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Title: Grappling with the Monster
Author: T. S. Arthur
Release Date: September 21, 2004 [eBook #13509]
Language: English
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GRAPPLING WITH THE MONSTER
or, The Curse and the Cure of Strong Drink
by
T. S. ARTHUR
Author of "Ten Nights in a Bar-Room," "Three Years in a Man-Trap,"
"Cast Adrift," "Danger," etc.
[Illustration: IN THE MONSTER'S CLUTCHES. Body and Brain on Fire.]
INTRODUCTION.
In preparing this, his latest volume, the author found himself
embarrassed from the beginning, because of the large amount of material
which came into his hands, and the consequent difficulty of selection
and condensation. There is not a chapter which might not have been
extended to twice its present length, nor a fact stated, or argument
used, which might not have been supplemented by many equally pertinent
and conclusive. The extent to which alcohol curses the whole people
cannot be shown in a few pages: the sad and terrible history would fill
hundreds of volumes. And the same may be said of the curse which this
poisonous substance lays upon the souls and bodies of men. Fearful as is
the record which will be found in the chapters devoted to the curse of
drink, let the reader bear in mind that a thousandth part has not been
told.
In treating of the means of reformation, prevention and cure, our effort
has been to give to each agency the largest possible credit for what it
is doing. There is no movement, organization or work, however broad or
limited in its sphere, which has for its object the cure of drunkenness
in the individual, or the suppression of the liquor traffic in the
State, that is not contributing its measure of service to the great
cause every true temperance advocate has at heart; and what we largely
need is, toleration for those who do not see with us, nor act with us in
our special methods. Let us never forget the Divine admonition--"Forbid
him not: for he that is not against us is for us."
Patience, toleration and self-repression are of vital importance in any
good cause. If we cannot see with another, let us be careful that, by
opposition, we do not cripple him in his work. If we can assist him by
friendly counsel to clearer seeing, or, by a careful study of his
methods, gain a large efficiency for our own, far more good will be done
than by hard antagonism, which rarely helps, and too surely blinds and
hinders.
Our book treats of the curse and cure of drunkenness. How much better
not to come under the terrible curse! How much better to run no risks
where the malady is so disastrous, and the cure so difficult!
To young men who are drifting easily into the dangerous drinking habits
of society, we earnestly commend the chapters in which will be found the
medical testimony against alcohol, and also the one on "The Growth and
Power of Appetite." They will see that it is impossible for a man to use
alcoholic drinks regularly without laying the foundation for both
physical and mental diseases, and, at the same time, lessening his power
to make the best of himself in his life-work; while beyond this lies the
awful risk of acquiring an appetite which may enslave, degrade and ruin
him, body and soul, as it is degrading and ruining its tens of thousands
yearly.
It is sincerely hoped that many may be led by the facts here presented,
to grapple with the monster and to thus promote his final overthrow.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The Monster, Strong Drink
CHAPTER II.
It Curses the Body
CHAPTER III.
It Curses the Body--Continued
CHAPTER IV.
It Curses the Soul
CHAPTER V.
Not a Food, and very Limited in its Range as a Medicine
CHAPTER VI.
The Growth and Power of Appetite
CHAPTER VII.
Means of Cure
CHAPTER VIII.
Inebriate Asylums
CHAPTER IX.
Reformatory Homes
CHAPTER X.
Tobacco as an Incitant to the Use of Alcoholic Stimulants, and an
Obstacle in the way of a Permanent Reformation
CHAPTER XI.
The Woman's Crusade
CHAPTER XII.
The Woman's National Christian Temperance Union
CHAPTER XIII.
Reform Clubs
CHAPTER XIV.
Gospel Temperance
CHAPTER XV.
Temperance Coffee-Houses and Friendly Inns
CHAPTER XVI.
Temperance Literature
CHAPTER XVII.
License a Failure and a Disgrace
CHAPTER XVIII.
Prohibition
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
IN THE MONSTER'S CLUTCHES
GOD'S BEST BEVERAGE, PURE WATER
HEAPING BURDENS UPON POVERTY
AN UTTER WRECK
"TAKE WARNING BY MY CAREER"
CRAZED BY DRINK
ALCOHOL AND GAMBLING (12 _sequence pictures_)
FOUR STAGES OF THE DOWNWARD COURSE
A VICTIM OF THE DRINKING CLUB
FINANCIAL VIEW OF THE LICENSE SYSTEM
_"Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy
bottle to him, and makest him drunken also._"--HABAKKUK ii, 15.
CHAPTER I.
THE MONSTER, STRONG DRINK.
There are two remarkable passages in a very old book, known as the
Proverbs of Solomon, which cannot be read too often, nor pondered too
deeply. Let us quote them here:
1. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived
thereby is not wise."
2. "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath
babblings? who hath wounds without cause? who hath, redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look
not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the
cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent
and stingeth like an adder."
It is many thousands of years since this record was made, and to-day, as
in that far distant age of the world, wine is a mocker, and strong drink
raging; and still, as then, they who tarry long at the wine; who go to
seek mixed wine, discover that, "_at the last_," it biteth like a
serpent and stingeth like an adder.
This mocking and raging! These bitings and stingings! These woes and
woundings! Alas, for the exceeding bitter cry of their pain, which is
heard above every other cry of sorrow and suffering.
ALCOHOL AN ENEMY.
The curse of strong drink! Where shall we begin, where end, or how, in
the clear and truthful sentences that wrest conviction from doubt, make
plain the allegations we shall bring against an enemy that is sowing
disease, poverty, crime and sorrow throughout the land?
Among our most intelligent, respectable and influential people, this
enemy finds a welcome and a place of honor. Indeed, with many he is
regarded as a friend and treated as such. Every possible opportunity is
given him to gain favor in the household and with intimate and valued
friends. He is given the amplest confidence and the largest freedom; and
he always repays this confidence with treachery and spoliation; too
often blinding and deceiving his victims while his work of robbery goes
on. He is not only a robber, but a cruel master; and his bondsmen and
abject slaves are to be found in hundreds and thousands, and even tens
of thousands, of our homes, from the poor dwelling of the day-laborer,
up to the palace of the merchant-prince.
PLACE AND POWER IN THE HOUSEHOLD.
Of this fact no one is ignorant; and yet, strange to tell, large numbers
of our most intelligent, respectable and influential people continue to
smile upon this enemy; to give him place and power in their households,
and to cherish him as a friend; but with this singular reserve of
thought and purpose, that he is to be trusted just so far and no
farther. He is so pleasant and genial, that, for the sake of his favor,
they are ready to encounter the risk of his acquiring, through the
license they afford, the vantage-ground of a pitiless enemy!
But, it is not only in their social life that the people hold this enemy
in favorable regard, and give him the opportunity to hurt and destroy.
Our great Republic has entered into a compact with him, and, for a
money-consideration, given him the
FREEDOM OF THE NATION;
so that he can go up and down the land at will. And not only has our
great Republic done this but the States of which it is composed, with
only one or two exceptions, accord to him the same freedom. Still more
surprising, in almost every town and city, his right to plunder,
degrade, enslave and destroy the people has been established under the
safe guarantee of law.
Let us give ourselves to the sober consideration of what we are
suffering at his hands, and take measures of defense and safety, instead
of burying our heads in the sand, like the foolish, ostrich, while the
huntsmen are sweeping down upon us.
ENORMOUS CONSUMPTION.
Only those who have given the subject careful consideration have any
true idea of the enormous annual consumption, in this country, of
spirits, wines and malt liquors. Dr. Hargreaves, in "Our Wasted
Resources," gives these startling figures: It amounted in 1870 to
72,425,353 gallons of domestic spirits, 188,527,120 gallons of fermented
liquors, 1,441,747 gallons of imported spirits, 9,088,894 gallons of
wines, 34,239 gallons of spirituous compounds, and 1,012,754 gallons of
ale, beer, etc., or a total of 272,530,107 gallons for 1870, with a
total increase of 30,000,000 gallons in 1871, and of 35,000,000 gallons
in addition in 1872.
All this in a single year, and at a cost variously estimated at from six
to seven hundred millions of dollars! Or, a sum, as statistics tell us,
nearly equal to the cost of all the flour, cotton and woolen goods,
boots and shoes, clothing, and books and newspapers purchased by the
people in the same period of time.
If this were all the cost? If the people wasted no more than seven
hundred millions of dollars on these beverages every year, the question
of their use would be only one of pecuniary loss or gain. But what
farther, in connection with this subject, are we told by statistics?
Why, that, in consequence of using these beverages, we have six hundred
thousand drunkards; and that of these, sixty thousand die every year.
That we have over three hundred murders and four hundred suicides. That
over two hundred thousand children are left homeless and friendless. And
that at least eighty per cent. of all the crime and pauperism of the
land arises from the consumption of this enormous quantity of
intoxicating drinks.
In this single view, the question of intemperance assumes a most
appalling aspect. The
POVERTY AND DESTITUTION
found in so large a portion of our laboring classes, and their
consequent restlessness and discontent, come almost entirely from the
waste of substance, idleness and physical incapacity for work, which
attend the free use of alcoholic beverages. Of the six or seven hundred
millions of dollars paid annually for these beverages, not less than
two-thirds are taken out of the earnings of our artisans and laborers,
and those who, like them, work for wages.
LOSS TO LABOR.
But the loss does not, of course, stop here. The consequent waste of
bodily vigor, and the idleness that is ever the sure accompaniment of
drinking, rob this class of at least as much more. Total abstinence
societies, building associations, and the use of banks for savings,
instead of the dram-sellers' banks for losings, would do more for the
well-being of our working classes than all the trades-unions or labor
combinations, that ever have or ever will exist. The laboring man's
protective union lies in his own good common sense, united with
temperance, self-denial and economy. There are very many in our land who
know this way; and their condition, as compared with those who know it
not, or knowing, will not walk therein, is found to be in striking
contrast.
TAXATION.
Besides the wasting drain for drink, and the loss in national wealth,
growing out of the idleness and diminished power for work, that
invariably follows the use of alcohol in any of its forms, the people
are heavily taxed for the repression and punishment of crimes, and the
support of paupers and destitute children. A fact or two will give the
reader some idea of what this enormous cost must be. In "The Twentieth
Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Prison Association of
New York," is this sentence: "There can be no doubt that, of all the
proximate sources of crime, the use of intoxicating liquors is the most
prolific and the most deadly. Of other causes it may be said that they
slay their thousands; of this it may be acknowledged that it slays its
tens of thousands. The committee asked for the opinion of the jail
officers in nearly every county in the State as to the proportion of
commitments due, either directly or indirectly, to strong drink."
The whole number of commitments is given in these words: "Not less than
60,000 to 70,000 [or the sixtieth portion of the inhabitants of the
State of New York] human beings--men, women and children--either guilty,
or arrested on suspicion of being guilty of crime, pass every year
through these institutions." The answers made to the committee by the
jail officers, varied from two-thirds as the lowest, to nine-tenths as
the highest; and, on taking the average of their figures, it gave
seven-eighths as the proportion of commitments for crime directly
ascribed to the use of intoxicating drinks!
Taking this as the proportion of those who are made criminals through
intemperance, let us get at some estimate of the cost to tax-payers. We
find it stated in Tract No. 28, issued by the National Temperance
Society, that "a committee was appointed by the Ulster County Temperance
Society, in 1861, for the express purpose of ascertaining, from reliable
sources, the percentage on every dollar tax paid to the county to
support her paupers and criminal justice. The committee, after due
examination, came to the conclusion that upwards of sixty cents on the
dollar was for the above purpose. This amount was required, _according
to law_, to be paid by every tax-payer as a _penalty, or rather as a rum
bill_, for allowing the liquor traffic to be carried on in the above
county. What is said of Ulster County, may, more or less, if a like
examination were entered into, be said of every other county, not only
in the State of New York, but in every county in the United States."
From the same tract we take this statement: "In a document published by
the Legislature of the State of New York, for 1863, being the report of
the Secretary of the State to the Legislature, we have the following
statements: 'The whole number of paupers relieved during the same
period, was 261,252. During the year 1862, 257,354.' These numbers would
be in the ratio of one pauper annually to every fifteen inhabitants
throughout the State. In an examination made into the history of those
paupers by a competent committee, _seven-eighths of them were reduced_
to this low and degraded condition, directly or indirectly, through
intemperance."
CURSING THE POOR.
Looking at our laboring classes, with the fact before us, that the cost
of the liquor sold annually by retail dealers is equal to nearly $25 for
every man, woman and child in our whole population, and we can readily
see why so much destitution is to be found among them. Throwing out
those who abstain altogether; the children, and a large proportion of
women, and those who take a glass only now and then, and it will be seen
that for the rest the average of cost must be more than treble. Among
working men who drink the cheaper beverages, the ratio of cost to each
cannot fall short of a hundred dollars a year. With many, drink consumes
from a fourth to one-half of their entire earnings. Is it, then, any
wonder that so much poverty and suffering are to be found among them?
CRIME AND PAUPERISM.
The causes that produce crime and pauperism in our own country, work the
same disastrous results in other lands where intoxicants are used. An
English writer, speaking of the sad effects of intemperance in Great
Britain, says: "One hundred million pounds, which is now annually
wasted, is a sum as great as was spent in seven years upon all the
railways of the kingdom--in the very heyday of railway projects; a sum
so vast, that if saved annually, for seven years, would blot out the
national debt!" Another writer says, "that in the year 1865, over
£6,000,000, or a tenth part of the whole national revenue, was required
to support her paupers." Dr. Lees, of London, in speaking of Ireland,
says: "Ireland has been a poor nation from want of capital, and has
wanted capital chiefly because the people have preferred swallowing it
to saving it." The Rev. G. Holt, chaplain of the Birmingham Workhouse,
says: "From my own experience, I am convinced of the accuracy of a
statement made by the late governor, that of every one hundred persons
admitted, ninety-nine were reduced to this state of humiliation and
dependence, either directly or indirectly, through the prevalent and
ruinous drinking usages."
[Illustration: HEAPING BURDENS UPON POVERTY.]
Mr. Charles Buxton, M.P., in his pamphlet, "How to Stop Drunkenness,"
says: "It would not be too much to say that if all drinking of fermented
liquors could be done away, crime of every kind would fall to a fourth
of its present amount, and the whole tone of moral feeling in the lower
order might be indefinitely raised. Not only does this vice produce all
kinds of wanton mischief, but it has also a negative effect of great
importance. It is the mightiest of all the forces that clog the progress
of good. * * * The struggle of the school, the library and the church,
all united against the beer-shop and the gin-palace, is but one
development of the war between Heaven and hell. It is, in short,
intoxication that fills our jails; it is intoxication that fills our
lunatic asylums; it is intoxication that fills our work-houses with
poor. Were it not for this one cause, pauperism would be nearly
extinguished in England."
THE BLIGHT EVERYWHERE.
We could go on and fill pages with corroborative facts and figures,
drawn from the most reliable sources. But these are amply sufficient to
show the extent and magnitude of the curse which the liquor traffic has
laid upon our people. Its blight is everywhere--on our industries, on
our social life; on our politics, and even on our religion.
And, now, let us take the individual man himself, and see in what manner
this treacherous enemy deals with him when he gets him into his power.
CHAPTER II.
IT CURSES THE BODY.
First as to the body. One would suppose, from the marred and scarred,
and sometimes awfully disfigured forms and faces of men who have
indulged in intoxicating drinks, which are to be seen everywhere and
among all classes of society, that there would be no need of other
testimony to show that alcohol is an enemy to the body. And yet, strange
to say, men of good sense, clear judgment and quick perception in all
moral questions and in the general affairs of life, are often so blind,
or infatuated here, as to affirm that this substance, alcohol, which
they use under the various forms of wine, brandy, whisky, gin, ale or
beer, is not only harmless, when taken in moderation--each being his own
judge as to what "moderation" means--but actually useful and nutritious!
Until within the last fifteen or twenty years, a large proportion of the
medical profession not only favored this view, but made constant
prescription of alcohol in one form or another, the sad results of which
too often made their appearance in exacerbations of disease, or in the
formation of intemperate habits among their patients. Since then, the
chemist and the physiologist have subjected alcohol to the most rigid
tests, carried on often for years, and with a faithfulness that could
not be satisfied with guess work, or inference, or hasty conclusion.
ALCOHOL NOT A FOOD AND OF DOUBTFUL USE AS A MEDICINE.
As a result of these carefully-conducted and long-continued examinations
and experiments, the medical profession stands to-day almost as a unit
against alcohol; and makes solemn public declaration to the people that
it "is not shown to have a definite food value by any of the usual
methods of chemical analysis or physiological investigations;" and that
as a medicine its range is very limited, admitting often of a
substitute, and that it should never be taken unless prescribed by a
physician.
Reports of these investigations to which we have referred have appeared,
from time to time, in the medical journals of Europe and America, and
their results are now embodied in many of the standard and most reliable
treatises and text-books of the medical profession.
In this chapter we shall endeavor to give our readers a description of
the changes and deteriorations which take place in the blood, nerves,
membranes, tissues and organs, in consequence of the continued
introduction of alcohol into the human body; and in doing so, we shall
quote freely from medical writers, in order that our readers may have
the testimony before them in its directest form, and so be able to judge
for themselves as to its value.
DIGESTION.
And here, in order to give those who are not familiar with, the process
of digestion, a clear idea of that important operation, and the effect
produced when alcohol is taken with food, we quote from the lecture of
an English physician, Dr. Henry Monroe, on "The Physiological Action of
Alcohol." He says:
"Every kind of substance employed by man as food consists of sugar,
starch, oil and glutinous matters, mingled together in various
proportions; these are designed for the support of the animal frame. The
glutinous principles of food--_fibrine, albumen_ and _casein_--are
employed to build up the structure; while the _oil, starch_ and _sugar_
are chiefly used to generate heat in the body.
"The first step of the digestive process is the breaking up of the food
in the mouth by means of the jaws and teeth. On this being done, the
saliva, a viscid liquor, is poured into the mouth from the salivary
glands, and as it mixes with the food, it performs a very important part
in the operation of digestion, rendering the starch of the food soluble,
and gradually changing it into a sort of sugar, after which the other
principles become more miscible with it. Nearly a pint of saliva is
furnished every twenty-four hours for the use of an adult. When the
food has been masticated and mixed with the saliva, it is then passed
into the stomach, where it is acted upon by a juice secreted by the
filaments of that organ, and poured into the stomach in large quantities
whenever food comes in contact with its mucous coats. It consists of a
dilute acid known to the chemists as hydrochloric acid, composed of
hydrogen and chlorine, united together in certain definite proportions.
The gastric juice contains, also, a peculiar organic-ferment or
decomposing substance, containing nitrogen--something of the nature of
yeast--termed _pepsine_, which is easily soluble in the acid just named.
That gastric juice acts as a simple chemical solvent, is proved by the
fact that, after death, it has been known to dissolve the stomach
itself."
ALCOHOL RETARDS DIGESTION.
"It is an error to suppose that, after a good dinner, a glass of spirits
or beer assists digestion; or that any liquor containing alcohol--even
bitter beer--can in any way assist digestion. Mix some bread and meat
with gastric juice; place them in a phial, and keep that phial in a
sand-bath at the slow heat of 98 degrees, occasionally shaking briskly
the contents to imitate the motion of the stomach; you will find, after
six or eight hours, the whole contents blended into one pultaceous mass.
If to another phial of food and gastric juice, treated in the same way,
I add a glass of pale ale or a quantity of alcohol, at the end of seven
or eight hours, or even some days, the food is scarcely acted upon at
all. This is a fact; and if you are led to ask why, I answer, because
alcohol has the peculiar power of chemically affecting or decomposing
the gastric juice by precipitating one of its principal constituents,
viz., pepsine, rendering its solvent properties much less efficacious.
Hence alcohol can not be considered either as food or as a solvent for
food. Not as the latter certainly, for it refuses to act with the
gastric juice.
"'It is a remarkable fact,' says Dr. Dundas Thompson, 'that alcohol,
when added to the digestive fluid, produces a white precipitate, so that
the fluid is no longer capable of digesting animal or vegetable matter.'
