1. EXPOSED YOUTH.--Generally even in the beginning of the period when
sexual uneasiness begins to show itself in the boy, he is exposed in
schools, institutes, and elsewhere to the temptations of secret vice, which
is transmitted from youth to youth, like a contagious corruption, and which
in thousands destroys the first germs of virility. Countless numbers of
boys are addicted to these vices for years. That they do not in the
beginning of nascent puberty proceed to sexual intercourse with women, is
generally due to youthful timidity, which dares not reveal its desire, or
from want of experience for finding opportunities. The desire is there, for
the heart is already corrupted.
2. BOYHOOD TIMIDITY OVERCOME.--Too often a common boy's timidity is
overcome by chance or by seduction, which is rarely lacking in great cities
where prostitution is flourishing, and thus numbers of boys immediately
after the transition period of youth, in accordance with the previous
secret practice, accustom themselves to the association with prostitute
women, and there young manhood and morals are soon lost forever.
3. MARRIAGE-BED RESOLUTIONS.--Most men of the educated classes enter the
marriage-bed with the consciousness of leaving behind them a whole army of
prostitutes or seduced women, in whose arms they cooled their passions and
spent the vigor of their youth. But with such a past the married man does
not at the same time leave behind him its influence on his inclinations.
The habit of having a feminine being at his disposal for every rising
appetite, and the desire for change inordinately indulged for years,
generally make themselves felt again as soon as the honeymoon is over.
Marriage will not make a morally corrupt man all at once a good man and a
model husband.
4. THE INJUSTICE OF MAN.--Now, although many men are in a certain sense
"not worthy to unloose the latchet of the shoes" of the commonest woman,
much less to "unfasten her girdle," yet they make the most extravagant
demands on the feminine sex. Even the greatest debauchee, who has spent his
vigor in the arms of a hundred courtesans, will cry out fraud and treachery
if he does not receive his newly married bride as an untouched virgin. Even
the most dissolute husband will look on his wife as deserving of death if
his daily infidelity is only once reciprocated. {428}
5. UNJUST DEMANDS.--The greater the injustice a husband does to his wife,
the less he is willing to submit to from her; the oftener he becomes
unfaithful to her, the stricter he is in demanding faithfulness from her.
We see that despotism nowhere denies its own nature: the more a despot
deceives and abuses his people, the more submissiveness and faithfulness he
demands of them.
6. SUFFERING WOMEN.--Who can be astonished at the many unhappy marriages,
if he knows how unworthy most men are of their wives? Their virtues they
rarely can appreciate, and their vices they generally call out by their
own. Thousands of women suffer from the results of a mode of life of which
they, having remained pure in their thought, have no conception whatever;
and many an unsuspecting wife nurses her husband with tenderest care in
sicknesses which are nothing more than the consequences of his amours with
other women.
7. AN INHUMAN CRIMINAL.--When at last, after long years of delusion and
endurance, the scales drop from the eyes of the wife, and revenge or
despair drives her into a hostile position towards her lord and master, she
is an inhuman criminal, and the hue and cry against the fickleness of women
and the falsity of their nature is endless. Oh, the injustice of society
and the injustice of cruel man. Is there no relief for helpless women that
are bound by the ties of marriage to men who are nothing but rotten
corruption?
8. VULGAR DESIRE.--The habit of regarding the end and aim of woman only
from the most vulgar side--not to respect in her the noble human being, but
to see in her only the instrument of sensual desire--is carried so far
among men that they will allow it to force into the background
considerations among themselves, which they otherwise pretend to rank very
high.
[Illustration]
9. THE ONLY REMEDY.--But when the feeling of women has once been driven to
indignation with respect to the position which they occupy, it is to be
hoped that they will compel men to be pure before marriage, and they will
remain loyal after marriage.
