The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-09-24
TEN THOUSAND YEARS
OUGHT TO SUFFICE
BY EMMA L. TRANSEAU.


Ten thousand years ago there were
people in Egypt who exhorted the
beer and wine drunkards Of that time
TO be temperate. Their exhortations
are recorded In hieroglyphics which
our scholars have translated. One Of
these urges:
Avoid intemperanoe. How despica-
BILE are those who live to serve their
stomachs and pass their time IN idle
ness Il you have a friend who eats
until he has to loosen his belt and
drinks until he Is nauseated and APP
peases his appetite on meat like the
crocodile, accept what he offers you,
do not refuse him. But 1t il repug-
nant to see a man lose his under
speech. He is the disgrace Of his
mother and his friends. Tho ways
Of God are incom prehensible. That
man should SO act that his children
are glad when he closes his career"
se So far as we have yet learned from
their records, the ancient Egyptians,
wise as they were. did not know OF
the fundamental difference between
beer and food; that beer and wine
contain a drug which tends to make
q man lose the mastery over his words
and thoughts. while food does not.
And they had many centuries less OF
human experience to draw from than
we have.
There Is small excuse today for re-
citing the old exhortation' to alcoholic
moderation, when It's failure 10 chroni-
cled all down the ages and the reason
why II fails Is held under the lime
light by our twentieth century sci
enoe. Yet one Is constantly meeting
that relic OF past acknowledgements and
In places whore one would expect mora
knowledge. and from those who essay
to be teachers on the subject.
The regular writer OF semi humor-
Oh. column in an Eastern daily, for
example, recently used up nearly his
whole allotted space in one issue On
larging upon the intemperance Of peo-
pie who would scorn to touch alco-
holfc liquors. but who overeat, over
sleep. overwork or commit other ak
cesses. He insisted that these were
as much and possibly moro intomper-
ate than the alcohol devotee.
Yet this writer probably had at his
elbow dictionary that defines tenn
perance as. "habitnal moderation in
regard to the Indulgence Of the ma
tural appetites and passions" and alb
stinence from the use or pursuit OF
ANYTHING injurious to moral or ply
steal well-being"
Since the craving for alcohol is not
a natural desire, and since the sub
stance Is one that has proved itself
vry injurious to the moral and ply
steal well-being OF men in all classes
and lands and tribes and ages. it's use
is incompatible with the definition of
temperance.
Another recreational writer, into
whose column cocktails and beer ap-
pear on all possible occasions, disports
character who drinks with his
friends. drinks at his club. and drinks
with his vile. and whose favor1te din
ing place Is cafe where everyone
drinks.
But when his wife Que evening asks
him for a contribution towards the
support OF an institution for the treat
ment OF inebriates. he rises In indigna-
ton and delivers a lengthy diatribe
against the drunkard. No dollar of
his can go for the care Of men who
disgrace themselves and their friends
by getting intoxicated.
The whole burst OF eloquence, sup
posedlv voicing the writer's opinion,
represented no further stage in the
understanding Of alcoholism than that
OF the old Egyptian whose exhortation
20 moderation was engraved In htero.
8lyphie1 IN thouaond Yonsu - sass