'The use of alcoholic stimulants,' say Drs. Todd and Bowman, 'retards
digestion by coagulating the pepsine, an essential element of the
gastric juice, and thereby interfering with its action. Were it not that
wine and spirits are rapidly absorbed, the introduction of these into
the stomach, in any quantity, would be a complete bar to the digestion
of food, as the pepsine would be precipitated from the solution as
quickly as it was formed by the stomach.' Spirit, in any quantity, as a
dietary adjunct, is pernicious on account of its antiseptic qualities,
which resist the digestion of food by the absorption of water from its
particles, in direct antagonism to chemical operation."
ITS EFFECT ON THE BLOOD.
Dr. Richardson, in his lectures on alcohol, given both in England and
America, speaking of the action of this substance on the blood after
passing from the stomach, says:
"Suppose, then, a certain measure of alcohol be taken into the stomach,
it will be absorbed there, but, previous to absorption, it will have to
undergo a proper degree of dilution with water, for there is this
peculiarity respecting alcohol when it is separated by an animal
membrane from a watery fluid like the blood, that it will not pass
through the membrane until it has become charged, to a given point of
dilution, with water. It is itself, in fact, _so greedy for water, it
will pick it up from watery textures, and deprive them of it until, by
its saturation, its power of reception is exhausted_, after which it
will diffuse into the current of circulating fluid."
It is this power of absorbing water from every texture with which
alcoholic spirits comes in contact, that creates the burning thirst of
those who freely indulge in its use. Its effect, when it reaches the
circulation, is thus described by Dr. Richardson:
"As it passes through the circulation of the lungs it is exposed to the
air, and some little of it, raised into vapor by the natural heat, is
thrown off in expiration. If the quantity of it be large, this loss may
be considerable, and the odor of the spirit may be detected in the
expired breath. If the quantity be small, the loss will be comparatively
little, as the spirit will be held in solution by the water in the
blood. After it has passed through the lungs, and has been driven by the
left heart over the arterial circuit, it passes into what is called the
minute circulation, or the structural circulation of the organism. The
arteries here extend into very small vessels, which are called
arterioles, and from these infinitely small vessels spring the equally
minute radicals or roots of the veins, which are ultimately to become
the great rivers bearing the blood back to the heart. In its passage
through this minute circulation the alcohol finds its way to every
organ. To this brain, to these muscles, to these secreting or excreting
organs, nay, even into this bony structure itself, it moves with the
blood. In some of these parts which are not excreting, it remains for a
time diffused, and in those parts where there is a large percentage of
water, it remains longer than in other parts. From some organs which
have an open tube for conveying fluids away, as the liver and kidneys,
it is thrown out or eliminated, and in this way a portion of it is
ultimately removed from the body. The rest passing round and round with
the circulation, is probably decomposed and carried off in new forms of
matter.
"When we know the course which the alcohol takes in its passage through
the body, from the period of its absorption to that of its elimination,
we are the better able to judge what physical changes it induces in the
different organs and structures with which it comes in contact. It
first reaches the blood; but, as a rule, the quantity of it that enters
is insufficient to produce any material effect on that fluid. If,
however, the dose taken be poisonous or semi-poisonous, then even the
blood, rich as it is in water--and it contains seven hundred and ninety
parts in a thousand--is affected. The alcohol is diffused through this
water, and there it comes in contact with the other constituent parts,
with the fibrine, that plastic substance which, when blood is drawn,
clots and coagulates, and which is present in the proportion of from two
to three parts in a thousand; with the albumen which exists in the
proportion of seventy parts; with the salts which yield about ten parts;
with the fatty matters; and lastly, with those minute, round bodies
which float in myriads in the blood (which were discovered by the Dutch
philosopher, Leuwenhock, as one of the first results of microscopical
observation, about the middle of the seventeenth century), and which are
called the blood globules or corpuscles. These last-named bodies are, in
fact, cells; their discs, when natural, have a smooth outline, they are
depressed in the centre, and they are red in color; the color of the
blood being derived from them. We have discovered in recent years that
there exist other corpuscles or cells in the blood in much smaller
quantity, which are called white cells, and these different cells float
in the blood-stream within the vessels. The red take the centre of the
stream; the white lie externally near the sides of the vessels, moving
less quickly. Our business is mainly with the red corpuscles. They
perform the most important functions in the economy; they absorb, in
great part, the oxygen which we inhale in breathing, and carry it to the
extreme tissues of the body; they absorb, in great part, the carbonic
acid gas which is produced in the combustion of the body in the extreme
tissues, and bring that gas back to the lungs to be exchanged for oxygen
there; in short, they are the vital instruments of the circulation.
"With all these parts of the blood, with the water, fibrine, albumen,
salts, fatty matter and corpuscles, the alcohol comes in contact when it
enters the blood, and, if it be in sufficient quantity, it produces
disturbing action. I have watched this disturbance very carefully on the
blood corpuscles; for, in some animals we can see these floating along
during life, and we can also observe them from men who are under the
effects of alcohol, by removing a speck of blood, and examining it with
the microscope. The action of the alcohol, when it is observable, is
varied. It may cause the corpuscles to run too closely together, and to
adhere in rolls; it may modify their outline, making the clear-defined,
smooth, outer edge irregular or crenate, or even starlike; it may change
the round corpuscle into the oval form, or, in very extreme cases, it
may produce what I may call a truncated form of corpuscles, in which the
change is so great that if we did not trace it through all its stages,
we should be puzzled to know whether the object looked at were indeed a
blood-cell. All these changes are due to the action of the spirit upon
the water contained in the corpuscles; upon the capacity of the spirit
to extract water from them. During every stage of modification of
corpuscles thus described, their function to absorb and fix gases is
impaired, and when the aggregation of the cells, in masses, is great,
other difficulties arise, for the cells, united together, pass less
easily than they should through the minute vessels of the lungs and of
the general circulation, and impede the current, by which local injury
is produced.
"A further action upon the blood, instituted by alcohol in excess, is
upon the fibrine or the plastic colloidal matter. On this the spirit may
act in two different ways, according to the degree in which it affects
the water that holds the fibrine in solution. It may fix the water with
the fibrine, and thus destroy the power of coagulation; or it may
extract the water so determinately as to produce coagulation."
ON THE MINUTE CIRCULATION.
The doctor then goes on to describe the minute circulation through which
the constructive material in the blood is distributed to every part of
the body. "From this distribution of blood in these minute vessels," he
says, "the structure of organs derive their constituent parts; through
these vessels brain matter, muscle, gland, membrane, are given out from
the blood by a refined process of selection of material, which, up to
this time, is only so far understood as to enable us to say that it
exists. The minute and intermediate vessels are more intimately
connected than any other part with the construction and with the
function of the living matter of which the body is composed. Think you
that this mechanism is left uncontrolled? No; the vessels, small as they
are, are under distinct control. Infinitely refined in structure, they
nevertheless have the power of contraction and dilatation, which power
is governed by nervous action of a special kind."
Now, there are certain chemical agents, which, by their action on the
nerves, have the power to paralyze and relax these minute blood-vessels,
at their extreme points. "The whole series of nitrates," says Dr.
Richardson, "possess this power; ether possesses it; but the great point
I wish to bring forth is, that the substance we are specially dealing
with, alcohol, possesses the self-same power. By this influence it
produces all those peculiar effects which in every-day life are so
frequently illustrated."
PARALYZES THE MINUTE BLOOD-VESSELS.
It paralyzes the minute blood-vessels, and allows them to become dilated
with the flowing blood.
"If you attend a large dinner party, you will observe, after the first
few courses, when the wine is beginning to circulate, a progressive
change in some of those about you who have taken wine. The face begins
to get flushed, the eye brightens, and the murmur of conversation
becomes loud. What is the reason of that flushing of the countenance? It
is the same as the flush from blushing, or from the reaction of cold, or
from the nitrite of amyl. It is the dilatation of vessels following upon
the reduction of nervous control, which reduction has been induced by
the alcohol. In a word, the first stage, the stage of vascular
excitement from alcohol, has been established."
HEART DISTURBANCE.
"The action of the alcohol extending so far does not stop there. With
the disturbance of power in the extreme vessels, more disturbance is set
up in other organs, and the first organ that shares in it is the heart.
With each beat of the heart a certain degree of resistance is offered by
the vessels when their nervous supply is perfect, and the stroke of the
heart is moderated in respect both to tension and to time. But when the
vessels are rendered relaxed, the resistance is removed, the heart
begins to run quicker, like a watch from which the pallets have been
removed, and the heart-stroke, losing nothing in force, is greatly
increased in frequency, with a weakened recoil stroke. It is easy to
account, in this manner, for the quickened heart and pulse which
accompany the first stage of deranged action from alcohol, and you will
be interested to know to what extent this increase of vascular action
proceeds. The information on this subject is exceedingly curious and
important."
* * * * *
"The stage of primary excitement of the circulation thus induced lasts
for a considerable time, but at length the heart flags from its
overaction, and requires the stimulus of more spirit to carry it on in
its work. Let us take what we may call a moderate amount of alcohol, say
two ounces by volume, in form of wine, or beer, or spirits. What is
called strong sherry or port may contain as much as twenty-five per
cent. by volume. Brandy over fifty; gin, thirty-eight; rum, forty-eight;
whisky, forty-three; vin ordeinaire, eight; strong ale, fourteen;
champagne, ten to eleven; it matters not which, if the quantity of
alcohol be regulated by the amount present in the liquor imbibed. When
we reach the two ounces, a distinct physiological effect follows,
leading on to that first stage of excitement with which we are now
conversant. The reception of the spirit arrested at this point, there
need be no important mischief done to the organism; but if the quantity
imbibed be increased, further changes quickly occur. We have seen that
all the organs of the body are built upon the vascular structures, and
therefore it follows that a prolonged paralysis of the minute
circulation must of necessity lead to disturbance in other organs than
the heart."
OTHER ORGANS INVOLVED.
"By common observation, the flush seen on the cheek during the first
stage of alcoholic excitation, is presumed to extend merely to the parts
actually exposed to view. It cannot, however, be too forcibly impressed
that the condition is universal in the body. If the lungs could be seen,
they, too, would be found with their vessels injected; if the brain and
spinal cord could be laid open to view, they would be discovered in the
same condition; if the stomach, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys or
any other vascular organs or parts could be exposed, the vascular
engorgement would be equally manifest. In the lower animals, I have been
able to witness this extreme vascular condition in the lungs, and there
are here presented to you two drawings from nature, showing, one the
lungs in a natural state of an animal killed by a sudden blow, the other
the lungs of an animal killed equally suddenly, but at a time when it
was under the influence of alcohol. You will see, as if you were looking
at the structures themselves, how different they are in respect to the
blood which they contained, how intensely charged with blood is the lung
in which the vessels had been paralyzed by the alcoholic Spirit."
EFFECT ON THE BRAIN.
"I once had the unusual, though unhappy, opportunity of observing the
same phenomenon in the brain structure of a man, who, in a paroxysm of
alcoholic excitement, decapitated himself under the wheel of a railway
carriage, and whose brain was instantaneously evolved from the skull by
the crash. The brain itself, entire, was before me within three minutes
after the death. It exhaled the odor of spirit most distinctly, and its
membranes and minute structures were vascular in the extreme. It looked
as if it had been recently injected with vermilion. The white matter of
the cerebrum, studded with red points, could scarcely be distinguished,
when it was incised, by its natural whiteness; and the pia-mater, or
internal vascular membrane covering the brain, resembled a delicate web
of coagulated red blood, so tensely were its fine vessels engorged.
"I should add that this condition extended through both the larger and
the smaller brain, the cerebrum and cerebellum, but was not so marked in
the medulla or commencing portion of the spinal cord."
THE SPINAL CORD AND NERVES.
"The action of alcohol continued beyond the first stage, the function of
the spinal cord is influenced. Through this part of the nervous system
we are accustomed, in health, to perform automatic acts of a mechanical
kind, which proceed systematically even when we are thinking or speaking
on other subjects. Thus a skilled workman will continue his mechanical
work perfectly, while his mind is bent on some other subject; and thus
we all perform various acts in a purely automatic way, without calling
in the aid of the higher centres, except something more than ordinary
occurs to demand their service, upon which we think before we perform.
Under alcohol, as the spinal centres become influenced, these pure
automatic acts cease to be correctly carried on. That the hand may reach
any object, or the foot be correctly planted, the higher intellectual
centre must be invoked to make the proceeding secure. There follows
quickly upon this a deficient power of co-ordination of muscular
movement. The nervous control of certain of the muscles is lost, and the
nervous stimulus is more or less enfeebled. The muscles of the lower lip
in the human subject usually fail first of all, then the muscles of the
lower limbs, and it is worthy of remark that the extensor muscles give
way earlier than the flexors. The muscles themselves, by this time, are
also failing in power; they respond more feebly than is natural to the
nervous stimulus; they, too, are coming under the depressing influence
of the paralyzing agent, their structure is temporarily deranged, and
their contractile power reduced.
"This modification of the animal functions under alcohol, marks the
second degree of its action. In young subjects, there is now, usually,
vomiting with faintness, followed by gradual relief from the burden of
the poison."
[Illustration: AN UTTER WRECK.]
EFFECT ON THE BRAIN CENTRES.
"The alcoholic spirit carried yet a further degree, the cerebral or
brain centres become influenced; they are reduced in power, and the
controlling influences of will and of judgment are lost. As these
centres are unbalanced and thrown into chaos, the rational part of the
nature of the man gives way before the emotional, passional or organic
part. The reason is now off duty, or is fooling with duty, and all the
mere animal instincts and sentiments are laid atrociously bare. The
coward shows up more craven, the braggart more boastful, the cruel more
merciless, the untruthful more false, the carnal more degraded. '_In
vino veritas_' expresses, even, indeed, to physiological accuracy, the
true condition. The reason, the emotions, the instincts, are all in a
state of carnival, and in chaotic feebleness.
"Finally, the action of the alcohol still extending, the superior brain
centres are overpowered; the senses are beclouded, the voluntary
muscular prostration is perfected, sensibility is lost, and the body
lies a mere log, dead by all but one-fourth, on which alone its life
hangs. The heart still remains true to its duty, and while it just lives
it feeds the breathing power. And so the circulation and the
respiration, in the otherwise inert mass, keeps the mass within the bare
domain of life until the poison begins to pass away and the nervous
centres to revive again. It is happy for the inebriate that, as a rule,
the brain fails so long before the heart that he has neither the power
nor the sense to continue his process of destruction up to the act of
death of his circulation. Therefore he lives to die another day.
* * * * *
"Such is an outline of the primary action of alcohol on those who may be
said to be unaccustomed to it, or who have not yet fallen into a fixed
habit of taking it: For a long time the organism will bear these
perversions of its functions without apparent injury, but if the
experiment be repeated too often and too long, if it be continued after
the term of life when the body is fully developed, when the elasticity
of the membranes and of the blood-vessels is lessened, and when the tone
of the muscular fibre is reduced, then organic series of structural
changes, so characteristic of the persistent effects of spirit, become
prominent and permanent. Then the external surface becomes darkened and
congested, its vessels, in parts, visibly large; the skin becomes
blotched, the proverbial red nose is defined, and those other striking
vascular changes which disfigure many who may probably be called
moderate alcoholics, are developed. These changes, belonging, as they
do, to external surfaces, come under direct observation; they are
accompanied with certain other changes in the internal organs, which we
shall show to be more destructive still."
CHAPTER III.
IT CURSES THE BODY.--CONTINUED.
We have quoted thus freely in the preceding chapter, in order that the
intelligent and thoughtful reader, who is really seeking for the truth
in regard to the physical action of alcohol, may be able to gain clear
impressions on the subject. The specific changes wrought by this
substance on the internal organs are of a most serious character, and
should be well understood by all who indulge habitually in its use.
EFFECT ON THE MEMBRANES.
The parts which first suffer from alcohol are those expansions of the
body which the anatomists call the membranes. "The skin is a membranous
envelope. Through the whole of the alimentary surface, from the lips
downward, and through the bronchial passages to their minutest
ramifications, extends the mucous membrane. The lungs, the heart, the
liver, the kidneys are folded in delicate membranes, which can be
stripped easily from these parts. If you take a portion of bone, you
will find it easy to strip off from it a membranous sheath or covering;
if you examine a joint, you will find both the head and the socket lined
with membranes. The whole of the intestines are enveloped in a fine
membrane called _peritoneum_. All the muscles are enveloped in
membranes, and the fasciculi, or bundles and fibres of muscles, have
their membranous sheathing. The brain and spinal cord are enveloped in
three membranes; one nearest to themselves, a pure vascular structure, a
net-work of blood-vessels; another, a thin serous structure; a third, a
strong fibrous structure. The eyeball is a structure of colloidal humors
and membranes, and of nothing else. To complete the description, the
minute structures of the vital organs are enrolled in membranous
matter."
These membranes are the filters of the body. "In their absence there
could be no building of structure, no solidification of tissue, nor
organic mechanism. Passive themselves, they, nevertheless, separate all
structures into their respective positions and adaptations."
MEMBRANOUS DETERIORATIONS.
In order to make perfectly clear to the reader's mind the action and use
of these membranous expansions, and the way in which alcohol
deteriorates them, and obstructs their work, we quote again from Dr.
Richardson:
"The animal receives from the vegetable world and from the earth the
food and drink it requires for its sustenance and motion. It receives
colloidal food for its muscles: combustible food for its motion; water
for the solution of its various parts; salt for constructive and other
physical purposes. These have all to be arranged in the body; and they
are arranged by means of the membranous envelopes. Through these
membranes nothing can pass that is not, for the time, in a state of
aqueous solution, like water or soluble salts. Water passes freely
through them, salts pass freely through them, but the constructive
matter of the active parts that is colloidal does not pass; it is
retained in them until it is chemically decomposed into the soluble type
of matter. When we take for our food a portion of animal flesh, it is
first resolved, in digestion, into a soluble fluid before it can be
absorbed; in the blood it is resolved into the fluid colloidal
condition; in the solids it is laid down within the membranes into new
structure, and when it has played its part, it is digested again, if I
may so say, into a crystalloidal soluble substance, ready to be carried
away and replaced by addition of new matter, then it is dialysed or
passed through, the membranes into the blood, and is disposed of in the
excretions.
"See, then, what an all-important part these membranous structures play
in the animal life. Upon their integrity all the silent work of the
building up of the body depends. If these membranes are rendered too
porous, and let out the colloidal fluids of the blood--the albumen, for
example--the body so circumstanced, dies; dies as if it were slowly bled
to death. If, on the contrary, they become condensed or thickened, or
loaded with foreign material, then they fail to allow the natural fluids
to pass through them. They fail to dialyse, and the result is, either an
accumulation of the fluid in a closed cavity, or contraction of the
substance inclosed within the membrane, or dryness of membrane in
surfaces that ought to be freely lubricated and kept apart. In old age
we see the effects of modification of membrane naturally induced; we see
the fixed joint, the shrunken and feeble muscle, the dimmed eye, the
deaf ear, the enfeebled nervous function.
"It may possibly seem, at first sight, that I am leading immediately
away from the subject of the secondary action of alcohol. It is not so.
I am leading directly to it. Upon all these membranous structures
alcohol exerts a direct perversion of action. It produces in them a
thickening, a shrinking and an inactivity that reduces their functional
power. That they may work rapidly and equally, they require to be at all
times charged with water to saturation. If, into contact with them, any
agent is brought that deprives them of water, then is their work
interfered with; they cease to separate the saline constituents
properly; and, if the evil that is thus started, be allowed to continue,
they contract upon their contained matter in whatever organ it may be
situated, and condense it.
"In brief, under the prolonged influence of alcohol those changes which
take place from it in the blood corpuscles, and which have already been
described, extend to the other organic parts, involving them in
structural deteriorations, which are always dangerous, and are often
ultimately fatal."
ACTION OF ALCOHOL ON THE STOMACH.
Passing from the effect of alcohol upon the membranes, we come to its
action on the stomach. That it impairs, instead of assisting digestion,
has already been shown in the extract from Dr. Monroe, given near the
commencement of the preceding chapter. A large amount of medical
testimony could be quoted in corroboration, but enough has been educed.