10. WORSE THAN SAVAGES.--With all our civilization we are put to shame even
by the savages. The savages know of no fastidiousness of the sexual
instinct and of no brothels. We are, indeed, likewise savages, but in quite
a different sense. Proof of this is especially furnished by our youth. But
that our students, and young men in general, usually pass through the
school of corruption and drag the filth of the road which they have
traversed before marriage along {429} with them throughout life, is not
their fault so much as the fault of prejudices and of our political and
social conditions that prohibits a proper education, and the placing of the
right kind of literature on these subjects into the hands of young people.
11. REASON AND REMEDY.--Keep the youth pure by a thorough system of plain
unrestricted training. The seeds of immorality are sown in youth, and the
secret vice eats out their young manhood often before the age of puberty.
They develop a bad character as they grow older. Young girls are ruined,
and licentiousness and prostitution flourish. Keep the boys pure and the
harlot would soon lose her vocation. Elevate the morals of the boys, and
you will have pure men and moral husbands.
* * * * *
{430}
The Road to Shame.
[Illustration: SUICIDE LAKE.]
1. INSULT TO MOTHER OR SISTER.--Young men, it can never under any
circumstances be right for you to do to a woman that, which, if another man
did to your mother or sister, you could never forgive! The very thought is
revolting. Let us suppose a man guilty of this shameful sin, and I
apprehend that each of us would feel ready to shoot the villain. We are not
justifying the shooting, but appealing to your instinctive sense of right,
in order to show the enormity of this fearful crime, and to fasten strong
conviction in your mind against this sin. {431}
2. A RUINED SISTER.--What would you think of a man, no matter what his
wealth, culture, or gentlemanly bearing, who should lay himself out for the
seduction and shame of your beloved sister? Her very name now reminds you
of the purest affection: think of her, if you can bear it, ruined in
character, and soon to become an unhappy mother. To whom can you introduce
her? What can you say concerning her? How can her own brothers and sisters
associate with her? and, mark! all this personal and relative misery caused
by this genteel villain's degrading passion.
3. YOUNG MAN LOST.--Another terrible result of this sin is the practical
overthrow of natural affection which it effects. A young man comes from his
father's house to Chicago. Either through his own lust or through the
corrupt companions that he finds in the house of business where he resides,
he becomes the companion of lewd women. The immediate result is a bad
conscience, a sense of shame, and a breach in the affections of home.
Letters are less frequent, careless, and brief. He cannot manifest true
love now. He begins to shrink from his sister and mother, and well he may.
4. THE HARLOT'S INFLUENCE.--He has spent the strength of his affection and
love for home. In their stead the wretched harlot has filled him with
unholy lust. His brain and heart refuse to yield him the love of the son
and brother. His hand can not write as aforetime, or at best, his
expressions become a hypocritical pretence. Fallen into the degradation of
the fornicator, he has changed a mother's love and sister's affection for
the cursed fellowship of the woman "whose house is the way to hell." (Prov.
VII. 27.)
5. THE WAY OF DEATH.--Observe, that directly the law of God is broken, and
wherever promiscuous intercourse between the sexes takes place, gonorrhoea,
syphilis, and every other form of venereal disease is seen in hideous
variety. It is only true to say that thousands of both sexes are slain
annually by these horrible diseases. What must be the moral enormity of a
sin, which, when committed, produces in vast numbers of cases such
frightful physical and moral destruction as that which is here portrayed?
6. A HARLOT'S WOES.--Would to God that something might be done to rescue
fallen women from their low estate. We speak of them as "fallen women".
Fallen, indeed, they are, but surely not more deserving of the application
of that term than the "fallen men" who are their partners and paramours. It
is easy to use the words, "a fallen woman", but who can apprehend all that
is involved in the {432} expression, seeing that every purpose for which
God created woman is prostituted and destroyed? She is now neither maiden,
wife, nor mother; the sweet names of sister and betrothed can have no
legitimate application in her case.
