourteen years
and five months. a third young man
| same age. heavy drinker will die
at the ago OF thirty-five, thus cutting
off thirty years and five months o,
his life. Young man! Will It pay?
But II involves not only the youne
A scientist having investigated more
than 500 cases, announces that. OF
children born to alcoholic parents
| ono OF every five will be hopelessly
insane, one out OF three will be hys-
terical or epileptic. More than two.
! thirds witt be Degenerate. Another
scientist located ten large families ir
| which both parents were alcoholic
and in the same localities. with other
| conditions practically the same. ter
large families in which both parents
| were total abstafners. OF the fifty
seven children of the alcoholic parents
ten were deformed, six were epileptic
six were idiots. twenty-five were nom
viable: only IT per cent were normal
SO per cent being abnormal. OF the
slxty-one children OF the total alb
staining parents, 10.5 per cent only
were abnormal. and these chiefly
backward. while 83.5 per cent were
absolutely normal. Seventeen per
cent were normal in the one case. and
s9.6 per cent, In the either case. diff
ference of T2.b per cent. Parents by
becoming alcoholic Ttu sacritics thxee-