We shall only quote Dr. Richardson on "Alcoholic Dyspepsia:"
"The stomach, unable to produce, in proper quantity, the natural
digestive fluid, and also unable to absorb the food which it may
imperfectly digest, is in constant anxiety and irritation. It is
oppressed with the sense of nausea; it is oppressed with the sense of
emptiness and prostration; it is oppressed with a sense of distention;
it is oppressed with a loathing for food, and it is teased with a
craving for more drink. Thus there is engendered, a permanent disorder
which, for politeness' sake, is called dyspepsia, and for which
different remedies are often sought but never found. Antibilious
pills--whatever they may mean--Seidlitz powders, effervescing waters,
and all that pharmacopoeia of aids to further indigestion, in which the
afflicted who nurse their own diseases so liberally and innocently
indulge, are tried in vain. I do not strain a syllable when I state
that the worst forms of confirmed indigestion originate in the practice
that is here explained. By this practice all the functions are vitiated,
the skin at one moment is flushed and perspiring, and at the next moment
it is pale, cold and clammy, while every other secreting structure is
equally disarranged."
TIC-DOULOUREUX AND SCIATICA.
Nervous derangements follow as a matter of course, for the delicate
membranes which envelope and immediately surround the nervous cords, are
affected by the alcohol more readily than the coarser membranous
textures of other parts of the body, and give rise to a series of
troublesome conditions, which are too often attributed to other than the
true causes. Some of these are thus described: "The perverted condition
of the membranous covering of the nerves gives rise to pressure within
the sheath of the nerve, and to pain as a consequence. To the pain thus
excited the term neuralgia is commonly applied, or 'tic;' or, if the
large nerve running down the thigh be the seat of the pain, 'sciatica.'
Sometimes this pain is developed as a toothache. It is pain commencing,
in nearly every instance, at some point where a nerve is inclosed in a
bony cavity, or where pressure is easily excited, as at the lower
jawbone near the centre of the chin, or at the opening in front of the
lower part of the ear, or at the opening over the eyeball in the frontal
bone."
DEGENERATION OF THE LIVER.
The organic deteriorations which follow the long-continued use of
alcoholic drinks are often of a serious and fatal character. The same
author says: "The organ of the body, that, perhaps, the most frequently
undergoes structural changes from alcohol, is the _liver_. The capacity
of this organ for holding active substances in its cellular parts, is
one of its marked physiological distinctions. In instances of poisoning
by arsenic, antimony, strychnine and other poisonous compounds, we turn
to the liver, in conducting our analyses, as if it were the central
depot of the foreign matter. It is, practically, the same in respect to
alcohol. The liver of the confirmed alcoholic is, probably, never free
from the influence of the poison; it is too often saturated with it. The
effect of the alcohol upon the liver is upon the minute membranous or
capsular structure of the organ, upon which, it acts to prevent the
proper dialysis and free secretion. The organ, at first, becomes large
from the distention of its vessels, the surcharge of fluid matter and
the thickening of tissue. After a time, there follows contraction of
membrane, and slow shrinking of the whole mass of the organ in its
cellular parts. Then the shrunken, hardened, roughened mass is said to
be 'hob-nailed,' a common, but expressive term. By the time this change
occurs, the body of him in whom it is developed is usually dropsical in
its lower parts, owing to the obstruction offered to the returning
blood by the veins, and his fate is sealed.... Again, under an increase
of fatty substance in the body, the structure of the liver may be
charged with, fatty cells, and undergo what is technically designated
fatty degeneration."
HOW THE KIDNEYS SUFFER.
"The kidneys, also, suffer deterioration. Their minute structures
undergo fatty modification; their vessels lose their due elasticity of
power of contraction; or their membranes permit to pass through them the
albumen from the blood. This last condition reached, the body loses
power as if it were being gradually drained even of its blood."
CONGESTION OF THE LUNGS.
"The vessels of the lungs are easily relaxed by alcohol; and as they, of
all parts, are most exposed to vicissitudes of heat and cold, they are
readily congested when, paralyzed by the spirit, they are subjected to
the effects of a sudden fall of atmospheric temperature. Thus, the
suddenly fatal congestions of lungs which so easily befall the confirmed
alcoholic during the severe winter seasons."
ORGANIC DETERIORATIONS OF THE HEART.
The heart is one of the greatest sufferers from alcohol. Quoting again
from Dr. Richardson:
"The membranous structures which envelope and line the organ are changed
in quality, are thickened, rendered cartilaginous and even calcareous or
bony. Then the valves, which are made up of folds of membrane, lose
their suppleness, and what is called valvular disease is permanently
established. The coats of the great blood-vessel leading from the heart,
the aorto, share, not unfrequently, in the same changes of structure, so
that the vessel loses its elasticity and its power to feed the heart by
the recoil from its distention, after the heart, by its stroke, has
filled it with blood.
"Again, the muscular structure of the heart fails, owing to degenerative
changes in its tissue. The elements of the muscular fibre are replaced
by fatty cells; or, if not so replaced, are themselves transferred into
a modified muscular texture in which the power of contraction is greatly
reduced.
"Those who suffer from these organic deteriorations of the central and
governing organ of the circulation of the blood learn the fact so
insidiously, it hardly breaks upon them until the mischief is far
advanced. They are, for years, conscious of a central failure of power
from slight causes, such as overexertion, trouble, broken rest, or too
long abstinence from food. They feel what they call a 'sinking,' but
they know that wine or some other stimulant will at once relieve the
sensation. Thus they seek to relieve it until at last they discover that
the remedy fails. The jaded, overworked, faithful heart will bear no
more; it has run its course, and, the governor of the blood-streams
broken, the current either overflows into the tissues, gradually
damming up the courses, or under some slight shock or excess of motion,
ceases wholly at the centre."
EPILEPSY AND PARALYSIS.
Lastly, the brain and spinal cord, and all the nervous matter, become,
under the influence of alcohol, subject alike to organic deterioration.
"The membranes enveloping the nervous substance undergo thickening; the
blood-vessels are subjected to change of structure, by which their
resistance and resiliency is impaired; and the true nervous matter is
sometimes modified, by softening or shrinking of its texture, by
degeneration of its cellular structure or by interposition of fatty
particles. These deteriorations of cerebral and spinal matter give rise
to a series of derangements, which show themselves in the worst forms of
nervous diseases--epilepsy; paralysis, local or general; insanity."
We have quoted thus largely from Dr. Richardson's valuable lectures, in
order that our readers may have an intelligent comprehension of this
most important subject. It is because the great mass of the people are
ignorant of the real character of the effects produced on the body by
alcohol that so many indulge in its use, and lay the foundation for
troublesome, and often painful and fatal diseases in their later years.
In corroboration of Dr. Richardson's testimony against alcohol, we will,
in closing this chapter, make a few quotations from other medical
authorities.
FARTHER MEDICAL TESTIMONY.
Dr. Ezra M. Hunt says: "The capacity of the alcohols for impairment of
functions and the initiation and promotion of organic lesions in vital
parts, is unsurpassed by any record in the whole range of medicine. _The
facts as to this are so indisputable, and so far granted by the
profession, as to be no longer debatable_. Changes in stomach and liver,
in kidneys and lungs, in the blood-vessels to the minutest capillary,
and in the blood to the smallest red and white blood disc disturbances
of secretion, fibroid and fatty degenerations in almost every organ,
impairment of muscular power, impressions so profound on both nervous
systems as to be often toxic--these, and such as these, are the oft
manifested results. And these are not confined to those called
intemperate."
Professor Youmans says: "It is evident that, so far from being the
conservator of health, alcohol is an active and powerful cause of
disease, interfering, as it does, with the respiration, the circulation
and the nutrition; now, is any other result possible?"
Dr. F.R. Lees says: "That alcohol should contribute to the fattening
process under certain conditions, and produce in drinkers fatty
degeneration of the blood, follows, as a matter of course, since, on the
one hand, we have an agent that _retains waste_ matter by lowering the
nutritive and excretory functions, and on the other, a _direct poisoner_
of the vesicles of the vital stream."
Dr. Henry Monroe says: "There is no kind of tissue, whether healthy or
morbid, that may not undergo fatty degeneration; and there is no organic
disease so troublesome to the medical man, or so difficult of cure. If,
by the aid of the microscope, we examine a very fine section of muscle
taken from a person in good health, we find the muscles firm, elastic
and of a bright red color, made up of parallel fibres, with beautiful
crossings or striae; but, if we similarly examine the muscle of a man
who leads an idle, sedentary life, and indulges in intoxicating drinks,
we detect, at once, a pale, flabby, inelastic, oily appearance.
Alcoholic narcotization appears to produce this peculiar conditions of
the tissues _more than any other agent with which we are acquainted._
'Three-quarters of the chronic illness which the medical man has to
treat,' says Dr. Chambers, 'are occasioned by this disease.' The eminent
French analytical chemist, Lecanu, found as much as one hundred and
seventeen parts of fat in one thousand parts of a drunkard's blood, the
highest estimate of the quantity in health being eight and one-quarter
parts, while the ordinary quantity is not more than two or three parts,
so that the blood of the drunkard contains forty times in excess of the
ordinary quantity."
Dr. Hammond, who has written, in partial defense of alcohol as
containing a food power, says: "When I say that it, of all other causes,
_is most prolific_ in exciting derangements of the brain, the spinal
cord and the nerves, I make a statement which my own experience shows
to be correct."
Another eminent physician says of alcohol: "It substitutes suppuration
for growth. * * It helps time to produce the effects of age; and, in a
word, is the genius of degeneration."
Dr. Monroe, from whom we have already quoted, says: "Alcohol, taken in
small quantities, or largely diluted, as in the form of beer, causes the
stomach gradually to lose its tone, and makes it dependent upon
artificial stimulus. Atony, or want of tone of the stomach, gradually
supervenes, and incurable disorder of health results. * * * Should a
dose of alcoholic drink be taken daily, the heart will very often become
hypertrophied, or enlarged throughout. Indeed, it is painful to witness
how _many_ persons are actually laboring under disease of the heart,
owing chiefly to the use of alcoholic liquors."
Dr. T.K. Chambers, physician to the Prince of Wales, says: "Alcohol is
really the most ungenerous diet there is. It impoverishes the blood, and
there is no surer road to that degeneration of muscular fibre so much to
be feared; and in heart disease it is more especially hurtful, by
quickening the beat, causing capillary congestion and irregular
circulation, and thus mechanically inducing dilatation."
Sir Henry Thompson, a distinguished surgeon, says: "Don't take your
daily wine under any pretext of its doing you good. Take it frankly as a
luxury--one which must be paid for, by some persons very lightly, by
some at a high price, _but always to be paid for_. And, mostly, some
loss of health, or of mental power, or of calmness of temper, or of
judgment, is the price."
Dr. Charles Jewett says: "The late Prof. Parks, of England, in his great
work on Hygiene, has effectually disposed of the notion, long and very
generally entertained, that alcohol is a valuable prophylactic where a
bad climate, bad water and other conditions unfavorable to health,
exist; and an unfortunate experiment with the article, in the Union
army, on the banks of the Chickahominy, in the year 1863, proved
conclusively that, instead of guarding the human constitution against
the influence of agencies hostile to health, its use gives to them
additional force. The medical history of the British army in India
teaches the same lesson."
But why present farther testimony? Is not the evidence complete? To the
man who values good health; who would not lay the foundation for disease
and suffering in his later years, we need not offer a single additional
argument in favor of entire abstinence from alcoholic drinks. He will
eschew them as poisons.
CHAPTER IV.
IT CURSES THE SOUL.
The physical disasters that follow the continued use of intoxicating
beverages are sad enough, and terrible enough; but the surely attendant
mental, moral and spiritual disasters are sadder and more terrible
still. If you disturb the healthy condition of the brain, which is the
physical organ through which the mind acts, you disturb the mind. It
will not have the same clearness of perception as before; nor have the
same rational control over the impulses and passions.
In what manner alcohol deteriorates the body and brain has been shown in
the two preceding chapters. In this one we purpose showing how the curse
goes deeper than the body and brain, and involves the whole man--morally
and spiritually, as well as physically.
HEAVENLY ORDER IN THE BODY.
In order to understand a subject clearly, certain general laws, or
principles, must be seen and admitted. And here we assume, as a general
truth, that health in the human body is normal heavenly order on the
physical plane of life, and that any disturbance of that order exposes
the man to destructive influences, which are evil and infernal in their
character. Above the natural and physical plane, and resting upon it,
while man lives in this world, is the mental and spiritual plane, or
degree of life. This degree is in heavenly order when the reason is
clear, and the appetites and passions under its wise control. But, if,
through any cause, this fine equipoise is disturbed, or lost, then a way
is opened for the influx of more subtle evil influences than such as
invade the body, because they have power to act upon the reason and the
passions, obscuring the one and inflaming the others.
MENTAL DISTURBANCES.
We know how surely the loss of bodily health results in mental
disturbance. If the seat of disease be remote from the brain, the
disturbance is usually slight; but it increases as the trouble comes
nearer and nearer to that organ, and shows itself in multiform ways
according to character, temperament or inherited disposition; but almost
always in a predominance of what is evil instead of good. There will be
fretfulness, or ill-nature, or selfish exactions, or mental obscurity,
or unreasoning demands, or, it may be, vicious and cruel propensities,
where, when the brain was undisturbed by disease, reason held rule with
patience and loving kindness. If the disease which has attacked the
brain goes on increasing, the mental disease which follows as a
consequence of organic disturbance or deterioration, will have
increased also, until insanity may be established in some one or more of
its many sad and varied forms.
INSANITY.
It is, therefore, a very serious thing for a man to take into his body
any substance which, on reaching that wonderfully delicate organ--the
brain, sets up therein a diseased action; for, diseased mental action is
sure to follow, and there is only one true name for mental disease, and
that is _insanity_. A fever is a fever, whether it be light or intensely
burning; and so any disturbance of the mind's rational equipoise is
insanity, whether it be in the simplest form of temporary obscurity, or
in the midnight of a totally darkened intellect.
We are not writing in the interest of any special theory, nor in the
spirit of partisanship; but with an earnest desire to make the truth
appear. The reader must not accept anything simply because we say it,
but because he sees it to be true. Now, as to this matter of insanity,
let him think calmly. The word is one that gives us a shock; and, as we
hear it, we almost involuntarily thank God for the good gift of a
well-balanced mind. What, if from any cause this beautiful equipoise
should be disturbed and the mind lose its power to think clearly, or to
hold the lower passions in due control? Shall we exceed the truth if we
say that the man in whom this takes place is insane just in the degree
that he has lost his rational self-control; and that he is restored
when he regains that control?
In this view, the question as to the hurtfulness of alcoholic drinks
assumes a new and graver aspect. Do they disturb the brain when they
come in contact with its substance; and deteriorate it if the contact be
long continued? Fact, observation, experience and scientific
investigation all emphatically say yes; and we know that if the brain be
disordered the mind, will be disordered, likewise; and a disordered mind
is an insane mind. Clearly, then, in the degree that a man impairs or
hurts his brain--temporarily or continuously--in that degree his mind is
unbalanced; in that degree he is not a truly rational and sane man.
We are holding the reader's thought just here that he may have time to
think, and to look at the question in the light of reason and common
sense. So far as he does this, will he be able to feel the force of such
evidence as we shall educe in what follows, and to comprehend its true
meaning.
NO SUBSTANCE AFFECTS THE BRAIN LIKE ALCOHOL.
Other substances besides alcohol act injuriously on the brain; but there
is none that compares with this in the extent, variety and diabolical
aspect of the mental aberrations which follow its use. We are not
speaking thoughtlessly or wildly; but simply uttering a truth well-known
to every man of observation, and which every man, and especially those
who take this substance in any form, should, lay deeply to heart. Why
it is that such awful and destructive forms of insanity should follow,
as they do, the use of alcohol it is not for us to say. That they do
follow it, we know, and we hold, up the fact in solemn warning.
INHERITED LATENT EVIL FORCES.
Another consideration, which should have weight with every one, is this,
that no man can tell what may be the character of the legacy he has
received from his ancestors. He may have an inheritance of latent evil
forces, transmitted through many generations, which only await some
favoring opportunity to spring into life and action. So long as he
maintains a rational self-control, and the healthy order of his life be
not disturbed, they may continue quiescent; but if his brain loses its
equipoise, or is hurt or impaired, then a diseased psychical condition
may be induced and the latent evil forces be quickened into life.
No substance in nature, as far as yet known, has, when it reaches the
brain, such power to induce
MENTAL AND MORAL CHANGES OF A DISASTROUS CHARACTER
as alcohol. Its transforming power is marvelous, and often appalling. It
seems to open a way of entrance into the soul for all classes of
foolish, insane or malignant spirits, who, so long as it remains in
contact with the brain, are able to hold possession. Men of the kindest
nature when sober, act often like fiends when drunk. Crimes and outrages
are committed, which shock and shame the perpetrators when the
excitement of inebriation has passed away. Referring to this subject,
Dr. Henry Munroe says:
"It appears from the experience of Mr. Fletcher, who has paid much
attention to the cases of drunkards, from the remarks of Mr. Dunn, in
his 'Medical Psychology,' and from observations of my own, that there is
some analogy between our physical and psychical natures; for, as the
physical part of us, when its power is at a low ebb, becomes susceptible
of morbid influences which, in full vigor, would pass over it without
effect, so when the psychical (synonymous with the _moral_) part of the
brain has its healthy function disturbed and deranged by the
introduction of a morbid poison like alcohol, the individual so
circumstanced sinks in depravity, and
"BECOMES THE HELPLESS SUBJECT OF THE FORCES OF EVIL,
"which are powerless against a nature free from the morbid influences of
alcohol.
[Illustration: "TAKE WARNING BY MY CAREER."]
"Different persons are affected in different ways by the same poison.
Indulgence in alcoholic drinks may act upon one or more of the cerebral
organs; and, as its necessary consequence, the manifestations of
functional disturbance will follow in such of the mental powers as these
organs subserve. If the indulgence be continued, then, either from
deranged nutrition or organic lesion, manifestations formerly
developed only during a fit of intoxication may become _permanent_,
and terminate in insanity or dypso-mania. M. Flourens first pointed out
the fact that certain morbific agents, when introduced into the current
of the circulation, tend to act _primarily_ and _specially_ on one
nervous centre in preference to that of another, by virtue of some
special elective affinity between such morbific agents and certain
ganglia. Thus, in the tottering gait of the tipsy man, we see the
influence of alcohol upon the functions of the _cerebellum_ in the
impairment of its power of co-ordinating the muscles.
"Certain writers on diseases of the mind make especial allusion to that
form of insanity termed DYPSOMANIA, in which a person has an
unquenchable thirst for alcoholic drinks--a tendency as decidedly
maniacal as that of _homicidal mania_; or the uncontrollable desire to
burn, termed _pyromania_; or to steal, called _kleptomania_."
HOMICIDAL MANIA.
"The different tendencies of homicidal mania in different individuals
are often only nursed into action when the current of the blood has been
poisoned with alcohol. I had a case of a person who, whenever his brain
was so excited, told me that he experienced a most uncontrollable desire
to kill or injure some one; so much so, that he could at times hardly
restrain himself from the action, and was obliged to refrain from all
stimulants, lest, in an unlucky moment, he might commit himself.
Townley, who murdered the young lady of his affections, for which he was
sentenced to be imprisoned in a lunatic asylum for life, _poisoned his
brain with brandy_ and soda-water before he committed the rash act. The
brandy stimulated into action certain portions of the brain, which
acquired such a power as to subjugate his will, and hurry him to the
performance of a frightful deed, opposed alike to his better judgment
and his ordinary desires.
"As to _pyromania_, some years ago I knew a laboring man in a country
village, who, whenever he had had a few glasses of ale at the
public-house, would chuckle with delight at the thought of firing
certain gentlemen's stacks. Yet, when his brain was free from the
poison, a quieter, better-disposed man could not be. Unfortunately, he
became addicted to habits of intoxication; and, one night, under
alcoholic excitement, fired some stacks belonging to his employers, for
which, he was sentenced for fifteen years to a penal settlement, where
his brain would never again be alcoholically excited."
KLEPTOMANIA.