7. THE PENALTIES FOR LOST VIRTUE.--Can the harlot be welcomed where either
children, brothers, sisters, wife, or husband are found? Surely, no. Home
is a sphere alien to the harlot's estate. See such an one wherever you
may--she is a fallen outcast from woman's high estate. Her existence--for
she does not live--now culminates in one dread issue, viz., prostitution.
She sleeps, but awakes a harlot. She rises in the late morning hours, but
her object is prostitution; she washes, dresses, and braids her hair, but
it is with one foul purpose before her. To this end she eats, drinks, and
is clothed. To this end her house is hidden and the blinds are drawn.
8. LOST FOREVER.--To this end she applies the unnatural cosmetique, and
covers herself with sweet perfumes, which vainly try to hide her disease
and shame. To this end she decks herself with dashing finery and tawdry
trappings, and with bold, unwomanly mien essays the streets of the great
city. To this end she is loud and coarse and impudent. To this end she is
the prostituted "lady," with simpering words, and smiles, and glamour of
refined deceit. To this end an angel face, a devil in disguise. There is
one foul and ghastly purpose towards which all her energies now tend. So
low has she fallen, so lost is she to all the design of woman, that she
exists for one foul purpose only, viz., to excite, stimulate, and gratify
the lusts of degraded, ungodly men. Verily, the word "prostitute" has an
awful meaning. What plummet can sound the depths of a woman's fall who has
become a harlot?
9. SOUND THE ALARM.--Remember, young man, you can never rise above the
degradation of the companionship of lewd women. Your virtue once lost is
lost forever. Remember, young woman, your wealth or riches is your good
name and good character--you have nothing else. Give a man your virtue and
he will forsake you, and you will be forsaken by all the world. Remember
that purity of purpose brings nobility of character, and an honorable life
is the joy and security of mankind.
* * * * *
{433}
The Curse of Manhood.
[Illustration: THE GREAT PHILANTHROPIST.]
1. MORAL LEPERS.--We cannot but denounce in the strongest terms, the
profligacy of many married men. Not content with the moderation permitted
in the divine appointed relationship of marriage, they become adulterers,
in order to gratify their accursed lust. The man in them is trodden down by
the sensual beast which reigns supreme. These are the moral outlaws that
make light of this scandalous social iniquity, and by their damnable
example encourage young men to sin.
2. A SAD CONDITION.--It is constantly affirmed by prostitutes, that amongst
married men are found their chief supporters. Evidence from such a quarter
must be received with considerable caution. Nevertheless, we believe that
there is much truth in this statement. Here, again, we lay {434} the ax to
the root of the tree; the married man who dares affirm that there is a
particle of physical necessity for this sin, is a liar, and the truth is
not in him. Whether these men be princes, peers, legislators, professional
men, mechanics, or workmen, they are moral pests, a scandal to the social
state, and a curse to the nation.
3. EXCESSES.--Many married men exhaust themselves by these excesses; they
become irritable, liable to cold, to rheumatic affections, and nervous
depression. They find themselves weary when they rise in the morning.
Unfitted for close application to business, they become dilatory and
careless, often lapsing into entire lack of energy, and not seldom into the
love of intoxicating stimulants. Numbers of husbands and wives entering
upon these experiences lose the charm of health, the cheerfulness of life
and converse. Home duties become irksome to the wife; the brightness,
vivacity, and bloom natural to her earlier years, decline; she is spoken of
as highly nervous, poorly, and weak, when the whole truth is that she is
suffering from physical exhaustion which she cannot bear. Her features
become angular, her hair prematurely gray, she rapidly settles down into
the nervous invalid, constantly needing medical aid, and, if possible,
change of air.
4. IGNORANCE.--These conditions are brought about in many cases through
ignorance on the part of those who are married. Multitudes of men have
neither read, heard, nor known the truth of this question. We sympathize
with our fellow-men in this, that we have been left in practical ignorance
concerning the exceeding value and legitimate uses of these functions of
our being. Some know, that, had they known these things in the early days
of their married life, it would have proved to them knowledge of exceeding
value. If this counsel is followed, thousands of homes will scarcely know
the need of the physician's presence.
