ALCOHOL.
Alcohol does not exist in nature. It is a fluid made by fermentation, or
the rotting of vegetables and their juices. Beer, cider, and wine are
produced by the decay of a sweet liquid taken from grain or fruits.
Alcohol is that element in malt and spirituous liquors which produces
intoxication.
ITS DANGER.
Alcohol is indigestible and lessens the muscular power. No person
training for any severe contest would dare swallow a drop of it. Its
great danger lies in its attractiveness. It makes one at first feel in
high spirits, reckless of right and wrong, and it destroys his judgment
and sense. You all know that an intoxicated person talks like an idiot.
EFFECT UPON THE ORGANS OF THE BODY.
Alcohol destroys the nerves, ruins the stomach, weakens the muscles,
affects the heart, bloats the body, kills the liver, causes insanity,
and makes men descend lower than the beast of the field. It turns wise
men into fools; peaceable persons into brawlers; good citizens into
wicked and dangerous ones; and is the direct cause of more than three
fourths of all the crimes in the country.
COST OF ALCOHOL.
The total cost of alcoholic drinks each year is eight times that spent
for education. The saloon-keepers outnumber the ministers of the gospel
four to one. Sixty thousand people die annually from alcohol.
Those who use alcohol are very liable to disease. In Russia the cholera
swept off one year every drinking person in a certain town before it
affected a single temperate one. In New Orleans, five thousand drinking
men died one season from yellow fever before it touched a sober one. In
1832, in Park Hospital, New York, out of 204 cases of cholera, only six
were men of temperate habits; these all recovered, while 122 of the
others died.
Sir John Ross, the famous Arctic explorer, never used alcohol or
tobacco. On one of his voyages, when a youth, every one of the crew that
was a drinker, died; but he himself was not sick a single hour. When
exploring the frozen regions, he was an old man, the oldest of his crew
being twenty years younger than he. His men used tobacco and spirits,
but he went without either; and with his advanced years, stood the
rigors and hardships better than any of them.
At a recent meeting of surgeons and officers of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company to arrange for medical and surgical supplies to be
placed on trains and at each station on the road, the question of adding
alcoholic stimulants to the supplies was at once rejected; some of the
surgeons claiming that in case of shock from injury, it was worthless.
INTOXICATION.
Intoxication leads a person to do that which he would not do when sober
if he dared. It therefore takes away the self-restraint that is the
safeguard of society.
A GRAVE ERROR.
One of the greatest mistakes of the young is the belief that a person
can drink a little beer, cider, wine or liquor now and then, without
danger to himself. No one ever began drinking with the belief that he
would die a drunkard; he meant to drink when he felt like it with his
friends, but was sure he could stop when he chose.
TOTAL ABSTINENCE A SAFEGUARD.
Even if a person were able to keep to a moderate use of alcohol all his
life, his brain and nervous system would become diseased. When epidemics
visit any place, the first persons to die, as I have shown, are those
accustomed to drink liquor.
EFFECT UPON THE MIND AND SOUL.
Poisonous as is alcohol to the body, it is more fatal to the mind and
heart. It clouds the brain, dwarfs and blots out the good impulses, and
increases the power of the passions and the baser side of our nature.
The world is full of moral and mental wrecks caused by alcohol. You see
them about you; the most wretched drunkard on which you ever looked was
once a bright, hopeful boy like you. He could not have been made to
believe he would ever fall so low.
Your only safety is to resolve never to touch alcohol in any form. Not
only that, but it is your duty to do all you can to keep others from
injuring themselves by its use.
* * * * *
Does alcohol exist in nature? What is alcohol? How are beer, cider,
and wine produced? What element is alcohol?
What is said of alcohol? In what lies its great danger? What are its
effects at first?
Show some of the evil effects of alcohol. Of what is it the direct
cause?
Compare the cost of alcoholic drinks and the sums spent for
education. How do the number of saloon-keepers compare with that of
the ministers of the gospel? How many people does it kill annually?
To what are drinkers of alcohol liable? Illustrate this statement by
what occurred in Russia. In New Orleans. In New York.
Prove the advantages of leaving tobacco and spirits alone by some
facts respecting Sir John Ross.
What action was taken recently by the surgeons and officers of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company?
What does intoxication lead a person to do? What does it therefore
take away?
What is one of the greatest mistakes of the young?
Suppose a person really could restrain himself to a moderate use of
alcohol?
How does alcohol affect the mind and heart?
What is said of the most wretched drunkard in the land?
What is the only safety? What is the duty of every one?
[Illustration:
SKELETON.]