"Next, I will give an example of _kleptomania_. I knew, many years ago,
a very clever, industrious and talented young man, who told me that
whenever he had been drinking, he could hardly withstand, the temptation
of stealing anything that came in his way; but that these feelings never
troubled him at other times. One afternoon, after he had been indulging
with his fellow-workmen in drink, his will, unfortunately, was
overpowered, and he took from the mansion where he was working some
articles of worth, for which he was accused, and afterwards sentenced to
a term of imprisonment. When set at liberty he had the good fortune to
be placed among some kind-hearted persons, vulgarly called
_teetotallers_; and, from conscientious motives, signed the PLEDGE, now
above twenty years ago. From that time to the present moment he has
never experienced the overmastering desire which so often beset him in
his drinking days--to take that which was not his own. Moreover, no
pretext on earth could now entice him to taste of any liquor containing
alcohol, feeling that, under its influence, he might again fall its
victim. He holds an influential position in the town where he resides.
"I have known some ladies of good position in society, who, after a
dinner or supper-party, and after having taken sundry glasses of wine,
could not withstand the temptation of taking home any little article not
their own, when the opportunity offered; and who, in their sober
moments, have returned them, as if taken by mistake. We have many
instances recorded in our police reports of gentlemen of position, under
the influence of drink, committing thefts of the most paltry articles,
afterwards returned to the owners by their friends, which can only be
accounted for, psychologically, by the fact that the _will_ had been
for the time completely overpowered by the subtle influence of alcohol."
LOSS OF MENTAL CLEARNESS.
"That alcohol, whether taken in large or small doses, immediately
disturbs the natural functions of the mind and body, is now conceded by
the most eminent physiologists. Dr. Brinton says: 'Mental acuteness,
accuracy of conception, and delicacy of the senses, are all so far
opposed by the action of alcohol, as that the maximum efforts of each
are _incompatible_ with the ingestion of any moderate quantity of
fermented liquid. Indeed, there is scarcely any calling which demands
skillful and exact effort of mind and body, or which requires the
balanced exercise of many faculties, that does not illustrate this rule.
The mathematician, the gambler, the metaphysician, the billiard-player,
the author, the artist, the physician, would, if they could analyze
their experience aright, generally concur in the statement, that _a
single glass will often suffice to take_, so to speak, _the edge off
both mind and body_, and to reduce their capacity to something below
what is relatively their perfection of work.'
"Not long ago, a railway train was driven carelessly into one of the
principal London stations, running into another train, killing, by the
collision, six or seven persons, and injuring many others. From the
evidence at the inquest, it appeared that the guard was reckoned sober,
_only he had had two glasses of ale_ with a friend at a previous
station. Now, reasoning psychologically, these two glasses of ale had
probably been instrumental in _taking off the edge_ from his perceptions
and prudence, and producing a carelessness or boldness of action which
would not have occurred under the cooling, temperate influence of a
beverage free from alcohol. Many persons have admitted to me that they
were not the same after taking even one glass of ale or wine that they
were before, and could not _thoroughly_ trust themselves after they had
taken this single glass."
IMPAIRMENT OF MEMORY.
An impairment of the memory is among the early symptoms of alcoholic
derangement.
"This," says Dr. Richardson, "extends even to forgetfulness of the
commonest things; to names of familiar persons, to dates, to duties of
daily life. Strangely, too," he adds, "this failure, like that which
indicates, in the aged, the era of second childishness and mere
oblivion, does not extend to the things of the past, but is confined to
events that are passing. On old memories the mind retains its power; on
new ones it requires constant prompting and sustainment."
In this failure of memory nature gives a solemn warning that imminent
peril is at hand. Well for the habitual drinker if he heed the warning.
Should he not do so, symptoms of a more serious character will, in
time, develop themselves, as the brain becomes more and more diseased,
ending, it may be, in permanent insanity.
MENTAL AND MORAL DISEASES.
Of the mental and moral diseases which too often follow the regular
drinking of alcohol, we have painful records in asylum reports, in
medical testimony and in our daily observation and experience. These are
so full and varied, and thrust so constantly on our attention, that the
wonder is that men are not afraid to run the terrible risks involved
even in what is called the moderate use of alcoholic beverages.
In 1872, a select committee of the House of Commons, appointed "to
consider the best plan for the control and management of habitual
drunkards," called upon some of the most eminent medical men in Great
Britain to give their testimony in answer to a large number of
questions, embracing every topic within the range of inquiry, from the
pathology of inebriation to the practical usefulness of prohibitory
laws. In this testimony much was said about the effect of alcoholic
stimulation on the mental condition and moral character. One physician,
Dr. James Crichton Brown, who, in ten years' experience as
superintendent of lunatic asylums, has paid special attention to the
relations of habitual drunkenness to insanity, having carefully examined
five hundred cases, testified that alcohol, taken in excess, produced
different forms of mental disease, of which he mentioned four classes:
1. _Mania a potu_, or alcoholic mania. 2. The monomania of suspicion. 3.
Chronic alcoholism, characterized by failure of the memory and power of
judgment, with partial paralysis--generally ending fatally. 4.
Dypsomania, or an _irresistible_ craving for alcoholic stimulants,
occuring very frequently, paroxysmally, and with constant liability to
periodical exacerbations, when the craving becomes altogether
uncontrollable. Of this latter form of disease, he says: "This is
invariably associated with a certain _impairment of the intellect, and
of the affections and the moral powers_."
Dr. Alexander Peddie, a physician of over thirty-seven years' practice
in Edinburgh, gave, in his evidence, many remarkable instances of the
moral perversions that followed continued drinking.
RELATION BETWEEN INSANITY AND DRUNKENNESS.
Dr. John Nugent said that his experience of twenty-six years among
lunatics, led him to believe that there is a very close relation between
the results of the abuse of alcohol and insanity. The population of
Ireland had decreased, he said, two millions in twenty-five years, but
there was the same amount of insanity now that there was before. He
attributed this, in a great measure, to indulgence in drink.
Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Commissioner of Lunacy for Scotland, testified that
the excessive use of alcohol caused a large amount of the lunacy, crime
and pauperism of that country. In some men, he said, habitual drinking
leads to other diseases than insanity, because the effect is always in
the direction of the proclivity, but it is certain that there are many
in whom there is a clear proclivity to insanity, _who would escape that
dreadful consummation but for drinking; excessive drinking in many
persons determining the insanity to which they are, at any rate,
predisposed_. The children of drunkards, he further said, are in a
larger proportion idiotic than other children, and in a larger
proportion become themselves drunkards; they are also in a larger
proportion liable to the ordinary forms of acquired insanity.
Dr. Winslow Forbes believed that in the habitual drunkard the whole
nervous structure, and the brain especially, became poisoned by alcohol.
All the mental symptoms which you see accompanying ordinary
intoxication, he remarks, result from the poisonous effects of alcohol
on the brain. It is the brain which is mainly effected. In temporary
drunkenness, the brain becomes in an abnormal state of alimentation, and
if this habit is persisted in for years, the nervous tissue itself
becomes permeated with alcohol, and organic changes take place in the
nervous tissues of the brain, producing _that frightful and dreadful
chronic insanity which we see in lunatic asylums, traceable entirely to
habits of intoxication_. A large percentage of frightful mental and
brain disturbances can, he declared, be traced to the drunkenness of
parents.
Dr. D.G. Dodge, late of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, who, with.
Dr. Joseph Parrish, gave testimony before the committee of the House of
Commons, said, in one of his answers: "With the excessive use of
alcohol, functional disorder will invariably appear, and no organ will
be more seriously affected, and possibly impaired, than the brain. _This
is shown in the inebriate by a weakened intellect, a general debility of
the mental faculties_, a partial or total loss of self-respect, and a
departure of the power of self-command; all of which, acting together,
place the victim at the mercy of a depraved and morbid appetite, and
make him utterly powerless, by his own unaided efforts, to secure his
recovery from the disease which is destroying him." And he adds: "I am
of opinion that there is a
"GREAT SIMILARITY BETWEEN INEBRIETY AND INSANITY.
"I am decidedly of opinion that the former has taken its place in the
family of diseases as prominently as its twin-brother insanity; and, in
my opinion, the day is not far distant when the pathology of the former
will be as fully understood and as successfully treated as the latter,
and even more successfully, since it is more within the reach and bounds
of human control, which, wisely exercised and scientifically
administered, may prevent curable inebriation from verging into possible
incurable insanity."
GENERAL IMPAIRMENT OF THE FACULTIES.
In a more recent lecture than the one from which we have quoted so
freely, Dr. Richardson, speaking of the action of alcohol on the mind,
gives the following sad picture of its ravages:
"An analysis of the condition of the mind induced and maintained by the
free daily use of alcohol as a drink, reveals a singular order of facts.
The manifestation fails altogether to reveal the exaltation of any
reasoning power in a useful or satisfactory direction. I have never met
with an instance in which such a claim for alcohol has been made. On the
contrary, confirmed alcoholics constantly say that for this or that
work, requiring thought and attention, it is necessary to forego some of
the usual potations in order to have a cool head for hard work.
"On the other side, the experience is overwhelmingly in favor of the
observation that the use of
"ALCOHOL SELLS THE REASONING POWERS,
"make weak men and women the easy prey of the wicked and strong, and
leads men and women who should know better into every grade of misery
and vice. * * * If, then, alcohol enfeebles the reason, what part of the
mental constitution does it exalt and excite? It excites and exalts
those animal, organic, emotional centres of mind which, in the dual
nature of man, so often cross and oppose that pure and abstract
reasoning nature which lifts man above the lower animals, and rightly
exercised, little lower than the angels.
IT EXCITES MAN'S WORST PASSIONS.
"Exciting these animal centres, it lets loose all the passions, and
gives them more or less of unlicensed dominion over the man. It excites
anger, and when it does not lead to this extreme, it keeps the mind
fretful, irritable, dissatisfied and captious.... And if I were to take
you through all the passions, love, hate, lust, envy, avarice and pride,
I should but show you that alcohol ministers to them all; that,
paralyzing the reason, it takes from off these passions that fine
adjustment of reason, which places man above the lower animals. From the
beginning to the end of its influence it subdues reason and sets the
passions free. The analogies, physical and mental, are perfect. That
which loosens the tension of the vessels which feed the body with due
order and precision, and, thereby, lets loose the heart to violent
excess and unbridled motion, loosens, also, the reason and lets loose
the passion. In both instances, heart and head are, for a time, out of
harmony; their balance broken. The man descends closer and closer to the
lower animals. From the angels he glides farther and farther away.
A SAD AND TERRIBLE PICTURE.
"The _destructive_ effects of alcohol on the human mind present,
finally, the saddest picture of its influence. The most æsthetic artist
can find no angel here. All is animal, and animal of the worst type.
Memory irretrievably lost, words and very elements of speech forgotten
or words displaced to have no meaning in them. Rage and anger persistent
and mischievous, or remittent and impotent. Fear at every corner of
life, distrust on every side, grief merged into blank despair,
hopelessness into permanent melancholy. Surely no Pandemonium that ever
poet dreamt of could equal that which would exist if all the drunkards
of the world were driven into one mortal sphere.
[Illustration: CRAZED BY DRINK. "God's rational offspring ... become a
brute."]
"As I have moved among those who are physically stricken with alcohol,
and have detected under the various disguises of name the fatal
diseases, the pains and penalties it imposes on the body, the picture
has been sufficiently cruel. But even that picture pales, as I conjure
up, without any stretch of imagination, the devastations which the same
agent inflicts on the mind. Forty per cent., the learned Superintendent
of Colney Hatch, Dr. Sheppard, tells us, of those who were brought into
that asylum in 1876, were so brought because of the direct or indirect
effects of alcohol. If the facts of all the asylums were collected with
equal care, the same tale would, I fear, be told. What need we further
to show the destructive action on the human mind? The Pandemonium of
drunkards; the grand transformation scene of that pantomime of drink
which commences with, moderation! Let it never more be forgotten by
those who love their fellow-men until, through their efforts, it is
closed forever."
We might go on, adding page after page of evidence, showing how alcohol
curses the souls, as well as the bodies, of men; but enough has been
educed to force conviction on the mind of every reader not already
satisfied of its poisonous and destructive quality.
How light are all evils flowing from intemperance compared with those
which it thus inflicts on man's higher nature. "What," says Dr. W.E.
Channing, "is the great essential evil of intemperance? The reply is
given, when I say, that intemperance is the
"VOLUNTARY EXTINCTION OF REASON.
"The great evil is inward or spiritual. The intemperate man divests
himself, for a time, of his rational and moral nature, casts from
himself self-consciousness and self-command, brings on frenzy, and by
repetition of this insanity, prostrates more and more his rational and
moral powers. He sins immediately and directly against the rational
nature, that Divine principle which, distinguishes between truth and
falsehood, between right and wrong action, which, distinguishes man from
the brute. This is the essence of the vice, what constitutes its
peculiar guilt and woe, and what should particularly impress and awaken
those who are laboring for its suppression. Other evils of intemperance
are light compared with this, and almost all flow from this; and it is
right, it is to be desired that all other evils should be joined with
and follow this. It is to be desired, when a man lifts a suicidal arm
against his higher life, when he quenches reason and conscience, that he
and all others should receive solemn, startling warning of the greatness
of his guilt; that terrible outward calamities should bear witness to
the inward ruin which he is working; that the handwriting of judgment
and woe on his countenance, form and whole condition, should declare
what a fearful thing it is for a man, "God's rational offspring, to
renounce his reason, and become a brute."
CHAPTER V.
NOT A FOOD, AND VERY LIMITED IN ITS RANGE AS A MEDICINE.
The use of alcohol as a medicine has been very large. If his patient was
weak and nervous, the physician too often ordered wine or ale; or, not
taking the trouble to refer his own case to a physician, the invalid
prescribed these articles for himself. If there was a failure of
appetite, its restoration was sought in the use of one or both of the
above-named forms of alcohol; or, perhaps, adopting a more heroic
treatment, the sufferer poured brandy or whisky into his weak and
sensitive stomach. Protection from cold was sought in a draught of some
alcoholic beverage, and relief from fatigue and exhaustion in the use of
the same deleterious substance. Indeed, there is scarcely any form of
bodily ailment or discomfort, or mental disturbance, for the relief of
which a resort was not had to alcohol in some one of its many forms.
It is fair to say that, as a medicine, its consumption has far exceeded
that of any other substance prescribed and taken for physical and mental
derangements.
The inquiry, then, as to the true remedial value of alcohol is one of
the gravest import; and it is of interest to know that for some years
past the medical profession has been giving this subject a careful and
thorough investigation. The result is to be found in the brief
declaration made by the Section on Medicine, of the
INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS,
which met in Philadelphia in 1876. This body was composed of about six
hundred delegates, from Europe and America, among them, some of the
ablest men in the profession. Realizing the importance of some
expression in relation to the use of alcohol, medical and otherwise,
from this Congress, the National Temperance Society laid before it,
through its President, W.E. Dodge, and Secretary, J.N. Stearns, the
following memorial:
"The National Temperance Society sends greeting, and respectfully
invites from your distinguished body a public declaration to the effect
that alcohol should be classed with other powerful drugs; that, when,
prescribed medicinally, it should be with conscientious caution and a
sense of grave responsibility; that it is in no sense food to the human
system; that its improper use is productive of a large amount of
physical disease, tending to deteriorate the human race; and to
recommend, as representatives of enlightened science, to your several
nationalities, total abstinence from alcoholic beverages."
In response to this memorial, the president of the society received
from J. Ewing Mears, M.D., Secretary of the Section on Medicine,
International Congress, the following official letter, under date of
September 9th, 1876:
"DEAR SIR: I am instructed by the Section on Medicine, International
Medical Congress, of 1876, to transmit to you, as the action of the
Section, the following conclusions adopted by it with regard to the use
of alcohol in medicine, the same being in reply to the communication
sent by the National Temperance Society.
"1. Alcohol is not shown to have a definite food value by any of the
usual methods of chemical analysis or physiological investigation.
"2. Its use as a medicine is chiefly that of a cardiac stimulant, and
often admits of substitution.
"3. As a medicine, it is not well fitted for self-prescription by the
laity, and the medical profession is not accountable for such
administration, or for the enormous evils arising therefrom.
"4. The purity of alcoholic liquors is, in general, not as well assured
as that of articles used for medicine should be. The various mixtures,
when used as medicine, should have definite and known composition, and
should not be interchanged promiscuously."
The reader will see in this no hesitating or halfway speech. The
declaration is strong and clear, that, as a food, alcohol is not shown,
when subjected to the usual method of chemical or physiological
investigation, to have any food value; and that, as a medicine, its use
is chiefly confined to a cardiac stimulant, and often admits of
substitution.
A declaration like this, coming, as it does, from a body of medical men
representing the most advanced ideas held by the profession, must have
great weight with the people. But we do not propose resting on this
declaration alone. As it was based on the results of chemical and
physiological investigations, let us go back of the opinion expressed by
the Medical Congress, and examine these results, in order that the
ground of its opinion may become apparent.
There was presented to this Congress, by a distinguished physician of
New Jersey, Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, a paper on "Alcohol as a Food and
Medicine," in which the whole subject is examined in the light of the
most recent and carefully-conducted experiments of English, French,
German and American chemists and physiologists, and their conclusions,
as well as those of the author of the paper, set forth in the plainest
manner. This has since been published by the National Temperance
Society, and should be read and carefully studied by every one who is
seeking for accurate information on the important subject we are now
considering. It is impossible for us to more than glance at the evidence
brought forward in proof of the assertion that
ALCOHOL HAS NO FOOD VALUE,
and is exceedingly limited in its action as a remedial agent; and we,
therefore, urge upon all who are interested in this subject, to possess
themselves of Dr. Hunt's exhaustive treatise, and to study it carefully.
If the reader will refer to the quotation made by us in the second
chapter from Dr. Henry Monroe, where the food value of any article is
treated of, he will see it stated that "every kind of substance employed
by man as food consists of sugar, starch, oil and glutinous matter,
mingled together in various proportions; these are designed for the
support of the animal frame. The glutinous principles of food--fibrine,
albumen and casein--are employed to build up the structure; while the
oil, starch and sugar are chiefly used to generate heat in the body."
Now, it is clear, that if alcohol is a food, it will be found to contain
one or more of these substances. There must be in it either the
nitrogenous elements found chiefly in meats, eggs, milk, vegetables and
seeds, out of which animal tissue is built and waste repaired; or the
carbonaceous elements found in fat, starch and sugar, in the consumption
of which heat and force are evolved.
"The distinctness of these groups of foods," says Dr. Hunt, "and their
relations to the tissue-producing and heat-evolving capacities of man,
are so definite and so confirmed by experiments on animals and by
manifold tests of scientific, physiological and clinical experience,
that no attempt to discard the classification has prevailed. To draw so
straight a line of demarcation as to limit the one entirely to tissue or
cell production, and the other to heat and force production through
ordinary combustion, and to deny any power of interchangeability under
special demands or amid defective supply of one variety, is, indeed,
untenable. This does not in the least invalidate the fact that we are
able to use these as ascertained landmarks."
How these substances, when taken into the body, are assimilated, and how
they generate force, are well known to the chemist and physiologist, who
is able, in the light of well-ascertained laws, to determine whether
alcohol does or does not possess a food value. For years, the ablest men
in the medical profession have given this subject the most careful
study, and have subjected alcohol to every known test and experiment,
and the result is that it has been, by common consent, excluded from the
class of tissue-building foods. "We have never," says Dr. Hunt, "seen
but a single suggestion that it could so act, and this a promiscuous
guess. One writer (Hammond) thinks it possible that it may 'somehow'
enter into combination with the products of decay in tissues, and 'under
certain circumstances might yield _their_ nitrogen to the construction
of new tissues.' No parallel in organic chemistry, nor any evidence in
animal chemistry, can be found to surround this guess with the areola
of a possible hypothesis."
Dr. Richardson says: "Alcohol contains no nitrogen; it has none of the
qualities of structure-building foods; it is incapable of being
transformed into any of them; it is, therefore, not a food in any sense
of its being a constructive agent in building up the body." Dr. W.B.