5. ANIMAL PASSION.--Common-sense teaches that children who are begotten in
the heat of animal passion, are likely to be licentious when they grow up.
Many parents through excesses of eating and drinking, become inflamed with
wine and strong drink., They are sensualists, and consequently, morally
diseased. Now, if in such conditions men beget their children, who can
affect surprise if they develop licentious tendencies? Are not such parents
largely to blame? Are they not criminals in a high degree? Have they not
fouled their own nest, and transmitted to their children predisposition to
moral evil?
6. FAST YOUNG MEN.--Many of our "fast young men" have been thus corrupted,
even as the children of the {435} intemperate are proved to have been.
Certainly no one can deny that many of our "well-bred" young men are little
better than "high-class dogs" so lawless are they, and ready for the arena
of licentiousness.
7. THE PURE-MINDED WIFE.--Happily, as tens of thousands of husbands can
testify, the pure-minded wife and mother is not carried away, as men are
liable to be, with the force of animal passion. Were it not so, the
tendencies to licentiousness in many sons would be stronger than they are.
In the vast majority of cases suggestion is never made except by the
husband, and it is a matter of deepest gratitude and consideration, that
the true wife may become a real helpmeet in restraining this desire in the
husband.
8. YOUNG WIFE AND CHILDREN.--We often hear it stated that a young wife has
her children quickly. This cannot happen to the majority of women without
injury to health and jeopardy to life. The law which rendered it imperative
for the land to lie fallow in order to rest and gain renewed strength, is
only another illustration of the unity which pervades physical conditions
everywhere. It should be known that if a mother nurses her own babe, and
the child is not weaned until it is nine or ten months old, the mother,
except in rare cases, will not become enceinte again, though cohabitation
with the husband takes place.
9. SELFISH AND UNNATURAL CONDUCT.--It is natural and rational that a mother
should feed her own children; in the selfish and unnatural conduct of many
mothers, who, to avoid the self-denial and patience which are required,
hand the little one over to the wet-nurse, or to be brought up by hand, is
found in many cases the cause and reason of the unnatural haste of
child-bearing. Mothers need to be taught that the laws of nature cannot be
broken without penalty. For every woman whose health has been weakened
through nursing her child, a hundred have lost strength and health through
marital excesses. The haste of having children is the costly penalty which
women pay for shirking the mother's duty to the child.
10. LAW OF GOD.--So graciously has the law of God been arranged in regard
to the mother's strength, that, if it be obeyed, there will be, as a rule,
an interval of at least from eighteen months to two years between the birth
of one child and that of another. Every married man should abstain during
certain natural seasons. In this periodical recurrence God has instituted
to every husband the law of restraint, and insisted upon self-control.
11. TO YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE MARRIED.--Be exceedingly careful of license and
excess in your intercourse with {436} one another. Do not needlessly
expose, by undress, the body. Let not the purity of love degenerate into
unholy lust. See to it that you walk according to the divine Word,
"Dwelling together as being heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers
be not hindered."
12. LOST POWERS.--Many young men after their union showed a marked
difference. They lost much of their natural vivacity, energy, and strength
of voice. Their powers of application, as business men, students, and
ministers, had declined, as also their enterprise, fervor, and kindliness.
They had become irritable, dull, pale, and complaining. Many cases of
rheumatic fever have been induced through impoverishment, caused by
excesses on the part of young married men.
13. MIDDLE AGE.--After middle age the sap of a man's life declines in
quantity. A man who intends close application to the ministry, to
scientific or literary pursuits, where great demands are made upon the
brain, must restrain this passion. The supplies for the brain and nervous
system are absorbed, and the seed diverted through sexual excesses in the
marriage relationship, by fornication, or by any other form of immorality,
the man's power must decline: that to this very cause may be attributed the
failure and breakdown of so many men of middle age.
