Show EUR EUROPEAN teetotalers TEE A rower fut appeal for temperance widely circulated oo 00 tits continent an appeal for total abstinence from the nse use of intoxicating liquors is being widely circulated on the continent it emanates from the zurich society for combating the alcohol habit and wag was translated especially for the voice ite its salient features follow in recent yeara years the question has been propounded for public consideration whether one of out most widespread practices os the use of alcoholic beverages does not threaten t a serious d danger n er la in the course of di of y of athla question no one lia lias s denied aenied that immoderate indulgence is injurious science has shown beyond question the changes that are wrought in the organs of the body by the oft repeated and free use of such beve beverages rageL it characterizes these as changes occasioned by a process of poisoning in many respects akin to arsenical poisoning and recognizes them as causes of 0 degeneration sickness and death not less clearly understood ia is the direct action of alcohol as a narcotic resembling ether chloroform and morphine and like them bringing a more or less profound paralysis of the mental functions the close relation of these poisoning effects to the social consequences that attend drunkenness and the drink habit begins to make itself manifest to the general intelligence if penury and misery follow tho the steps of the drunkard it is his weakened mental grasp weakened by the workings of the poison that inflicts these misfortunes upon him just as the destruction of the internal organs inflicts pain and disease these established and clearly perceived facts have not hitherto shaken the satisfaction with which the moderate use of alcohol has been regarded or tho the belief in its benefits there is no doubt that this moderate use does not have the same ruinous results that spring from the immoderate and daily experience seems to teach that the highest mental and physical performances may by be associated with temperate indulgence but because the blind milton and the lame heine were great poets is it to bo be assumed that they did not feel their physical deprivations therefore let no ona one conclude that alcohol is harmless because the strong are able to withstand it should we not give some little heed to those friends of humanity who complain that their efforts for the rescue of infirm and easily seduced natures are brought to naught by the constant glorification of this agency of seduction that is so truly tho the central influence in our social life and should we not vouchsafe some attention for the peril that is in store for future generations if it is true not only that the drinker transmits to the child an inferior constitution and a nervous system predisposed to all kinds of maladies but also that the injurious effects of alcohol increase from generation to generation it was not until our own days that manufacturing took such strides and the earth was made to yield alcoholic liquors so abundantly as to create a ramifying and menacing traffic in such liquors as articles of daily request among the entire people not until now has the problem been of a kiria to touch the whole nation instead of separate circles we address ourselves to the reflecting people who look with faith for a healthy and marked development and to such we would eay say before you lies the future a future which you know will make larger and larger demands upon tho the activity tho the judgment and the cultivation ti of mankind and now young men there is proffered to you an agency that if availed of not only can prove but we may predict will prove unfailingly instrumental in the struggle which is ahead for blinding you to the conditions of actual life for deluding you as to prospects and for causing you to forget what you have to battle for and this agency is potent to cast about you the coils of fascination it is accorded all conceivable recommendation and praise alike by the sagacious and the inexperienced it is esteemed at doubly exaggerated worth it is devised to take from you the capacity for a discriminating understanding of the beautiful and the sacred can you believe that your youth will conquer it will be no easy task to persuade men to spurn this deceitful poison which has long been so tenderly cherished unless a distinct knowledge of its dangers shall fix the resolve and now t the 11 e truth must be made manifest that even the entirely moderate person who has hae never been intoxicated and daily takes his glass of wine at meals for the sake of preserving or improving his health ia is in error for a substance that has noticeably poisonous effects upon those unaccustomed cus tomed to its use even if the doses taken are very small cannot be considered a mean means of nourishment we beseech all those who have a heart for the future of mankind all who watch with sensibility the ever deepening conflict that man is waging with tho the conditions of existence to come to our side for the genius of the race can triumph only by employing the maxim maxim be not dismayed but fight light |