Carpenter says: "Alcohol cannot supply anything which is essential to
the true nutrition of the tissues." Dr. Liebig says: "Beer, wine,
spirits, etc., furnish no element capable of entering into the
composition of the blood, muscular fibre, or any part which is the seat
of the principle of life." Dr. Hammond, in his Tribune Lectures, in
which he advocates the use of alcohol in certain cases, says: "It is not
demonstrable that alcohol undergoes conversion into tissue." Cameron, in
his Manuel of Hygiene, says: "There is nothing in alcohol with which any
part of the body can be nourished." Dr. E. Smith, F.R.S., says: "Alcohol
is not a true food. It interferes with alimentation." Dr. T.K. Chambers
says: "It is clear that we must cease to regard alcohol, as in any
sense, a food."
"Not detecting in this substance," says Dr. Hunt, "any tissue-making
ingredients, nor in its breaking up any combinations, such as we are
able to trace in the cell foods, nor any evidence either in the
experience of physiologists or the trials of alimentarians, it is not
wonderful that in it we should find neither the expectancy nor the
realization of constructive power."
Not finding in alcohol anything out of which the body can be built up or
its waste supplied, it is next to be examined as to its heat-producing
quality.
ALCOHOL NOT A PRODUCER OF HEAT.
"The first usual test for a force-producing food," says Dr. Hunt, "and
that to which other foods of that class respond, is the production of
heat in the combination of oxygen therewith. This heat means vital
force, and is, in no small degree, a measure of the comparative value of
the so-called respiratory foods. * * * If we examine the fats, the
starches and the sugars, we can trace and estimate the processes by
which they evolve heat and are changed into vital force, and can weigh
the capacities of different foods. We find that the consumption of
carbon by union with oxygen is the law, that heat is the product, and
that the legitimate result is force, while the result of the union of
the hydrogen of the foods with oxygen is water. If alcohol comes at all
under this class of foods, we rightly expect to find some of the
evidences which attach to the hydrocarbons."
What, then, is the result of experiments in this direction? They have
been conducted through long periods and with the greatest care, by men
of the highest attainments in chemistry and physiology, and the result
is given in these few words, by Dr. H.R. Wood, Jr., in his Materia
Medica. "No one has been able to detect in the blood any of the ordinary
results of its oxidation." That is, no one has been able to find that
alcohol has undergone combustion, like fat, or starch, or sugar, and so
given heat to the body. On the contrary, it is now known and admitted by
the medical profession that
ALCOHOL REDUCES THE TEMPERATURE OF THE BODY,
instead of increasing it; and it has even been used in fevers as an
anti-pyretic. So uniform has been the testimony of physicians in Europe
and this country as to the cooling effects of alcohol, that Dr. Wood
says, in his Materia Medica, "that it does not seem worth while to
occupy space with a discussion of the subject." Liebermeister, one of
the most learned contributors to Zeimssen's Cyclopædia of the Practice
of Medicine, 1875, says: "I long since convinced myself, by direct
experiments, that alcohol, even in comparatively large doses, does not
elevate the temperature of the body in either well or sick people." So
well had this become known to Arctic voyagers, that, even before
physiologists had demonstrated the fact that alcohol reduced, instead of
increasing, the temperature of the body, they had learned that spirits
lessened their power to withstand extreme cold. "In the Northern
regions," says Edward Smith, "it was proved that the entire exclusion of
spirits was necessary, in order to retain heat under these unfavorable
conditions."
ALCOHOL DOES NOT GIVE STRENGTH.
If alcohol does not contain tissue-building material, nor give heat to
the body, it cannot possibly add to its strength. "Every kind of power
an animal can generate," says Dr. G. Budd, F.R.S., "the mechanical power
of the muscles, the chemical (or digestive) power of the stomach, the
intellectual power of the brain--accumulates _through the nutrition of
the organ_ on which it depends." Dr. F.R. Lees, of Edinburgh, after
discussing the question, and educing evidence, remarks: "From the very
nature of things, it will now be seen how _impossible_ it is that
alcohol can be strengthening food of either kind. Since it cannot become
a _part_ of the body, it cannot consequently contribute to its cohesive,
organic strength, or fixed power; and, since it comes out of the body
just as it went in, it cannot, by its decomposition, generate
_heat_-force."
Sir Benjamin Brodie says: "Stimulants do not create nervous power; they
merely enable you, as it were, to _use up_ that which is left, and then
they leave you more in need of rest than before."
Baron Liebig, so far back as 1843, in his "Animal Chemistry," pointed
out the fallacy of alcohol generating power. He says: "The circulation
will appear accelerated at the expense of the force available for
voluntary motion, but without the production of a greater amount of
mechanical force." In his later "Letters," he again says: "Wine is quite
superfluous to man, * * * it is constantly followed by the expenditure
of power"--whereas, the real function of food is to give power. He adds:
"These drinks promote the change of matter in the body, and are,
consequently, attended by an inward loss of power, which ceases to be
productive, because it is not employed in overcoming outward
difficulties--i.e., in working." In other words, this great chemist
asserts that alcohol abstracts the power of the system from doing useful
work in the field or workshop, in order to cleanse the house from the
defilement of alcohol itself.
The late Dr. W. Brinton, Physician to St. Thomas', in his great work on
Dietetics, says: "Careful observation leaves little doubt that a
moderate dose of beer or wine would, in most cases, at once diminish the
maximum weight which a healthy person could lift. Mental acuteness,
accuracy of perception and delicacy of the senses are all so far opposed
by alcohol, as that the maximum efforts of each are incompatible with
the ingestion of any moderate quantity of fermented liquid. A single
glass will often suffice to take the edge off both mind and body, and to
reduce their capacity to something below their perfection of work."
Dr. F.R. Lees, F.S.A., writing on the subject of alcohol as a food,
makes the following quotation from an essay on "Stimulating Drinks,"
published by Dr. H.R. Madden, as long ago as 1847: "Alcohol is not the
natural stimulus to any of our organs, and hence, functions performed in
consequence of its application, tend to debilitate the organ acted
upon.
"Alcohol is incapable of being assimilated or converted into any organic
proximate principle, and hence, cannot be considered nutritious.
"The strength experienced after the use of alcohol is not new strength
added to the system, but is manifested by calling into exercise the
nervous energy pre-existing.
"The ultimate exhausting effects of alcohol, owing to its stimulant
properties, produce an unnatural susceptibility to morbid action in all
the organs, and this, with the plethora superinduced, becomes a fertile
source of disease.
"A person who habitually exerts himself to such an extent as to require
the daily use of stimulants to ward off exhaustion, may be compared to a
machine working under high pressure. He will become much more obnoxious
to the causes of disease, and will certainly break down sooner than he
would have done under more favorable circumstances.
"The more frequently alcohol is had recourse to for the purpose of
overcoming feelings of debility, the more it will be required, and by
constant repetition a period is at length reached when it cannot be
foregone, unless reaction is simultaneously brought about by a temporary
total change of the habits of life.
"Owing to the above facts, I conclude that the DAILY USE OF STIMULANTS
IS INDEFENSIBLE UNDER ANY KNOWN CIRCUMSTANCES."
DRIVEN TO THE WALL.
Not finding that alcohol possesses any direct alimentary value, the
medical advocates of its use have been driven to the assumption that it
is a kind of secondary food, in that it has the power to delay the
metamorphosis of tissue. "By the metamorphosis of tissue is meant," says
Dr. Hunt, "that change which is constantly going on in the system which
involves a constant disintegration of material; a breaking up and
avoiding of that which is no longer aliment, making room for that new
supply which is to sustain life." Another medical writer, in referring
to this metamorphosis, says: "The importance of this process to the
maintenance of life is readily shown by the injurious effects which
follow upon its disturbance. If the discharge of the excrementitious
substances be in any way impeded or suspended, these substances
accumulate either in the blood or tissues, or both. In consequence of
this retention and accumulation they become poisonous, and rapidly
produce a derangement of the vital functions. Their influence is
principally exerted upon the nervous system, through which they produce
most frequent irritability, disturbance of the special senses, delirium,
insensibility, coma, and finally, death."
"This description," remarks Dr. Hunt, "seems almost intended for
alcohol." He then says: "To claim alcohol as a food because it delays
the metamorphosis of tissue, is to claim that it in some way suspends
the normal conduct of the laws of assimilation and nutrition, of waste
and repair. A leading advocate of alcohol (Hammond) thus illustrates it:
'Alcohol retards the destruction of the tissues. By this destruction,
force is generated, muscles contract, thoughts are developed, organs
secrete and excrete.' In other words, alcohol interferes with all these.
No wonder the author 'is not clear' how it does this, and we are not
clear how such delayed metamorphosis recuperates. To take an agent which
is
"NOT KNOWN TO BE IN ANY SENSE AN ORIGINATOR OF VITAL FORCE;
"which is not known to have any of the usual power of foods, and use it
on the double assumption that it delays metamorphosis of tissue, and
that such delay is conservative of health, is to pass outside of the
bounds of science into the land of remote possibilities, and confer the
title of adjuster upon an agent whose agency is itself doubtful. * * * *
"Having failed to identify alcohol as a nitrogenous or non-nitrogenous
food, not having found it amenable to any of the evidences by which the
food-force of aliments is generally measured, it will not do for us to
talk of benefit by delay of regressive metamorphosis unless such process
is accompanied with something evidential of the fact--something
scientifically descriptive of its mode of accomplishment in the case at
hand, and unless it is shown to be practically desirable for
alimentation.
"There can be no doubt that alcohol does cause _defects_ in the
processes of elimination which are natural to the healthy body and which
even in disease are often conservative of health. In the pent-in evils
which pathology so often shows occurrent in the case of spirit-drinkers,
in the vascular, fatty and fibroid degenerations which take place, in
the accumulations of rheumatic and scrofulous tendencies, there is the
strongest evidence that
"ALCOHOL ACTS AS A DISTURBING ELEMENT
"and is very prone to initiate serious disturbances amid the normal
conduct both of organ and function.
"To assert that this interference is conservative in the midst of such a
fearful accumulation of evidence as to result in quite the other
direction, and that this kind of delay in tissue-change accumulates
vital force, is as unscientific as it is paradoxical.
"Dickinson, in his able expose of the effects of alcohol, (_Lancet_,
Nov., 1872,) confines himself to pathological facts. After recounting,
with accuracy, the structural changes which it initiates, and the
structural changes and consequent derangement and suspension of vital
functions which it involves, he aptly terms it the 'genius of
degeneration.'
"With abundant provision of indisputable foods, select that liquid which
has failed to command the general assent of experts that it is a food at
all, and because it is claimed to diminish some of the excretions, call
that a delay of metamorphosis of tissue conservative of health! The
ostrich may bury his head in the sand, but science will not close its
eyes before such impalpable dust."
Speaking of this desperate effort to claim alcohol as a food, Dr. N.S.
Davis well says: "It seems hardly possible that men of eminent
attainments in the profession should so far forget one of the most
fundamental and universally recognized laws of organic life as to
promulgate the fallacy here stated. The fundamental law to which we
allude is, that all vital phenomena are accompanied by, and dependent
on, molecular or atomic changes; and whatever retards these retards the
phenomena of life; whatever suspends these suspends life. Hence, to say
that an agent which retards tissue metamorphosis is in any sense a food,
is simply to pervert and misapply terms."
Well may the author of the paper from which we have quoted so freely,
exclaim: "Strangest of foods! most impalpable of aliments! defying all
the research of animal chemistry, tasking all the ingenuity of experts
in hypothetical explanations, registering its effects chiefly by
functional disturbance and organic lesions, causing its very defenders
as a food to stultify themselves when in fealty to facts they are
compelled to disclose its destructions, and to find the only defense in
that line of demarcation, more imaginary than the equator, more delusive
than the mirage, between use and abuse."
That alcohol is not a food in any sense, has been fully shown; and now,
WHAT IS ITS VALUE AS A MEDICINE?
Our reply to this question will be brief. The reader has, already, the
declaration of the International Medical Congress, that, as a medicine,
the range of alcohol is limited and doubtful, and that its
self-prescription by the laity should be utterly discountenanced by the
profession. No physician who has made himself thoroughly acquainted with
the effects of alcohol when introduced into the blood and brought in
contact with the membranes, nerves and organs of the human body, would
now venture to prescribe its free use to consumptives as was done a very
few years ago.
"In the whole management of lung diseases," remarks Dr. Hunt, "with the
exception of the few who can always be relied upon to befriend alcohol,
other remedies have largely superseded all spirituous liquors. Its
employment in stomach disease, once so popular, gets no encouragement,
from a careful examination of its local and constitutional effects, as
separated from the water, sugar and acids imbibed with it."
TYPHOID FEVER.
It is in typhoid fever that alcohol has been used, perhaps, most
frequently by the profession; but this use is now restricted, and the
administration made with great caution. Prof. A.L. Loomis, of New York
City, has published several lectures on the pathology and treatment of
typhoid fever. Referring thereto, Dr. Hunt says: "No one in our country
can speak more authoritatively, and as he has no radical views as to the
exclusion of alcohol, it is worth while to notice the place to which he
assigns it. In the milder cases he entirely excludes it. As a means of
reducing temperature, he does not mention it, but relies on cold,
quinine, and sometimes, digitalis and quinine." When, about the third
week, signs of failure of heart-power begin to manifest themselves, and
the use of some form of stimulant seems to be indicated, Dr. Loomis
gives the most guarded advice as to their employment. "Never," he says,
"give a patient stimulants simply because he has typhoid fever." And
again, "Where there is reasonable doubt as to the propriety of giving or
withholding stimulants, it is safer to withhold them." He then insists
that, if stimulants are administered, the patient should be visited
every two hours to watch their effects.
It will thus be seen how guarded has now become the use of alcohol as a
cardiac stimulant in typhoid fevers, where it was once employed with an
almost reckless freedom. Many practitioners have come to exclude it
altogether, and to rely wholly on ammonia, ether and foods.
In Cameron's "Hygiene" is this sentence: "In candor, it must be admitted
that many eminent physicians deny the efficacy of alcohol in the
treatment of any kind of disease, _and some assert that it is worse
than useless_."
ACCUMULATIVE TESTIMONY.
Dr. Arnold Lees, F.L.S., in a recent paper on the "Use and Action of
Alcohol in Disease," assumes "_that the old use of alcohol was not
science, but a grave blunder_." Prof. C.A. Parks says: "It is impossible
not to feel that, so far, the progress of physiological inquiry renders
the use of alcohol (in medicine) more and more doubtful." Dr. Anstie
says: "If alcohol is to be administered at all for the _relief_ of
neuralgia, it should be given with as much precision, as to dose, as we
should use in giving an acknowledged _deadly poison_." Dr. F.T. Roberts,
an eminent English physician, in advocating a guarded use of alcohol in
typhoid fever, says: "Alcoholic stimulants are, by no means, always
required, and their indiscriminate use may do a great deal of harm." In
Asiatic cholera, brandy was formerly administered freely to patients
when in the stage of collapse. The effect was injurious, instead of
beneficial. "Again and again," says Prof. G. Johnson, "have I seen a
patient grow colder, and his pulse diminish in volume and power, after a
dose of brandy, and, apparently, as a direct result of the brandy." And
Dr. Pidduck, of London, who used common salt in cholera treatment, says:
"Of eighty-six cases in the stage of collapse, sixteen only proved
fatal, and scarcely one would have died, _if I had been able to prevent
them from taking brandy and laudanum_." Dr. Collenette, of Guernsey,
says: "For more than thirty years I have abandoned the use of all kinds
of alcoholic drinks in my practice, and with such good results, that,
were I sick, _nothing_ would induce _me_ to have resource to them--_they
are but noxious depressants_."
As a non-professional writer, we cannot go beyond the medical testimony
which has been educed, and we now leave it with the reader. We could add
many pages to this testimony, but such cumulative evidence would add but
little to its force with the reader. If he is not yet convinced that
alcohol has no food value, and that, as a medicine, its range is
exceedingly limited, and always of doubtful administration, nothing
further that we might be able to cite or say could have any influence
with him.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GROWTH AND POWER OF APPETITE.
One fact attendant on habitual drinking stands out so prominently that
none can call it in question. It is that of the steady growth of
appetite. There are exceptions, as in the action of nearly every rule;
but the almost invariable result of the habit we have mentioned, is, as
we have said, a steady growth of appetite for the stimulant imbibed.
That this is in consequence of certain morbid changes in the physical
condition produced by the alcohol itself, will hardly be questioned by
any one who has made himself acquainted with the various functional and
organic derangements which invariably follow the continued introduction
of this substance into the body.
But it is to the fact itself, not to its cause, that we now wish to
direct the reader's attention. The man who is satisfied at first with a
single glass of wine at dinner, finds, after awhile, that appetite asks
for a little more; and, in time, a second glass is conceded. The
increase of desire may be very slow, but it goes on surely until, in the
end, a whole bottle will scarcely suffice, with far too many, to meet
its imperious demands. It is the same in regard to the use of every
other form of alcoholic drink.
Now, there are men so constituted that they are able, for a long series
of years, or even for a whole lifetime, to hold this appetite within a
certain limit of indulgence. To say "So far, and no farther." They
suffer ultimately from physical ailments, which surely follow the
prolonged contact of alcoholic poison with the delicate structures of
the body, many of a painful character, and shorten the term of their
natural lives; but still they are able to drink without an increase of
appetite so great as to reach an overmastering degree. They do not
become abandoned drunkards.
NO MAN SAFE WHO DRINKS.
But no man who begins the use of alcohol in any form can tell what, in
the end, is going to be its effect on his body or mind. Thousands and
tens of thousands, once wholly unconscious of danger from this source,
go down yearly into drunkards' graves. There is no standard by which any
one can measure the latent evil forces in his inherited nature. He may
have from ancestors, near or remote, an unhealthy moral tendency, or
physical diathesis, to which the peculiarly disturbing influence of
alcohol will give the morbid condition in which it will find its
disastrous life. That such results follow the use of alcohol in a large
number of cases, is now a well-known fact in the history of inebriation.
During the past few years, the subject of alcoholism, with the mental
and moral causes leading thereto, have attracted a great deal of earnest
attention. Physicians, superintendents of inebriate and lunatic asylums,
prison-keepers, legislators and philanthropists have been observing and
studying its many sad and terrible phases, and recording results and
opinions. While differences are held on some points, as, for instance,
whether drunkenness is a disease for which, after it has been
established, the individual ceases to be responsible, and should be
subject to restraint and treatment, as for lunacy or fever; a crime to
be punished; or a sin to be repented of and healed by the Physician of
souls, all agree that there is an inherited or acquired mental and
nervous condition with many, which renders any use of alcohol
exceedingly dangerous.
The point we wish to make with the reader is, that no man can possibly
know, until he has used alcoholic drinks for a certain period of time,
whether he has or has not this hereditary or acquired physical or mental
condition; and that, if it should exist, a discovery of the fact may
come too late.
Dr. D.G. Dodge, late Superintendent of the New York State Inebriate
Asylum, speaking of the causes leading to intemperance, after stating
his belief that it is a transmissible disease, like "scrofula, gout or
consumption," says:
"There are men who have an organization, which may be termed an
alcoholic idiosyncrasy; with them the latent desire for stimulants, if
indulged, soon leads to habits of intemperance, and eventually to a
morbid appetite, which has all the characteristics of a diseased
condition of the system, which the patient, unassisted, is powerless to
relieve--since the weakness of the will that led to the disease
obstructs its removal.
"Again, we find in another class of persons, those who have had healthy
parents, and have been educated and accustomed to good social
influences, moral and social, but whose temperament and physical
constitution are such, that, when they once indulge in the use of
stimulants, which they find pleasurable, they continue to habitually
indulge till they cease to be moderate, and become excessive drinkers. A
depraved appetite is established, that leads them on slowly, but surely,
to destruction."
A DANGEROUS DELUSION.
In this chapter, our chief purpose is to show the growth and awful power
of an appetite which begins striving for the mastery the moment it is
indulged, and against the encroachments of which no man who gives it any
indulgence is absolutely safe. He who so regards himself is resting in a
most dangerous delusion. So gradually does it increase, that few observe
its steady accessions of strength until it has acquired the power of a
master. Dr. George M. Burr, in a paper on the pathology of drunkenness,
read before the "American Association for the Cure of Inebriates,"
says, in referring to the first indications of an appetite, which he
considers one of the symptoms of a forming disease, says: "This early
stage is marked by an occasional desire to drink, which recurs at
shorter and shorter intervals, and a propensity, likewise, gradually
increasing for a greater quantity at each time. This stage has long been
believed to be one of voluntary indulgence, for which the subject of it
was morally responsible. The drinker has been held as criminal for his
occasional indulgence, and his example has been most severely censured.