14. INTOXICATING DRINKS.--By all means avoid intoxicating drinks.
Immorality and alcoholic stimulants, as we have shown, are intimately
related to one another. Wine and strong drink inflame the blood, and heat
the passions. Attacking the brain, they warp the judgment, and weaken the
power of restraint. Avoid what is called good living; it is madness to
allow the pleasures of the table to corrupt and corrode the human body. We
are not designed for gourmands, much less for educated pigs. Cold water
bathing, water as a beverage, simple and wholesome food, regularity of
sleep, plenty of exercise; games such as cricket, football, tennis,
boating, or bicycling, are among the best possible preventives against lust
and animal passion.
15. BEWARE OF IDLENESS.--Indolent leisure means an unoccupied mind. When
young men lounge along the streets, in this condition they become an easy
prey to the sisterhood of shame and death. Bear in mind that evil thoughts
precede evil actions. The hand of the worst thief will not steal until the
thief within operates upon the hand without. The members of the body which
are capable of becoming instruments of sin, are not involuntary actors.
Lustful desires must proceed from brain and heart, ere the fire that
consumes burns in the member.
* * * * *
{437}
A Private Talk to Young Men.
[Illustration: Young Lincoln Starting to School.]
1. The most valuable and useful organs of the body are those which are
capable of the greatest dishonor, abuse and corruption. What a snare the
wonderful organism of the eye may become when used to read corrupt books or
look upon licentious scenes at the theatre, or when used to meet the
fascinating gaze of the harlot! What an instrument for depraving the whole
man may be found in the matchless powers of the brain, the hand, the ear,
the mouth, or the tongue! What potent instruments may these become in
accomplishing the ruin of the whole being for time and eternity!
2. In like manner the organ concerning the uses of which I am to speak, has
been, and continues to be, made one of the chief instruments of man's
immorality, shame, disease, and death. How important to know what the
legitimate uses of this member of the body are, and how great the {438}
dignity conferred upon us in the possession of this gift. On the human side
this gift may be truly said to bring men nearer to the high and solemn
relationship of the Creator than any other which they possess.
3. I first deal with the destructive sin of self-abuse. There can be little
doubt that vast numbers of boys are guilty of this practice. In many cases
the degrading habit has been taught by others, e.g., by elder boys at
school, where association largely results in mutual corruption. With
others, the means of sensual gratification is found out by personal action;
whilst in other cases fallen and depraved men have not hesitated to debauch
the minds of mere children by teaching them this debasing practice.
4. Thousands of youths and young men have only to use the looking-glass to
see the portrait of one guilty of this loathsome sin. The effects are
plainly discernible in the boy's appearance. The face and hands become pale
and bloodless. The eye is destitute of its natural fire and lustre. The
flesh is soft and flabby, the muscles limp and lacking healthy firmness. In
cases where the habit has become confirmed, and where the system has been
drained of this vital force, it is seen in positive ugliness, in a pale and
cadaverous appearance, slovenly gait, slouching walk, and an impaired
memory.
5. It is obvious that if the most vital physical force of a boy's life is
being spent through this degrading habit--a habit, be it observed, of rapid
growth, great strength, and difficult to break--he must develop badly. In
thousands of cases the result is seen in a low stature, contracted chest,
weak lungs, and liability to sore throat. Tendency to cold, indigestion,
depression, drowsiness, and idleness, are results distinctly traceable to
this deadly practice. Pallor of countenance, nervous and rheumatic
affections, loss of memory, epilepsy, paralysis, and insanity find their
principal predisposing cause in the same shameful waste of life. The want
of moral force and strength of mind often observable is youths and young
men is largely induced by this destructive and deadly sin.
