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Show DRUNKENNESS. F The great curse of the age is intemperance. It U probably a more fruitful cause of misery, poverty pov-erty and crime than all other agencies combined. It is the root of profligacy, riotous-living, and of so many cases of commercial dishonesty. It annually an-nually numbers its wrecks by the thousands and hundreds of thousands. In addition to the cases that come to public or quasi publio notice, how-many how-many are unknown 1 Who can count the number of happy homes destroyed, de-stroyed, of children condemned to a life of deprivation depriva-tion and often times Qf.vicef of. .untimely and .dishonorable .dis-honorable deaths, 'ail directly attributable to iU deleterious influence? For there comes a time. in. the career of the drunkard when he will sacrifice to satisfy his craving for alcohol all that man holds dear family, honor, social standing. There can be at the present day no difference of opinion on this subject;; all students of criminology recognize the fact that one of the most pressing and crying, if not the most .pressing, needs of the hour is the cure of intemperance. Can it be accomplished? Wo believe it can. But how? By punitive or restrictive re-strictive legislation? Xo. Prohibition has been tried on all scales, with all degrees of severity, and with almost all manners of men. Any impartial observer, no matter how friendly he may be to the cause of temperance, is forced to acknowledge that prohibition, in practice, docs not prohibit. Where the population is temperate, in farming communities communi-ties and under specially favorable circumstances, it is possible to enforce prohibitive ordinances. But these are exactly the cases that do not, need prohibition, for surely where nobody cares to drink there is no necessity for restriction. But in mixed cemmunities prohibition has been a failure. High license and other methods of regulating the liquor traffic may have done good. They have lessened the number, of the occasions of excessive drinking, but they do not strike at the root of the evil. For it must be remembered that the saloon (under whatever what-ever name it may be known) is not the cause, but the result, of the drink habit, and so long as men will be found who are willing to pay out their money in exchange for "booze," "booze" they will get somewhere and somehow. Legislation so far j in the United States has proven unable to cope with j the problem. Fines and imprisonment do not, cure, and too often but add to the misery of those dependent de-pendent upon the statutory criminal. Moreover, jail sentences may extinguish the last spark of self-respect self-respect in the heart of the unfortunate, and help send him down farther on the road of degradation and shame. We must not .be understood as condemning con-demning the present laws against drunkenness. To say that the intoxicated man is a nuisance and must "be taken care of," at least temporarily, were to put it very mildly. But we are seeking for a cure; considered in that light, legal punishments have proven a failure. If prohibition, regulation of the liquor traffic and punitive measures are ineffective in-effective as cures for drunkenness and intemperance, intemper-ance, whereto shall we turn in our search for a remedy? The latter must, after all. be preventive to cure the present generation of. drunkards seems a superhuman task. Where shall we turn in the hope of finding effectual prevention? First to God and to the teaching of his moral law. Simple but eternally true. Second, to certain extraneous helps. But let us first ask ourselves, What is intemperance ? What are its great causes? We believe that there .re two characteristics to drunkenness. It is both immoral, a vice and the sign of a physical defect. Let us first study ihe latter. There is no doubt that most men are inebriates long before they become be-come drunkards, and many inebriates never do become be-come drunkards because -they, are saved by some strong restraining influence. When is one an inebriate? in-ebriate? When a person cannot take a drink of alcohol stimulant without, feeling a craving for- more stimulant ho is an inebriate. That is the .1 i jt n i! " i i uuiiyer signal jor an. nappy is ne wno recognizes this signal, heeds it and adopts the remedy. Many .and many men and all drunkards are so constituted consti-tuted that it is a physical impossibility for them to indulge in even moderate quantities of alcoholic beverages without going to excess. They are of a nervous temperament, extremists iu most things; deny it as they please, th fact remains that their nervous system does not tolerate the action of alcohol. al-cohol. When they have abstained for a time they are perfectly free from all hankerings, but put liquor with them in any shape (hard cider, brandy sauce, patent medicine, or what not,) and they are off on a spree and one which will not end 11 they get a skin full. Inebriety is, therefore, the first stage of drunkenness. For an inebriate there is but one course open,. but one measure of salvation from a drunkard's grave absolute and perpetual total abstinence. It may seem hard, but that is the law for him. It is just as impossible for an ordinary inebriate to indulge in a stimulating (not an intoxicating) quantity of alcoholic drink and not get drunk as it is for him to change the law of gravitation. ' This study of the physical side of intemperance must, not make us lose sight of its more blighting aspect its immorality. Therefore, if we wish to cure drunkenness and eradicate it, must we turn first to God and morality. Let the moral training of the child along, this line be begun early in the home, in the church, in the school. Let the first lessons taught the child along with his prayers be those (conveyed in words suited to his intelligence) concerning tho great immorality of this vice. Keep up this line of education and constantly keep at it, till he grows to manhood, and keep at it in the church, in the home and in the school, and you will develop a moral abhorrence for inemperance that will prove most efficient. Teach the child the great physical characteristic of inebriety and its portend of danger till he believes it firmly. The desire for more stimulant after a first taste. Let us keep no liquor in our houses. 'Let us never (except as medicine) give liquor to a child. Let us endeavor to have our child grow to manhood a teetotaler. The writer knows hundreds of men now advanced in veers' who have never tasted intoxicants. When asked the reason, their reply generally has been that at the time of receiving their first Communion they had made a promise tp abstain from drinking alcoholics until they attained their majority. They had kept the promise. When of age they realized that total Abstinence is' a "good thing," easy of practice, and had resolved to persevere during life, that they felt the better and happier for it. Secondly, Sec-ondly, let us, endeavor to' educate public opinion and enlist the society element in the cause of temperance tem-perance and total abstinence. Tho requirements of business men that their employes be temperate has done much good. Xow let the Christian home and let Christian society join hands with tho teachers teach-ers of morality to create a public opinion that will declare the habitual (though moderate) use of liquor for the mere fiui of the thing to be practice of immoral, vicious tendencies dangerous alike to the habitue and to those whom his examples may influence; a practice, therefore, to be eschewed. Let our young ladies put a bar on the company of yovng 'lueiV-'vrho indulge habitually, even though not too freely. . Let Christian mothers discountenance discounte-nance the social habit of offering alcoholic refreshments refresh-ments to young or old. in public or private. Stamp alcoholic indulgence of all degrees as a disreputable disreputa-ble practice, and we will lay broad and stable the foundation upon which can be developed the only permanent cure-f intemperance: Moral and intellectual in-tellectual training. 4. |