This habit, however, must be regarded as the first intimation of the
approaching disease--the stage of invasion, precisely as sensations of
_mal-aise_ and chills usher in a febrile attack.
"It is by no means claimed that in this stage the subject is free from
responsibility as regards the consequences of his acts, or that his case
is to be looked upon as beyond all attempts at reclamation. Quite to the
contrary. This is the stage for active interference. Restraint,
prohibition, quarantine, anything may be resorted to, to arrest the
farther advance of the disease. Instead of being taught that the habit
of occasional drinking is merely a moral _lapsus_ (not the most powerful
restraining motive always), the subject of it should be made to
understand that it is the commencement of a malady, which, if unchecked,
will overwhelm him in ruin, and, compared with which, cholera and yellow
fever are harmless. He should be impressed with the fact that the early
stage is the one when recuperation is most easy--that the will then has
not lost its power of control, and that the fatal propensity is not
incurable. The duty of prevention, or avoidance, should be enforced with
as much earnestness and vigor as we are required to carry out sanitary
measures against the spread of small-pox or any infectious disease. The
subject of inebriety may be justly held responsible, if he neglects all
such efforts, and allows the disease to progress without a struggle to
arrest it.
"The formative stage of inebriety continues for a longer or shorter
period, when, as is well known, more frequent repetitions of the
practice of drinking are to be observed. The impulse to drink grows
stronger and stronger, the will-power is overthrown and the entire
organism becomes subject to the fearful demands for stimulus. It is now
that the stage of confirmed inebriation is formed, and _dypso-mania_
fully established. The constant introduction of alcohol into the system,
circulating with the fluids and permeating the tissues, adds fuel to the
already enkindled flame, and intensifies the propensity to an
irresistible degree. Nothing now satisfies short of complete
intoxication, and, until the unhappy subject of the disease falls
senseless and completely overcome, will he cease his efforts to gratify
this most insatiable desire."
Dr. Alexander Peddie, of Edinburgh, who has given twenty years of study
to this subject, remarked, in his testimony before a Committee of the
House of Commons, that there seemed to be "a peculiar elective affinity
for the action of alcohol on the nervous system after it had found its
way through the circulation into the brain," by which the whole organism
was disturbed, and the man rendered less able to resist morbid
influences of any kind. He gave many striking instances of the growth
and power of appetite, which had come under his professional notice, and
of the ingenious devices and desperate resorts to which dypsomaniacs
were driven in their efforts to satisfy their inordinate cravings. No
consideration, temporal or spiritual, had any power to restrain their
appetite, if, by any means, fair or foul, they could obtain alcoholic
stimulants. To get this, he said, the unhappy subject of this terrible
thirst "will tell the most shameful lies--for no truth is ever found in
connection with the habitual drunkard's state. He never yet saw truth in
relation to drink got out of one who was a dypsomaniac--he has
sufficient reason left to tell these untruths, and to understand his
position, because people in that condition are seldom dead drunk; they
are seldom in the condition of total stupidity; they have generally an
eye open to their own affairs, and that which is the main business of
their existence, namely, how to get drink. They will resort to the most
ingenious, mean and degrading contrivances and practices to procure and
conceal liquor, and this, too, while closely watched; and will succeed
in deception, although fabulous quantities are daily swallowed."
Dr. John Nugent gives a case which came within his own knowledge, of a
lady who had been
A MOST EXEMPLARY NUN
for fifteen or twenty years. In consequence of her devotion to the poor,
attending them in fevers, and like cases, it seemed necessary for her to
take stimulants; these stimulants grew to be habitual, and she had been
compelled, five or six times, to place herself in a private asylum. In
three or four weeks after being let out, she would relapse, although she
was believed to be under the strongest influences of religion, and of
the most virtuous desires. There had been developed in her that
disposition to drink which she was unable to overcome or control.
The power of this appetite, and the frightful moral perversions that
often follow its indulgence are vividly portrayed in the following
extract, from an address by Dr. Elisha Harris, of New York, in which he
discusses the question of the criminality of drunkenness.
"Let the fact be noticed that such is the lethargy which alcoholism
produces upon reason and conscience, that it is sometimes necessary to
bring the offender to view his drunken indulgence as a crime. We have
known a refined and influential citizen to be so startled at the fact
that he wished to destroy the lives of all persons, even of his own
family, who manifested unhappiness at his intemperance, that seeing
this terrible criminality of his indulgence, instantly formed, and has
forever kept, his resolutions of abstinence. We have known the
hereditary dypsomaniac break from his destroyer, and when tempted in
secret by the monstrous appetite, so grind his teeth and clinch his jaws
in keeping his vows to taste not, that blood dripped from his mouth and
cold sweat bathed his face. That man is a model of temperance and moral
power to-day. And it was the consciousness of personal criminality that
stimulated these successful conflicts with the morbid appetite and the
powers of the alcohol disease that had fastened upon them. Shall we
hesitate to hold ourselves, or to demand that communities shall hold
every drunkard--not yet insane--responsible for every act of inebriety?
Certainly, it is not cruel or unjust to deal thus with drunkenness. It
is not the prison we open, but conscience."
The danger in which those stand who have an
INHERITED PREDISPOSITION TO DRINK,
is very great. Rev. I. Willett, Superintendent of the Inebriate's Home,
Fort Hamilton, Kings County, New York, thus refers to this class, which
is larger than many think: "There are a host of living men and women to
be found who never drank, and who dare not drink, intoxicating liquors
or beverages, because one or both of their parents were inebriates
before they were born into the world; and, besides, a number of these
have brothers or sisters who, having given way to the inherited
appetite, are now passing downward on this descending sliding scale. The
greater portion of them have already passed over the bounds of
self-control, and the varied preliminary symptoms of melancholy, mania,
paralysis, ideas of persecution, etc., etc., are developing. As to the
question of responsibility, each case is either more or less doubtful,
and can only be tested on its separate merits. There is, however,
abundant evidence to prove that this predisposition to inebriety, even
after long indulgence, can, by a skillful process of medication,
accompanied by either voluntary or compulsory restraint, be subdued; and
the counterbalancing physical and mental powers can at the same time be
so strengthened and invigorated as in the future to enable the person to
resist the temptations by which he may be surrounded. Yea, though the
powers of reason may, for the time being, be dethroned, and lunacy be
developed, these cases, in most instances, will yield to medical
treatment where the surrounding conditions of restraint and careful
nursing are supplemental.
"We have observed that in many instances the fact of the patient being
convinced that he is an hereditary inebriate, has produced beneficial
results. Summoning to his aid all the latent counterbalancing energies
which he has at command, and clothing himself with this armor, he goes
forth to war, throws up the fortifications of physical and mental
restraint, repairs the breaches and inroads of diseased appetite,
regains control of the citadel of the brain, and then, with shouts of
triumph, he unfurls the banner of 'VICTORY!'"
Dr. Wood, of London, in his work on insanity, speaking on the subject of
hereditary inebriety, says:
"Instances are sufficiently familiar, and several have occurred within
my own personal knowledge, where the father, having died at any early
age from the effects of intemperance, has left a son to be brought up by
those who have severely suffered from his excesses, and have therefore
the strongest motives to prevent, if possible, a repetition of such
misery; every pain has been taken to enforce sobriety, and yet,
notwithstanding all precautions, the habits of the father have become
those of the son, who, never having seen him from infancy, could not
have adopted them from imitation. Everything was done to encourage
habits of temperance, but all to no purpose; the seeds of the disease
had begun to germinate; a blind impulse led the doomed individual, by
successive and rapid strides, along the same course which was fatal to
the father, and which, ere long, terminated in his own destruction."
How great and fearful the power of an appetite which cannot only enslave
and curse the man over which it gains control, but send its malign
influence down to the second and third and fourth generations,
sometimes to the absolute
EXTINGUISHMENT OF FAMILIES!
Morel, a Frenchman, gives the following as the result of his observation
of the hereditary effects of drunkenness:
"_First generation_: Immorality, depravity, excess in the use of
alcoholic liquors, moral debasement. _Second generation_: Hereditary
drunkenness, paroxysms of mania, general paralysis. _Third generation_:
Sobriety, hypochondria, melancholy, systematic ideas of being
persecuted, homicidal tendencies. _Fourth generation_: Intelligence
slightly developed, first accessions of mania at sixteen years of age,
stupidity, subsequent idiocy and probable extinction of family."
Dr. T.D. Crothers, in an analysis of the hundred cases of inebriety
received at the New York Inebriate Asylum, gives this result: "Inebriety
inherited direct from parents was traced in twenty-one cases. In eleven
of these the father drank alone, in six instances the mother drank, and
in four cases both parents drank.
"In thirty-three cases inebriety was traced to ancestors more remote, as
grandfather, grandmother, etc., etc., the collateral branches exhibiting
both inebriety and insanity. In some instances a whole generation had
been passed over, and the disorders of the grandparents appeared again.
"In twenty cases various neurosal disorders had been prominent in the
family and its branches, of which neuralgia, chorea, hysteria,
eccentricity, mania, epilepsy and inebriety, were most common.
"In some cases, a wonderful periodicity in the outbreak of these
disorders was manifested.
"For instance, in one family, for two generations, inebriety appeared in
seven out of twelve members, after they had passed forty, and ended
fatally within ten years. In another, hysteria, chorea, epilepsy and
mania, with drunkenness, came on soon after puberty, and seemed to
deflect to other disorders, or exhaust itself before middle life. This
occurred in eight out of fourteen, extending over two generations. In
another instance, the descendants of three generations, and many of the
collateral branches, developed inebriety, mental eccentricities, with
other disorders bordering on mania, at about thirty-five years of age.
In some cases this lasted only a few years, in others a lifetime."
And here let us say that in this matter of an inherited appetite there
is a difference of views with some who believe that appetite is never
transmitted but always acquired. This difference of view is more
apparent than real. It is not the drunkard's appetite that is
transmitted, but the bias or proclivity which renders the subject of
such an inherited tendency more susceptible to exciting causes, and
therefore in greater danger from the use of alcoholic drinks than
others.
Dr. N.S. Davis, in an article in the _Washingtonian_, published at
Chicago, presents the opposite view of the case. The following extract
from this article is well worthy to be read and considered:
"If we should say that man is so constituted that he is capable of
feeling weary, restless, despondent and anxious, and that he
instinctively desires to be relieved of these unpleasant feelings, we
should assert a self-evident fact. And we should thereby assert all the
instincts or natural impulse there is in the matter. It is simply a
desire to be relieved from unpleasant feelings, and does not, in the
slightest degree, indicate or suggest any particular remedy. It no more
actually suggests the idea of alcohol or opium than it does bread and
water. But if, by accident, or by the experience of others, the
individual has learned that his unpleasant feelings can be relieved, for
the time being, by alcohol, opium or any other exhilarant, he not only
uses the remedy himself, but perpetuates a knowledge of the same to
others. It is in this way, and this only, that most of the nations and
tribes of our race, have, much to their detriment, found a knowledge of
some kind of intoxicant. The same explanation is applicable to the
supposed 'constitutional susceptibility,' as a primary cause of
intemperance. That some persons inherit a greater degree of nervous and
organic susceptibility than others, and are, in consequence of this
greater susceptibility, more readily affected by a given quantity of
narcotic, anæsthetic or intoxicant, is undoubtedly true. And that such
will
"MORE READILY BECOME DRUNKARDS,
"if they once commence to use intoxicating drinks, is also true. But that
such persons, or any others, have the slightest inherent or
constitutional taste or any longing for intoxicants, until they have
acquired such taste or longing by actual use, we find no reliable proof.
It is true that statistics appear to show that a larger proportion of
the children of drunkards become themselves drunkards, than of children
born of total abstainers. And hence the conclusion has been drawn that
such children INHERITED the constitutional tendency to inebriation. But
before we are justified in adopting such a conclusion, several other
important facts must be ascertained.
"1st. We must know whether the mother, while nursing, used more or less
constantly some kind of alcoholic beverage, by which the alcohol might
have impregnated the milk in her breasts and thereby made its early
impression on the tastes and longings of the child.
"2d. We must know whether the intemperate parents were in the habit of
frequently giving alcoholic preparations to the children, either to
relieve temporary ailments, or for the same reason that they drank it
themselves. I am constrained to say, that from my own observation,
extending over a period of forty years, and a field by no means limited,
I am satisfied that nineteen out of every twenty persons who have been
regarded as HEREDITARY inebriates have simply ACQUIRED the disposition
to drink by one or both of the methods just mentioned, after birth."
The views here presented in no way lessen but really heighten the perils
of moderate drinking. It is affirmed that some persons inherit a greater
degree of nervous and organic susceptibility than others, and are, in
consequence, more readily affected by a given quantity of narcotic,
anæsthetic or intoxicant; _and that such "will more readily become
drunkards if they commence to use intoxicating drinks."_
Be the cause of this
INHERITED NERVOUS SUSCEPTIBILITY
what it may, and it is far more general than is to be inferred from the
admission just quoted, the fact stands forth as a solemn warning of the
peril every man encounters in even the most moderate use of alcohol.
Speaking of this matter, Dr. George M. Beard, who is not as sound on the
liquor question as we could wish, says, in an article on the "Causes of
the Recent Increase of Inebriety in America:" "As a means of prevention,
abstinence from the _habit_ of drinking is to be enforced. Such
abstinence may not have been necessary for our fathers, but it is
rendered necessary for a large body of the American people on account of
our greater nervous susceptibility. It is possible to drink without
being an habitual drinker, as it is possible to take chloral or opium
without forming the habit of taking these substances. In certain
countries and climates where the nervous system is strong and the
temperature more equable than with us, in what I sometimes call the
temperate belt of the world, including Spain, Italy, Southern France,
Syria and Persia, the habitual use of wine rarely leads to drunkenness,
and never, or almost never, to inebriety; but in the intemperate belt,
where we live, and which includes Northern Europe and the United States,
with a cold and violently changeable climate, the habit of drinking
either wines or stronger liquors is liable to develop in some cases a
habit of intemperance. Notably in our country, where nervous
sensitiveness is seen in its extreme manifestations, the majority of
brain-workers are not safe so long as they are in the habit of even
moderate drinking. I admit that this was not the case one hundred years
ago--and the reasons I have already given--it is not the case to-day in
Continental Europe; even in England it is not so markedly the case as in
the northern part of the United States. _For those individuals who
inherit a tendency to inebriety, the only safe course is absolute
abstinence, especially in early life._"
In the same article, Dr. Baird remarks: "The number of those in this
country who cannot bear tea, coffee or alcoholic liquors of any kind, is
very large. There are many, especially in the Northern States, who must
forego coffee entirely, and use tea only with caution; either, in any
excess, cause trembling nerves and sleepless nights. The susceptibility
to alcohol is so marked, with many persons, that no pledges, and no
medical advice, and no moral or legal influences are needed to keep them
in the paths of temperance. _Such persons are warned by flushing of the
face, or by headache, that alcohol, whatever it may be to others, or
whatever it may have been to their ancestors, is poison to them._"
But, in order to give a higher emphasis to precepts, admonition and
medical testimony, we offer a single example of the enslaving power of
appetite, when, to a predisposing hereditary tendency, the excitement of
indulgence has been added. The facts of this case were communicated to
us by a professional gentleman connected with one of our largest
inebriate asylums, and we give them almost in his very words in which
they were related.
A REMARKABLE CASE.
A clever, but dissipated actor married clandestinely a farmer's daughter
in the State of New York. The parents of the girl would not recognize
him as the husband of their child; rejecting him so utterly that he
finally left the neighborhood. A son born of this marriage gave early
evidence of great mental activity, and was regarded, in the college
where he graduated, as almost a prodigy of learning. He carried off
many prizes, and distinguished himself as a brilliant orator. Afterwards
he went to Princeton and studied for the ministry. While there, it was
discovered that he was secretly drinking. The faculty did everything in
their power to help and restrain him; and his co-operation with them was
earnest as to purpose, but not permanently availing. The nervous
susceptibility inherited from his father responded with a morbid
quickness to every exciting cause, and the moment wine or spirits
touched the sense of smell or taste, he was seized with an almost
irresistible desire to drink to excess, and too often yielded to its
demands. For months he would abstain entirely; and then drink to
intoxication in secret.
After graduating from Princeton he became pastor of a church in one of
the largest cities of Western New York, where he remained for two years,
distinguishing himself for his earnest work and fervid eloquence. But
the appetite he had formed was imperious in its demands, and
periodically became so strong that he lost the power of resistance. When
these periodic assaults of appetite came, he would
LOCK HIMSELF IN HIS ROOM FOR DAYS
and satiate the fierce thirst, coming out sick and exhausted. It was
impossible to conceal from his congregation the dreadful habit into
which he had fallen, and ere two years had elapsed he was dismissed for
drunkenness. He then went to one of the chief cities of the West, where
he received a call, and was, for a time, distinguished as a preacher;
but again he fell into disgrace and had to leave his charge. Two other
churches called him to fill the office of pastor, but the same sad
defections from sobriety followed. For a considerable time after this
his friends lost sight of him. Then he was found in the streets of New
York City by the president of the college from which he had first
graduated, wretched and debased from drink, coatless and hatless. His
old friend took him to a hotel, and then brought his case to the notice
of the people at a prayer-meeting held in the evening at one of the
churches. His case was immediately taken in hand and money raised to
send him to the State Inebriate Asylum. After he had remained there for
a year, he began to preach as a supply in a church a few miles distant,
going on Saturday evening and returning on Monday morning; but always
having an attendant with him, not daring to trust himself alone. This
went on for nearly a whole year, when a revival sprang up in the church,
which he conducted with great eloquence and fervor. After the second
week of this new excitement, he began to lock himself up in his room
after returning from the service, and could not be seen until the next
morning. In the third week of the revival, the excitement of the
meetings grew intense. After this he was only seen in the pulpit, where
his air and manner were wild and thrilling. His friends at the asylum
knew that he must be drinking, and while hesitating as to their wisest
course, waited anxiously for the result. One day he was grandly
eloquent. Such power in the pulpit had never been witnessed there
before--his appeals were unequalled; but so wild and impassioned that
some began to fear for his reason. At the close of this day's services,
the chaplain of the institution of which he was an inmate, returned with
him to the asylum, and on the way, told him frankly that he was
deceiving the people--that his eloquent appeals came not from the power
of the Holy Spirit, but from the excitement of drink; and that all
farther conduct of the meetings must be left in other hands. On reaching
the asylum he retired, greatly agitated, and soon after died from a
stroke of apoplexy. In his room many empty bottles, which had contained
brandy, were found; but the people outside remained in ignorance of the
true cause of the marvelous eloquence which had so charmed and moved
them.
We have already extended this chapter beyond the limit at first
proposed. Our object has not only been to show the thoughtful and
intelligent reader who uses alcoholic beverages, the great peril in
which he stands, but to make apparent to every one, how insidious is the
growth and how terrible the power of this appetite for intoxicants; an
appetite which, if once established, is almost sure to rob its victim of
honor, pity, tenderness and love; an appetite, whose indulgence too
often transforms the man into a selfish demon. Think of it, all ye who
dally with the treacherous cup; are not the risks you are running too
great? Nay, considering your duties and your obligations, have you any
right to run these risks?
And now that we have shown the curse of strong drink, let us see what
agencies are at work in the abatement, prevention and cure of a disease
that is undermining the health of whole nations, shortening the natural
term of human life, and in our own country alone, sending over sixty
thousand men and women annually into untimely graves.
[Illustration: Satan sends his trusted servants, Alcohol and Gambling,
out upon a mission.]
[Illustration: Alcohol meets a bright young man and cultivates his
acquaintance.]
[Illustration: Alcohol introduces the youth to his old-time friend,
Gambling.]
[Illustration: The mutual friends relieve the youth of his cash.]
[Illustration: Alcohol and his victim have a jolly time.]
[Illustration: The young man comes to grief, but Alcohol sticks by him.]
[Illustration: They suggest an easy method for replenishing his
exchequer.]
[Illustration: The mutual friends determine to follow him to the inmost
cell of the prison.]