6. Large numbers of youths pass from an exhausted boyhood into the
weakness, intermittent fevers, and consumption, which are said to carry off
so many. If the deaths were attributed primarily to loss of strength
occasioned by self-pollution, it would be much nearer the truth. It is
monstrous to suppose that a boy who comes from healthy parents should
decline and die. Without a shade of doubt the chief cause of decay and
death amongst youths and young men, is to be traced to this baneful habit.
{439}
7. It is a well-known fact that any man who desires to excel and retain his
excellence as an accurate shot, an oarsman, a pedestrian, a pugilist, a
first-class cricketer, bicyclist, student, artist, or literary man, must
abstain from self-pollution and fornication. Thousands of school boys and
students lose their positions in the class, and are plucked at the time of
their examination by reason of failure of memory, through lack of nerve and
vital force, caused mainly by draining the physical frame of the seed which
is the vigor of the life.
8. It is only true to say that thousands of young men in the early stages
of a licentious career would rather lose a right hand than have their
mothers or sisters know what manner of men they are. From the side of the
mothers and sisters it may also be affirmed that, were they aware of the
real character of those brothers and sons, they would wish that they had
never been born.
9. Let it be remembered that sexual desire is not in itself dishonorable or
sinful, any more than hunger, thirst, or any other lawful and natural
desire is. It is the gratification by unlawful means of this appetite which
renders it so corrupting and iniquitous.
10. Leisure means the opportunity to commit sin. Unclean pictures are
sought after and feasted upon, paragraphs relating to cases of divorce and
seduction are eagerly read, papers and books of an immoral character and
tendency greedily devoured, low and disgusting conversation indulged in and
repeated.
11. The practical and manly counsel to every youth and young man is, entire
abstinence from indulgence of the sexual faculty until such time as the
marriage relationship is entered upon. Neither is there, nor can there be,
any exception to this rule.
12. No man can affirm that self-denial ever injured him. On the contrary,
self-restraint has been liberty, strength and blessing. Beware of the
deceitful streams of temporary gratification, whose eddying current drifts
towards license, shame, disease and death. Remember, how quickly moral
power declines, how rapidly the edge of the fatal maelstrom is reached, how
near the vortex, how terrible the penalty, how fearful the sentence of
everlasting punishment.
13. Be a young man of principle, honor, and preserve your powers. How can
you look an innocent girl in the face when you are degrading your manhood
with the vilest practice? Keep your mind and life pure, and nobility will
be your crown.
* * * * *
{440}
Remedies for the Social Evil.
1. MAN RESPONSIBLE.--Every great social reform must begin with the male
sex. They must either lead, or give it its support. Prostitution is a sin
wholly of their own making. All the misery, all the lust, as well as all
the blighting consequences, are chargeable wholly to the uncontrolled
sexual passion of the male. To reform sinful women, _reform the men_. Teach
them that the physiological truth means permanent moral, physical and
mental benefit, while seductive indulgence blights and ruins.
2. CONTAGIOUS DISEASES.--A man or woman cannot long live an impure life
without sooner or later contracting disease which brings to every sufferer
not only moral degradation, but often serious and vital injuries and many
times death itself becomes the only relief.
3. SHOULD IT BE REGULATED BY LAW?--Dr. G. J. Ziegler, of Philadelphia, in
several medical articles says that the act of sexual connection should be
made in itself the solemnization of marriage, and that when any such single
act can be proven against an unmarried man, by an unmarried woman, the
latter be at once invested with all the legal privileges of a wife. By
bestowing this power on women very few men would risk the dangers of the
society of a dissolute and scheming woman who might exercise the right to
force him to a marriage and ruin his reputation and life. The strongest
objection of this would be that it would increase the temptation to destroy
the purity of married women, for they could be approached without danger of
being forced into another marriage. But this objection could easily be
harmonized with a good system of well regulated laws. Many means have been
tried to mitigate the social evils, but with little encouragement. In the
city of Paris a system of registration has been inaugurated and houses of
prostitution are under the supervision of the police, yet prostitution has
not been in any degree diminished. Similar methods have been tried in other
European towns, but without satisfactory results.
