That chronic alcoholism among the Russians may explain, in part, at
least, some of the results of the war in Manchuria, is the editorial
opinion of _American Medicine_. Says this paper:
On the Japanese side the reports are all of one tenor, and
depict an almost universal abstinence. What drinking is done
is in extreme moderation. Upon the Russian side we hear of
immense stores of vodka, champagne by carload lots, and orgies
innumerable. The Russian officer is notorious, by general
report, of course, for the large quantities of alcohol he daily
consumes, and it is impossible for any brain to submit to such
insults without undergoing the changes long known to take
place in heavy drinkers. It is not remarkable then that the
older officers, who are managing the campaign, are constantly
outwitted by the healthy-minded Japanese. (Text.)
(3183)
* * * * *
In April, 1838, William Martin knocked at Father Mathew’s door
in obedience to a summons. The friar met him at the threshold,
his handsome face radiant with kindness and good-nature.
“Welcome, Mr. Martin, welcome! I have sent for you to assist me
in forming a temperance society in this neighborhood.”
“I knew it,” said the Quaker; “something seemed to tell me that
thou would’st do it at last.”
“For long I could not see my way clearly to take up the
question. I have been asked by several good men to take up the
cause, and I feel I can no longer refuse. How are we to begin?”
They began with a little meeting in the friar’s school-room,
when Father Mathew, after his address on temperance, said,
“I will be the first to sign my name in the book which is on
the table, and I hope we shall soon have it full.” He then
approached the table; and, taking the pen, said in a loud voice,
“Here goes, in the name of God!”
In three months from the day that Father Mathew signed the book
“in the name of God,” the number on the roll was 25,000; in
five months it rose to 131,000; in less than nine months it was
156,000.--EDWARD GILLIAT, “Heroes of Modern Crusades.”
(3184)
* * * * *
John B. Gough, the temperance orator and reformer, asked that on his
monument the following sentiment should be cut:
I can desire nothing better for this great country than that a
barrier, high as heaven, should be raised between the unpolluted
lips of the children and the intoxicating cup; that everywhere
men and women should raise strong and determined hands against
whatever will defile the body, pollute the mind, or harden the
heart against God and His truth.
(3185)
See ABSTAINERS LIVE LONG; DRINK, PERIL OF; LONGEVITY ACCOUNTED FOR;
PERSONAL INFLUENCE.
=Temperance and Prosperity=--See PROHIBITION.