[Illustration: Alcohol and Gambling incite their victim to murder.]
[Illustration: They mock him when upon the scaffold.]
[Illustration: Alcohol and Gambling bury their victim in an untimely
and dishonored grave.]
[Illustration: They report their success to Satan and receive his
congratulations.]
CHAPTER VII.
MEANS OF CURE.
Is this disease, or vice, or sin, or crime of intemperance--call it by
what name you will--increasing or diminishing? Has any impression been
made upon it during the half-century in which there have been such
earnest and untiring efforts to limit its encroachments on the health,
prosperity, happiness and life of the people? What are the agencies of
repression at work; how effective are they, and what is each doing?
These are questions full of momentous interest. Diseases of the body, if
not cured, work a steady impairment of health, and bring pains and
physical disabilities. If their assaults be upon nervous centres, or
vital organs, the danger of paralysis or death becomes imminent. Now, as
to this disease of intemperance, which is a social and moral as well as
a physical disease, it is not to be concealed that it has invaded the
common body of the people to an alarming degree, until, using the words
of Holy Writ, "the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint." Nay,
until, using a still stronger form of Scriptural illustration, "From the
sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but
wounds and bruises and putrifying sores."
In this view, the inquiry as to increase or diminution, assumes the
gravest importance. If, under all the agencies of cure and reform which
have been in active operation during the past fifty years, no impression
has been made upon this great evil which is so cursing the people, then
is the case indeed desperate, if not hopeless. But if it appears that,
under these varied agencies, there has been an arrest of the disease
here, a limitation of its aggressive force there, its almost entire
extirpation in certain cases, and a better public sentiment everywhere;
then, indeed, may we take heart and say "God speed temperance work!" in
all of its varied aspects.
HOPEFUL SIGNS.
And here, at the outset of our presentation of some of the leading
agencies of reform and cure, let us say, that the evidence going to show
that an impression has been made upon the disease is clear and
indisputable; and that this impression is so marked as to give the
strongest hope and assurance. In the face of prejudice, opposition,
ridicule, persecution, obloquy and all manner of discouragements, the
advocates of temperance have held steadily to their work these many
years, and now the good results are seen on every hand. Contrast the
public sentiment of to-day with that of twenty, thirty and forty years
ago, and the progress becomes at once apparent. In few things is this
so marked as in the changed attitude of the medical profession towards
alcohol. One of the most dangerous, and, at the same time, one of the
most securely intrenched of all our enemies, was the family doctor.
Among his remedies and restoratives, wine, brandy, whisky and tonic ale
all held a high place, and were administered more frequently, perhaps,
than any other articles in the Materia Medica. The disease of his
patients arrested by special remedies or broken by an effort of nature,
he too often commenced the administration of alcohol in some one or more
of its disguised and attractive forms, in order to give tone and
stimulus to the stomach and nerves, and as a general vitalizer and
restorative. The evil consequences growing out of this almost universal
prescription of alcohol, were of the most lamentable character, and
thousands and tens of thousands of men and women were betrayed into
drunkenness. But to-day, you will not find a physician of any high
repute in America or Europe who will give it to his patients, except in
the most guarded manner and under the closest limitations; and he will
not consent to any self-prescription whatever.
FRUITS OF TEMPERANCE WORK.
Is not this a great gain? And it has come as the result of temperance
work and agitation, as Dr. Henry Monroe frankly admits in his lecture on
the Physiological Action of Alcohol, where, after stating that his
remarks would not partake of the character of a total abstinence
lecture, but rather of a scientific inquiry into the mode of action of
alcohol when introduced into the tissues of the body, he adds:
"Nevertheless, I would not have it understood that I, in any way,
disparage the moral efforts made by total abstainers who, years ago,
amid good report and evil report, stood in the front of the battle to
war against the multitude of evils occasioned by strong drink;--all
praise be due to them for their noble and self-denying exertions! Had it
not been for the successful labors of these moral giants in the great
cause of temperance, presenting to the world in their own personal
experiences many new and astounding physiological facts, _men of science
would, probably, never have had their attention drawn to the topic._"
Then, as a result of temperance work, we have a more restrictive
legislation in many States, and prohibitory laws in New Hampshire,
Vermont and Maine. In the State of Maine, a prohibitory law has been in
operation for over twenty-six years; and so salutary has been the effect
as seen in the
REDUCTION OF POVERTY, PAUPERISM AND CRIME,
that the Legislature, in January, 1877, added new and heavier penalties
to the law, both Houses passing on the amendment without a dissenting
voice. In all that State there is not, now, a single distillery or
brewery in operation, nor a single open bar-room.
Forty years ago the pulpit was almost silent on the subject of
intemperance and the liquor traffic; now, the church is fast arraying
itself on the side of total abstinence and prohibition, and among its
ministers are to be found many of our most active temperance workers.
Forty or fifty years ago, the etiquette of hospitality was violated if
wine, or cordial, or brandy were not tendered. Nearly every sideboard
had its display of decanters, well filled, and it was almost as much an
offense for the guest to decline as for the host to omit the proffered
glass. Even boys and girls were included in the custom; and tastes were
acquired which led to drunkenness in after life. All this is changed
now.
The curse of the liquor traffic is attracting, as never before, the
attention of all civilized people; and national, State and local
legislatures and governments are appointing commissions of inquiry, and
gathering data and facts, with a view to its restriction.
And, more hopeful than all, signs are becoming more and more apparent
that the people are everywhere awakening to a sense of the dangers that
attend this traffic. Enlightenment is steadily progressing. Reason and
judgment; common sense and prudence, are all coming to the aid of
repression. Men see, as they never saw before, how utterly evil and
destructive are the drinking habits of this and other nations; how they
weaken the judgment and deprave the moral sense; how they not only take
from every man who falls into them his ability to do his best in any
pursuit or calling, but sow in his body the germs of diseases which will
curse him in his later years and abridge their term.
Other evidences of the steady growth among the people of a sentiment
adverse to drinking might be given. We see it in the almost feverish
response that everywhere meets the strong appeals of temperance
speakers, and in the more pronounced attitude taken by public and
professional men.
JUDGES ON THE BENCH
and preachers from the pulpit alike lift their voices in condemnation.
Grand juries repeat and repeat their presentations of liquor selling and
liquor drinking as the fruitful source of more than two-thirds of the
crimes and miseries that afflict the community; and prison reports add
their painful emphasis to the warning of the inquest.
The people learn slowly, but they are learning. Until they _will_ that
this accursed traffic shall cease, it must go on with its sad and awful
consequences. But the old will of the people has been debased by sensual
indulgence. It is too weak to set itself against the appetite by which
it has become enslaved. There must be a new will formed in the ground of
enlightenment and intelligence; and then, out of knowing what is right
and duty in regard to this great question of temperance and
restriction, will come the will to do. And when we have this new will
resting in the true enlightenment of the people, we shall have no
impeded action. Whatever sets itself in opposition thereto must go down.
And for this the time is coming, though it may still be far off. Of its
steady approach, the evidences are many and cheering. Meanwhile, we must
work and wait. If we are not yet strong enough to drive out the enemy,
we may limit his power, and do
THE WORK OF HEALING AND SAVING.
What, then, is being done in this work of healing and saving? Is there,
in fact, any cure for the dreadful malady of drunkenness? Are men ever
really saved from its curse? and, if so, how is it done, and what are
the agencies employed?
Among the first of these to which we shall refer, is the pledge. As a
means of reform and restriction, it has been used by temperance workers
from the beginning, and still holds a prominent place. Seeing that only
in a complete abstinence from intoxicating drinks was there any hope of
rescue for the drunkard, or any security for the moderate drinker, it
was felt that under a solemn pledge to wholly abstain from their use,
large numbers of men would, from a sense of honor, self-respect or
conscience, hold themselves free from touch or taste. In the case of
moderate drinkers, with whom appetite is yet under control, the pledge
has been of great value; but almost useless after appetite has gained
the mastery.
In a simple pledge there is no element of self-control. If honor,
self-respect or conscience, rallying to its support in the hour of
temptation, be not stronger than appetite, it will be of no avail. And
it too often happens that, with the poor inebriate, these have become
blunted, or well-nigh extinguished. The consequence has been that where
the pledge has been solely relied upon, the percentage of reform has
been very small. As a first means of rescue, it is invaluable; because
it is, on the part of him who takes it, a complete removal of himself
from the sphere of temptation, and so long as he holds himself away from
the touch and taste of liquor, he is safe. If the pledge will enable him
to do this, then the pledge will save him. But it is well known, from
sad experience, that only a few are saved by the pledge. The strength
that saves must be something more than the external bond of a promise;
it must come from within, and be grounded in a new and changed life,
internally as well as externally. If the reformed man, after he takes
his pledge, does not endeavor to lead a better moral life--does not keep
himself away from old debasing associations--does not try, earnestly and
persistently, to become, in all things,
A TRUER, PURER, NOBLER MAN,
then his pledge is only as a hoop, that any overstrain may break, and
not an internal bond, holding in integrity all things from the centre
to the circumference of his life.
So well is this now understood, that little reliance is had on the
pledge in itself, though its use is still general. It is regarded as a
first and most important step in the right direction. As the beginning
of a true and earnest effort on the part of some unhappy soul to break
the bonds of a fearful slavery. But few would think of leaving such a
soul to the saving power of the pledge alone. If other help came not,
the effort would be, except in rare cases, too surely, all in vain.
The need of something more reliable than a simple pledge has led to
other means of reform and cure, each taking character and shape from the
peculiar views of those who have adopted them. Inebriate Asylums and
Reformatory Homes have been established in various parts of the country,
and through their agency many who were once enslaved by drink are being
restored to society and good citizenship. In what is popularly known as
the "Gospel Temperance" movement, the weakness of the pledge, in itself,
is recognized, and, "God being my helper," is declared to be the
ultimate and only sure dependence.
It is through this abandonment of all trust in the pledge, beyond a few
exceptional cases, that reformatory work rises to its true sphere and
level of success. And we shall now endeavor to show what is being done
in the work of curing drunkards, as well in asylums and Reformatory
Homes, as by the so-called "Gospel" methods. In this we shall, as far as
possible, let each of these important agencies speak for itself,
explaining its own methods and giving its own results. All are
accomplishing good in their special line of action; all are saving men
from the curse of drink, and the public needs to be more generally
advised of what they are doing.
CHAPTER VIII.
INEBRIATE ASYLUMS.
The careful observation and study of inebriety by medical men, during
the past twenty-five or thirty years, as well in private practice as in
hospitals and prisons, has led them to regard it as, in many of its
phases, a disease needing wise and careful treatment. To secure such
treatment was seen to be almost impossible unless the subject of
intemperance could be removed from old associations and influences, and
placed under new conditions, in which there would be no enticement to
drink, and where the means of moral and physical recovery could be
judiciously applied. It was felt that, as a disease, the treatment of
drunkenness, while its subject remained in the old atmosphere of
temptation, was as difficult, if not impossible, as the treatment of a
malarious fever in a miasmatic district. The result of this view was the
establishment of Inebriate Asylums for voluntary or enforced seclusion,
first in the United States, and afterwards in England and some of her
dependencies.
In the beginning, these institutions did not have much favor with the
public; and, as the earlier methods of treatment pursued therein were,
for the most part, experimental, and based on a limited knowledge of
the pathology of drunkenness, the beneficial results were not large.
Still, the work went on, and the reports of cures made by the New York
State Asylum, at Binghampton, the pioneer of these institutions, were
sufficiently encouraging to lead to their establishment in other places;
and there are now in this country as many as from twelve to fifteen
public and private institutions for the treatment of drunkenness. Of
these, the New York State Inebriate Asylum, at Binghampton; the
Inebriate Home, at Fort Hamilton, Long Island; and the Home for
Incurables, San Francisco, Cal., are the most prominent. At Hartford,
Conn., the Walnut Hill Asylum has recently been opened for the treatment
of inebriate and opium cases, under the care of Dr. T.D. Crothers. The
Pinel Hospital, at Richmond, Va., chartered by the State, in 1876, is
for the treatment of nervous and mental diseases, and for the
reclamation of inebriates and opium-eaters. In Needham, Mass., is the
Appleton Temporary Home, where a considerable number of inebriates are
received every year.
Besides these, there are private institutions, in which dypsomaniac
patients are received. The methods of treatment differ according to the
views and experience of those having charge of these institutions. Up to
this time a great deal of the treatment has been experimental; and there
is still much difference of opinion among physicians and superintendents
in regard to the best means of cure. But, on two important points, all
are nearly in agreement. The first is in the necessity for an immediate
and
ABSOLUTE WITHDRAWAL OF ALL INTOXICANTS FROM THE PATIENT,
no matter how long he may have used them; and the second in the
necessity of his entire abstinence therefrom after leaving the
institution. _The cure never places a man back where he was before he
became subject to the disease; and he can never, after his recovery,
taste even the milder forms of alcoholic beverage without being exposed
to the most imminent danger of relapse._
The great value of an asylum where the victim of intemperance can be
placed for a time beyond the reach of alcohol is thus stated by Dr.
Carpenter: "Vain is it to recall the motives for a better course of
conduct, to one who is already familiar with them all, but is destitute
of the will to act upon them; the seclusion of such persons from the
reach of alcoholic liquors, for a sufficient length of time to _free the
blood from its contamination, to restore the healthful nutrition of the
brain and to enable the recovered mental vigor to be wisely directed,
seems to afford the only prospect of reformation:_ and this cannot be
expected to be permanent, unless the patient determinately adopts and
steadily acts on the resolution to abstain from that which, _if again
indulged in, will be poison, alike to his body and to his mind_."
In the study of inebriety and the causes leading thereto, much
important information has been gathered by the superintendents and
physicians connected with these establishments. Dr. D.G. Dodge, late
Superintendent of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, read a paper
before the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates, in 1876, on
"Inebriate Asylums and their Management," in which are given the results
of many years of study, observation and experience. Speaking of the
causes leading to drunkenness, he says:
"Occupation has a powerful controlling influence in developing or
warding off the disease. In-door life in all kinds of business, is a
predisposing cause, from the fact that nearly the whole force of the
stimulant is concentrated and expended upon the brain and nervous
system. A proper amount of out-door exercise, or labor, tends to throw
off the stimulus more rapidly through the various functional operations
of the system. Occupation of all kinds, mental or muscular, assist the
nervous system to retard or resist the action of stimulants--other
conditions being equal. Want of employment, or voluntary idleness is the
great nursery of this disease."
TOBACCO.
"_The use of tobacco predisposes the system to alcoholism,_ and it has
an effect upon the brain and nervous system similar to that of alcohol.
The use of tobacco, if not prohibited, should be discouraged. The
treatment of inebriates can never be wholly successful until the use of
tobacco in all forms is absolutely dispensed with.
"Statistics show that inebriety oftenest prevails between the _ages of
thirty and forty-five. The habit seldom culminates until thirty_, the
subject to this age generally being a _moderate drinker; later in life
the system is unable to endure the strain of a continued course of
dissipation._
"Like all hereditary diseases, intemperance is transmitted from parent
to child as much as scrofula, gout or consumption. It observes all the
laws in transmitting disease. It sometimes overleaps one generation and
appears in the succeeding, or it will miss even the third generation,
and then reappear in all its former activity and violence. Hereditary
inebriety, like all transmissible diseases, gives the least hope of
permanent cure, and temporary relief is all that can generally be
reasonably expected.
"Another class possesses an organization which may be termed an
alcoholic idiosyncrasy; with them the latent desire for stimulants, if
indulged, soon leads to habits of intemperance, and eventually to a
morbid appetite, which has all the characteristics of a diseased
condition of the system, which the patient, unassisted, is powerless to
relieve, since the weakness of will that led to the disease obstructs
its removal.
"The second class may be subdivided as follows: First, those who have
had healthy and temperate parents, and have been educated and accustomed
to good influences, moral and social, but whose temperament and
physical constitution are such _that when they once indulge in the use
of stimulants, which they find pleasurable, they continue to habitually
indulge till they cease to be moderate, and become excessive drinkers. A
depraved appetite is established that leads them on slowly, but surely,
to destruction._
"Temperaments have much to do with the formation of the habit of
excessive drinking. Those of a nervous temperament are less likely to
contract the habit, from the fact that they are acutely sensitive to
danger, and avoid it while they have the power of self-control. On the
other hand, those of a bilious, sanguine and lymphatic temperament, rush
on, unmindful of the present, and soon become slaves to a depraved and
morbid appetite, powerless to stay, or even to check their downward
course."
As we cannot speak of the treatment pursued in inebriate asylums from
personal observation, we know of no better way to give our readers
correct impressions on the subject, than to quote still farther from Dr.
Dodge. "For a better understanding," he says, "of the requisite
discipline demanded in the way of remedial restraint of inebriates, we
notice some of the results of chronic inebriation affecting more
particularly the brain and nervous system--which, in addition to the
necessary medical treatment, necessitates strict discipline to the
successful management of these cases."
RESULTS OF CHRONIC INEBRIATION.
"We have _alcoholic epilepsy, alcoholic mania, delirium tremens,
tremors, hallucinations, insomnia, vertigo, mental and muscular
debility, impairment of vision, mental depression, paralysis, a partial
or total loss of self-respect and a departure of the power of
self-control._ Many minor difficulties arise from mere functional
derangement of the brain and nervous system, which surely and rapidly
disappear when the cause is removed."
The general rule, on the reception of a patient, is to cut off at once
and altogether the use of alcohol in every form. "More," says the
doctor, "can be done by diet and medicine, than can be obtained by a
compromise in the moderate use of stimulants for a limited period." It
is a mistake, he adds, to suppose "that any special danger arises from
stopping the accustomed stimulus. Alcohol is a poison, and we should
discontinue its use at once, as it can be done with safety and perfect
impunity, except in rare cases."
To secure all the benefits to be derived from medical treatment, "we
should have," says Dr. Dodge, "institutions for the reception of
inebriates, where total abstinence can be rigidly, but judiciously
enforced for a sufficient length of time, to test the curative powers of
absolute restraint from all intoxicating drinks. When the craving for
stimulants is irresistible, it is useless to make an attempt to reclaim
and cure the drunkard, _unless the detention is compulsory_, and
there is complete restraint from all spirituous or alcoholic
stimulants."
REMOVAL FROM TEMPTATION.
In regard to the compulsory power that should inhere in asylums for the
cure of drunkenness, there is little difference of opinion among those
who have had experience in their management. They have more faith in
time than in medicine, and think it as much the duty of the State to
establish asylums for the treatment of drunkenness as for the treatment
of insanity. "The length of time necessary to cure inebriation," says
Dr. Dodge, "is a very important consideration. A habit covering five,
ten, fifteen or twenty years, cannot be expected to be permanently
eradicated in a week or a month. The fact that the excessive use of
stimulants for a long period of time has caused a radical change,
physically, mentally and morally, is not only the strongest possible
proof that its entire absence is necessary, but, also, that it requires
a liberal allowance of time to effect a return to a normal condition.
The shortest period of continuous restraint and treatment, as a general
rule, should not be less than six months in the most hopeful cases, and
extending from one to two years with the less hopeful, and more
especially for the class of periodical drinkers, and those with an
hereditary tendency."
A well-directed inebriate asylum not only affords, says the same
authority, "effectual removal of the patient from temptations and
associations which surrounded him in the outer world, but by precept and
example it teaches him that he can gain by his reformation, not the
ability to drink moderately and with the least safety, _but the power to
abstain altogether_. With the restraint imposed by the institution, and
the self-restraint accepted on the part of the patient, are remedial
agents from the moment he enters the asylum, growing stronger and more
effective day by day, until finally he finds _total abstinence not only
possible, but permanent_. With this much gained in the beginning, the
asylum is prepared to assist in the cure by all the means and appliances
at its command. With the co-operation of the patient, and such medicinal
remedies and hygienic and sanitary measures as may be required, the most
hopeful results may be confidently looked for.