4. MORAL INFLUENCE.--Let it be an imperative to every clergyman, to every
educator, to every statesman and to every philanthropist, to every father
and to every mother, to impart that moral influence which may guide and
direct the youth of the land into the natural channels of morality,
chastity and health. Then, and not till then, shall we see righteous laws
and rightly enforced for the mitigation and extermination of the modern
house of prostitution.
* * * * *
{441}
The Selfish Slaves of Doses of Disease and Death.
[Illustration: A TURKISH CIGARETTE GIRL.]
1. MOST DEVILISH INTOXICATION.--What is the most devilish, subtle alluring,
unconquerable, hopeless and deadly form of intoxication, with which science
struggles and to which it often succumbs; which eludes the restrictive
grasp of legislation; lurks behind lace curtains, hides in luxurious
boudoirs, haunts the solitude of the study, and with waxen {442} face,
furtive eyes and palsied step totters to the secret recesses of its
self-indulgence? It is the drunkenness of drugs, and woe be unto him that
crosseth the threshold of its dream-curtained portal, for though gifted
with the strength of Samson, the courage of Richard and the genius of
Archimedes, he shall never return, and of him it is written that forever he
leaves hope behind.
2. THE MATERIAL SATAN.--The material Satan in this sensuous syndicate of
soul and body-destroying drugs is opium, and next in order of hellish
potency come cocaine and chloral.
3. GUM OPIUM.--Gum opium, from which the sulphate of morphine is made, is
the dried juice of the poppy, and is obtained principally in the orient.
Taken in moderate doses it acts specially upon the nervous system, deadens
sensibility, and the mind becomes inactive. When used habitually and
excessively it becomes a tonic, which stimulates the whole nervous system,
producing intense mental exaltation and delusive visions. When the effects
wear off, proportionate lassitude follows, which begets an insatiate and
insane craving for the drug. Under the repeated strain of the continually
increasing doses, which have to be taken to renew the desired effect, the
nervous system finally becomes exhausted, and mind and body are utterly and
hopelessly wrecked.
4. COCAINE.--Cocaine is extracted from the leaves of the Peruvian cocoa
tree, and exerts a decided influence upon the nervous system, somewhat akin
to that of coffee. It increases the heart action and is said to be such an
exhilarant that the natives of the Andes are enabled to make extraordinary
forced marches by chewing the leaves containing it. Its after effects are
more depressing even than those of opium, and insanity more frequently
results from its use.
5. CHLORAL.--The name which is derived from the first two syllables of
chlorine and alcohol, is made by passing dry chlorine gas in a continuous
stream through absolute alcohol for six or eight weeks. It is a hypnotic or
sleep-producing drug, and in moderate doses acts on the caliber of the
blood vessels of the brain, producing a soothing effect, especially in
cases of passive congestion. Some patent medicines contain chloral, bromide
and hyoscymus, and they have a large sale, being bought by persons of
wealth, who do not know what they are composed of and recklessly take them
for the effect they produce.
6. VICTIMS RAPIDLY INCREASING.--"From my experience," said a leading and
conservative druggist, "I infer that the {443} number of what are termed
opium, cocaine, and chloral "fiends" is rapidly increasing, and is greater
by two or three hundred per cent than a year ago, with twice as many women
as men represented. I should say that one person out of every fifty is a
victim of this frightful habit, which claims its doomed votaries from the
extremes of social life, those who have the most and the least to live for,
the upper classes and the cyprian, professional men of the finest
intelligence, fifty per cent of whom are doctors and walk into the pit with
eyes wide open. And lawyers and other professional men must be added to
this fated vice."
7. DESTROYS THE MORAL FIBER.--"It is a habit which utterly destroys the
moral fiber of its slaves, and makes unmitigated liars and thieves and
forgers of them, and even murder might be added to the list of crimes, were
no other road left open to the gratification of its insatiate and insane
appetite. I do not know of a single case in which it has been mastered, but
I do know of many where the end has been unspeakable misery, disgrace,
suffering, insanity and death."
8. SHAMEFUL DEATH.--To particularize further would be profitless so far as
the beginners are concerned, but would to heaven that those not within the
shadow of this shameful death would take warning from those who are. There
are no social or periodical drunkards in this sort of intoxication. The
vice is not only solitary, unsocial and utterly selfish, but incessant and
increasing in its demands.
9. APPETITE STRONGER THAN FOR LIQUOR.--This appetite is far stronger and
more uncontrollable than that for liquor, and we can spot its victim as
readily as though he were an ordinary bummer. He has a pallid complexion, a
shifting, shuffling manner and can't look you in the face. If you manage to
catch his eye for an instant you will observe that its pupil is contracted
to an almost invisible point. It is no exaggeration to say that he would
barter his very soul for that which indulgence has made him too poor to
purchase, and where artifice fails he will grovel in abject agony of
supplication for a few grains. At the same time he resorts to all kinds of
miserable and transparent shifts, to conceal his degradation. He never buys
for himself, but always for some fictitious person, and often resorts to
purchasing from distant points.
10. OPIUM SMOKING.--"Opium smoking," said another representative druggist,
"is almost entirely confined to the Chinese and they seem to thrive on it.
Very few others hit the pipe that we know of."
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11. MALT AND ALCOHOLIC DRUNKENNESS.--Alcoholic stimulants have a record of
woe second to nothing. Its victims are annually marching to drunkards'
graves by the thousands. Drunkards may be divided into three classes:
First, the accidental or social drunkard; second, the periodical or
spasmodic drunkard; and third, the sot.
12. THE ACCIDENTAL OR SOCIAL DRUNKARD is yet on safe ground. He has not
acquired the dangerous craving for liquor. It is only on special occasions
that he yields to excessive indulgence; sometimes in meeting a friend, or
at some political blow-out. On extreme occasions he will indulge until he
becomes a helpless victim, and usually as he grows older occasions will
increase, and step by step he will be lead nearer to the precipice of ruin.
13. THE PERIODICAL OR SPASMODIC DRUNKARD, with whom it is always the
unexpected which occurs, and who at intervals exacts from his accumulated
capital the usury of as prolonged a spree as his nerves and stomach will
stand. Science is inclined to charitably label this specimen of man a sort
of a physiologic puzzle, to be as much pitied as blamed. Given the benefit
of every doubt, when he starts off on one of his hilarious tangents, he
becomes a howling nuisance; if he has a family, keeps them continually on
the ragged edge of apprehension, and is unanimously pronounced a "holy
terror" by his friends. His life and future is an uncertainty. He is
unreliable and cannot be long trusted. Total reformation is the only hope,
but it rarely is accomplished.
14. THE SOT.--A blunt term that needs no defining, for even the children
comprehend the hopeless degradation it implies. Laws to restrain and punish
him are framed; societies to protect and reform him are organized, and
mostly in vain. He is prone in life's very gutter; bloated, reeking and
polluted with the doggery's slops and filth. He can fall but a few feet
lower, and not until he stumbles into an unmarked, unhonored grave, where
kind mother earth and the merciful mantle of oblivion will cover and
conceal the awful wreck he made of God's own image. To the casual observer,
the large majority of the community, these three phases, at whose vagaries
many laugh, and over whose consequences millions mourn, comprehend
intoxication and its results, from the filling of the cup to its shattering
fall from the nerveless hand, and this is the end of the matter. Would to
God that it were! for at that it would be bad enough. But it is not, for
wife, children and friends must suffer and drink the cup of trouble and
sorrow to its dregs.
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