"THE HYGIENIC AND SANITARY MEASURES
"consist in total abstinence from all alcoholic beverages; good
nourishing diet; well ventilated rooms; pure, bracing air; mental rest,
and proper bodily exercise. * * * Every patient should be required to
conform to all rules and regulations which have for their object the
improvement of his social, moral and religious condition. He must begin
a different mode of life, by breaking up former habits and associations;
driving from the mind the old companions of an intemperate life; forming
new thoughts, new ideas and new and better habits, which necessitates a
new life in every respect. This is the aim and object of the rules for
the control and government of inebriates. To assist in this work,
inebriate institutions should have stated religious services, and all
the patients and officers should be required to attend them, unless
excused by the medical officer in charge, for sickness, or other
sufficient cause."
THE BINGHAMPTON ASYLUM.
Of all the inebriate asylums yet established, the one at Binghampton,
New York, has been, so far, the most prominent. It is here that a large
part of the experimental work has been done; and here, we believe, that
the best results have been obtained. This asylum is a State Institution,
and will accommodate one hundred and twenty patients. In all cases
preference must be given to "indigent inebriates," who may be sent to
the asylum by county officers, who are required to pay seven dollars a
week for the medical attendance, board and washing, of each patient so
sent. Whenever there are vacancies in the asylum, the superintendent can
admit, under special agreement, such private patients as may seek
admission, and who, in his opinion, promise reformation.
The building is situated on an eminence two hundred and fifty feet above
the Susquehanna River, the scenery stretching far up and down the
valley, having features of uncommon beauty and grandeur. Each patient
has a thoroughly warmed and ventilated room, which, from the peculiar
situation of the house, commands a wide view of the adjoining country.
The tables are supplied with a variety and abundance of good food,
suitable in every respect to the wants of the patients, whose tastes and
needs are carefully considered. Amusements of various kinds, including
billiards, etc., are provided within the building, which afford pleasure
and profit to the patients. Out-door pastimes, such as games of ball and
croquet, and other invigorating sports, are encouraged and practised.
The asylum grounds embrace over four hundred acres, part of which are in
a state of cultivation. The remainder diversified in character, and
partly consisting of forest.
Gentlemen who desire to place themselves under the care of the asylum,
may enter it without any other formality than a compliance with such
conditions as may be agreed upon between themselves and the
superintendent. The price of admission varies according to location of
rooms and attention required. Persons differ so widely in their
circumstances and desires, that the scale of prices has been fixed at
from ten to twenty-five dollars per week, which includes board, medical
attendance, washing, etc. In all cases the price of board for three
months must be paid in advance.
From one of the annual reports of this institution now before us, we
learn that the number of patients treated during the year was three
hundred and thirty-six, of whom one hundred and ninety-eight "were
discharged with great hopes of permanent reformation." Fifty-eight were
discharged unimproved. The largest number of patients in the asylum at
one time was a hundred and five.
SAVING AND REFORMING INFLUENCES.
Of those discharged--two hundred and fifty-six in number--eighty-six
were of a nervous temperament, ninety-eight sanguine and seventy-two
bilious. In their habits, two hundred and thirty-four were social and
twenty-two solitary. Out of the whole number, two hundred and forty-four
used tobacco--only twelve being free from its use. Of these, one hundred
and sixty had been constant and ninety-six periodical drinkers. Serious
affliction, being unfortunate in business, love matters, prosperity,
etc., were given as reasons for drinking by one hundred and two of the
patients. One hundred and twenty-two had intemperate parents or
ancestors. One hundred and forty were married men and one hundred and
sixteen single. Their occupations were varied. Merchants, fifty-eight;
clerks, thirty-five; lawyers, seventeen; book-keepers, sixteen;
manufacturers, eight; bankers and brokers, eight; machinists, seven;
mechanics, six; farmers, six; clergymen, five; editors and reporters,
five, etc.
In regard to some of the special influences brought to bear upon the
patients in this institution, we have the following. It is from a
communication (in answer to a letter of inquiry) received by us from Dr.
T.D. Crothers, formerly of Binghampton, but now superintendent of the
new Walnut Hill Asylum, at Hartford, Connecticut: "You have failed to do
us credit," he says, "in supposing that we do not use the spiritual
forces in our treatment. We depend largely upon them. We have a
regularly-appointed chaplain who lives in the building;, and gives his
entire time to the religious culture of the patients. Rev. Dr. Bush was
with us eight years. He died a few months ago. He was very devoted to
his work, and the good he did, both apparent to us and unknown, was
beyond estimate. His correspondence was very extensive, and continued
for years with patients and their families. He was the counselor and
adviser of many persons who did not know him personally, but through
patients. I have seen letters to him from patients in all conditions
asking counsel, both on secular and spiritual matters; also the most
heart-rending appeals and statements of fathers, mothers, wives and
children, all of which he religiously answered. He urged that the great
duty and obligation of every drunkard was to take care of his body; to
build up all the physical, to avoid all danger, and take no risks or
perils; that his only help and reliance were on _God and good health_;
that with regular living and healthy surroundings, and a mind full of
faith and hope in spiritual realities, the disorder would die out. Our
new chaplain holds daily service, as usual, and spends much of his time
among the patients. He lives in the building, pronounces grace at the
table and is personally identified as a power to help men towards
recovery. Quite a large number of patients become religious men here.
Our work and its influences have a strong tendency this way. I believe
in the force of a chaplain whose daily walk is with us; who, by example
and precept, can win men to higher thoughts. He is the receptacle of
secrets and much of the inner life of patients that physicians do not
reach."
In another letter to us, Dr. Crothers says: "Every asylum that I know of
is doing good work, and should be aided and encouraged by all means. The
time has not come yet, nor the experience or study to any one man or
asylum, necessary to build up a system of treatment to the exclusion of
all others. We want many years of study by competent men, and the
accumulated experience of many asylums before we can understand the
first principles of that moral and physical disorder we call
drunkenness."
TREATMENT.
"As to the treatment and the agents governing it, we recognize in every
drunkard general debility and conditions of nerve and brain exhaustion,
and a certain train of exciting causes which always end in drinking.
Now, if we can teach these men the 'sources of danger,' and pledge them
and point them to a higher power for help, we combine both spiritual
and physical means. We believe that little can be expected from
spiritual aids, or pledges, or resolves, unless the patient can so build
up his physical as to sustain them. Give a man a healthy body and
brainpower, and you can build up his spiritual life; but all attempts to
cultivate a power that is crushed by diseased forces will be practically
useless. Call it a vice or a disease, it matters not, the return to
health must be along _the line of natural laws and means_. Some men will
not feel any longing for drink unless they get in the centre of
excitement, or violate some natural law, or neglect the common means of
health. Now, teach them these exciting causes, and build up their
health, and the pledge will not be difficult to keep. This asylum is a
marvel. It is, to-day, successful. Other asylums are the same, and we
feel that we are working in the line of laws that are fixed, though
obscure."
DEEPLY INTERESTING CASES.
The records of this institution furnish cases of reform of the most
deeply interesting character. Here are a few of them:
CASE No. 1. A Southern planter who had become a drunkard was brought to
this asylum by his faithful colored man. In his fits of intoxication he
fell into the extraordinary delusion that his devoted wife was
unfaithful; and so exasperated did he become when seized by this insane
delusion, that he often attempted her life. She was at last obliged to
keep out of his way whenever he came under the influence of liquor. When
sober, his memory of these hallucinations was sufficiently distinct to
fill him with sorrow, shame and fear; for he sincerely loved his wife
and knew her to be above reproach. After the war, during which he held
the position of a general in the Southern army, he became very much
reduced in his circumstances, lost heart and gave himself up to drink.
The friends of his wife tried to prevail on her to abandon him; but she
still clung to her husband, though her life was often in danger from his
insane passion. Four years of this dreadful experience, in which she
three times received serious personal injuries from his hands, and then
the old home was broken up, and he went drifting from place to place, a
human ship without a rudder on temptation's stormy sea; his unhappy wife
following him, more or less, in secret, and often doing him service and
securing his protection. In the spring of 1874, his faithful colored man
brought him to the asylum at Binghampton, a perfect wreck. His wife
came, also, and for three months boarded near the institution, and,
without his knowledge, watched and prayed for him. After a few weeks'
residence, the chaplain was able to lead his mind to the consideration
of spiritual subjects, and to impress him with the value of religious
faith and the power of prayer. He became, at length, deeply interested;
read many religious books, and particularly the Bible. At the end of
three months his wife came to see him, and their meeting was of a most
affecting character. A year later, he left the asylum and went to a
Western city, where he now resides--a prosperous and happy man.
CASE NO. 2. A clergyman of fortune, position and education lost his
daughter, and began to drink in order to drown his sorrow. It was in
vain that his wife and friends opposed, remonstrated, implored and
persuaded; he drank on, the appetite steadily increasing, until he
became its slave. His congregation dismissed him; his wife died of a
broken heart; he squandered his fortune; lost his friends, and, at last,
became a street reporter for some of the New York papers, through means
of which he picked up a scanty living. From bad to worse, he swept down
rapidly, and, for some offense committed while drunk, was, at last, sent
for three months to the State prison. On coming out, and returning to
the city, he became a fish-peddler, but continued to drink desperately.
One day he was picked up in the street in a state of dead intoxication
and taken to the hospital, where he was recognized by the doctor, who
had him sent to Binghampton as a county patient. Here he remained for
over a year, submitting himself to the regime, and coming under the
salutary influences of the institution, and making an earnest, prayerful
and determined effort at reform. At the end of this period he left the
asylum to enter upon the duties of a minister in the far West; and
to-day he is the president of a new college, and a devout and earnest
man! He attributes his cure to the influence of the late chaplain, Rev.
Mr. Bush, and to the new life he was able to lead under the protecting
influences and sanitary regulations of the asylum. This is a meagre
outline of a very remarkable case.
CASE NO. 3. A poor farmer's boy acquired, while in the army, an
inordinate appetite for drink. He was sent to the New York Inebriate
Asylum, but was expelled because he made no effort to reform. Six months
afterwards he joined a temperance society, and kept sober for a year;
but fell, and was again sent to the asylum. This time he made an earnest
effort, and remained at the asylum for seven months, when he was offered
a situation in Chicago, which he accepted. For a year he held this
place, then relapsed and came back to the asylum, where he stayed for
over twelve months. At the end of that time he returned to Chicago and
into his old situation. He is now a member of the firm, and an active
temperance man, with every prospect of remaining so to the end of his
life.
THE CARE AND TREATMENT OF DRUNKARDS.
The subject of the care and treatment of habitual drunkards is
attracting more and more attention. They form so large a non-producing,
and often vicious and dangerous class of half-insane men, that
considerations of public and private weal demand the institution of
some effective means for their reformation, control or restraint.
Legislative aid has been invoked, and laws submitted and discussed; but,
so far, beyond sentences of brief imprisonment in jails, asylums and
houses of correction, but little has really been done for the prevention
or cure of the worst evil that inflicts our own and other civilized
nations. On the subject of every man's "liberty to get drunk," and waste
his substance and abuse and beggar his family, the public mind is
peculiarly sensitive and singularly averse to restrictive legislation.
But a public sentiment favorable to such legislation is steadily gaining
ground; and to the formation and growth of this sentiment, many leading
and intelligent physicians, both in this country and Great Britain, who
have given the subject of drunkenness as a disease long and careful
attention, are lending all their influence. It is seen that a man who
habitually gets drunk is dangerous to society, and needs control and
restraint as much as if he were insane.
LEGISLATIVE CONTROL.
In 1875, a deputation, principally representative of the medical
profession, urged upon the British Government the desirability of
measures for the control and management of habitual drunkards. On
presenting the memorial to the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, Sir Thomas Watson, M.D., observed: "That during his very
long professional life he had been incredulous respecting the
reclamation of habitual drunkards; but his late experience had made him
sanguine as to their cure, with a very considerable number of whom
excessive drinking indulged in as a vice, developed itself into a most
formidable bodily and mental disease."
In the early part of February, 1877, "A Bill to Facilitate the Control
and Care of Habitual Drunkards," was introduced into the House of
Commons. It is supposed to embody the latest and most practical methods
of dealing legally with that class, and is of unusual interest from the
fact that it was prepared under the direction of a society for the
promotion of legislation for the cure of habitual drunkards, recently
organized in London, in which are included some of the most learned,
influential and scientific men of the Kingdom.
This bill provides for the establishment of retreats or asylums, public
or private, into which drunkards may be admitted on their own
application, or to which they may be sent by their friends, and where
they can be held by law for a term not exceeding twelve months.
In the State of Connecticut, there is a law which may be regarded as
embodying the most advanced legislation on this important subject. The
first section is as follows:
"Whenever any person shall have become an habitual drunkard, a
dypsomaniac, or so far addicted to the intemperate use of narcotics or
stimulants as to have lost the power of self-control, the Court of
Probate for the district in which such person resides, or has a legal
domicil, shall, on application of a majority of the selectmen of the
town where such person resides, or has a legal domicil, or of any
relative of such person, make due inquiry, and if it shall find such
person to have become an habitual drunkard, or so far addicted to the
intemperate use of narcotics or stimulants as to have lost the power of
self-control, then said court shall order such person to be taken to
some inebriate asylum within this State, for treatment, care and
custody, for a term not less than four months, and not more than twelve
months; but if said person shall be found to be a dypsomaniac, said term
of commitment shall be for the period of three years: _provided,
however_, that the Court of Probate shall not in either case make such
order without the certificate of at least two respectable practising
physicians, after a personal examination, made within one week before
the time of said application or said commitment, which certificate shall
contain the opinion of said physicians that such person has become, as
the case may be, a dypsomaniac, an habitual drunkard, or has, by reason
of the intemperate use of narcotics or stimulants, lost the power of
self-control, and requires the treatment, care and custody of some
inebriate asylum, and shall be subscribed and sworn to by said
physicians before an authority empowered to administer oaths."
LOSS TO THE STATE IN NOT ESTABLISHING ASYLUMS
In a brief article in the _Quarterly Journal of Inebriety_, for 1877,
Dr. Dodge thus emphasizes his views of the importance to the State of
establishing asylums to which drunkards may be sent for treatment:
"Every insane man who is sent to an asylum, is simply removed from doing
harm, and well cared for, and rarely comes back to be a producer again.
But inebriates (the hopeful class) promise immeasurably more in their
recovery. They are, as inebriates, non-producers and centres of disease,
bad sanitary and worse moral surroundings. All their career leads down
to crime and poverty. The more drunkards, the more courts of law, and
almshouses, and insane asylums, and greater the taxes. Statistics show
that from fifty to sixty per cent. of crime is due to drunkenness; and
we all know how large poverty is due to this cause. Drunkenness is alone
responsible for from twenty to twenty-five per cent. of all our insane.
"We assert, and believe it can be proved, that reclaiming the drunkard
is a greater gain to the State, practical and immediate, than any other
charity.
"It is a low estimate to say it costs every county in the State three
hundred dollars yearly to support a drunkard; that is, this amount, and
more, is diverted from healthy channels of commerce, and is,
practically, lost to the State. At an inebriate asylum, but little over
that amount would, in a large majority of cases, restore them as active
producers again.
"Figures cannot represent the actual loss to society, nor can we compute
the gain from a single case cured and returned to normal life and
usefulness. Inebriety is sapping the foundation of our Government, both
State and National, and unless we can provide means adequate to check
it, we shall leave a legacy of physical, moral and political disease to
our descendants, that will ultimately wreck this country. Inebriate
asylums will do much to check and relieve this evil."
We conclude this chapter, which is but an imperfect presentation of the
work of our inebriate asylums, by a quotation from the _Quarterly
Journal of Inebriety_, for September, 1877. This periodical is published
under the auspices of "The American Association for the Cure of
Inebriates." The editor, Dr. Crothers, says: "We publish in this number,
reports of a large number of asylums from all parts of the country,
indicating great prosperity and success, notwithstanding the depression
of the times. Among the patients received at these asylums, broken-down
merchants, bankers, business men, who are inebriates of recent date, and
chronic cases that have been moderate drinkers for many years, seem to
be more numerous. The explanation is found in the peculiar times in
which so many of the business men are ruined, and the discharge of a
class of employees whose uncertain habits and want of special fitness
for their work make them less valuable. Both of these classes drift to
the inebriate asylum, and, if not able to pay, finally go to insane
hospitals and disappear.
"Another class of patients seem more prominent this year, namely, the
hard-working professional and business men, who formerly went away to
Europe, or some watering-place, with a retinue of servants; now they
appear at our retreats, spend a few months, and go away much restored.
The outlook was never more cheery than at present, the advent of several
new asylums, and the increased usefulness of those in existence, with
the constant agitation of the subject among medical men at home and
abroad, are evidence of great promise for the future. Of the Journal we
can only say that, as the organ of the American Association for the Cure
of Inebriates, it will represent the broadest principles and studies
which the experience of all asylums confirm, and independent of any
personal interest, strive to present the subject of inebriety and its
treatment in its most comprehensive sense."
CHAPTER IX.
REFORMATORY HOMES.
Differing in some essential particulars from inebriate asylums or
hospitals for the cure of drunkenness as a disease, are the institutions
called "Homes." Their name indicates their character. It is now about
twenty years since the first of these was established. It is located at
41 Waltham Street, Boston, in an elegant and commodious building
recently erected, and is called the "Washingtonian Home." The
superintendent is Dr. Albert Day. In 1863, another institution of this
character came into existence in the city of Chicago. This is also
called the "Washingtonian Home." It is situated in West Madison Street,
opposite Union Park. The building is large and handsomely fitted up, and
has accommodations for over one hundred inmates. Prof. D. Wilkins is the
superintendent. In 1872 "The Franklin Reformatory Home," of
Philadelphia, was established. It is located at Nos. 911, 913 and 915
Locust Street, in a well-arranged and thoroughly-furnished building, in
which all the comforts of a home may be found, and can accommodate over
seventy persons. Mr. John Graff is the superintendent.
As we have said, the name of these institutions indicates their
character. They are not so much hospitals for the cure of a disease, as
homes of refuge and safety, into which the poor inebriate, who has lost
or destroyed his own home, with all its good and saving influences, may
come and make a new effort, under the most favoring influences, to
recover himself.
The success which, has attended the work of the three institutions named
above, has been of the most gratifying character. In the
WASHINGTONIAN HOME AT BOSTON,
drunkenness has been regarded as a malady, which may be cured through
the application of remedial agencies that can be successfully employed
only under certain conditions; and these are sought to be secured for
the patient. The home and the hospital are, in a certain sense, united.
"While we are treating inebriety as a disease, or a pathological
condition," says the superintendent, in his last report, "there are
those who regard it as a species of wickedness or diabolism, to be
removed only by moral agencies. Both of these propositions are true in a
certain sense. There is a difference between sin and evil, but the line
of demarkation is, as yet, obscure, as much so as the line between the
responsibility and irresponsibility of the inebriate."
Doubtless, the good work done in this excellent institution is due, in a
large measure, to the moral and religious influences under which the
inmates are brought. Nature is quick to repair physical waste and
deterioration, when the exciting causes of disease are removed. The
diseased body of the drunkard, as soon as it is relieved from the
poisoning influence of alcohol, is restored, in a measure, to health.
The brain is clear once more, and the moral faculties again able to act
with reason and conscience. And here comes in the true work of the Home,
which is the restoration of the man to a state of rational self-control;
the quickening in his heart of old affections, and the revival of old
and better desires and principles.
BENEFICIAL RESULTS.
"Among the beneficial results of our labor," says Dr. Day, "we see our
patients developing a higher principle of respect for themselves and
their friends. This, to us, is of great interest. We see indications
convincing us that the mind, under our treatment, awakens to a
consciousness of what it is, and what it is made for. We see man
becoming to himself a higher object, and attaining to the conviction of
the equal and indestructible of every being. In them, we see the dawning
of the great principle advocated by us continually, viz., That the
individual is not made to be the instrument of others, but to govern
himself by an inward law, and to advance towards his proper perfections;
that he belongs to himself and to God, and to no human superior. In all
our teachings we aim to purify and ennoble the character of our
patients by promoting in them true virtue, strong temperance
proclivities and a true piety; and to accomplish these ends we endeavor
to stimulate their own exertions for a better knowledge of God, and for
a determined self-control."
And again he says: "Almost every day we hear from some one who has been
with us under treatment, who has been cured. Their struggles had been
fierce, and the battle sometimes would seem to be against them; but, at
last, they have claimed the victory. In my experience, I have found that
so long as the victim of strong drink has the will, feeble as it may be,
to put forth his efforts for a better life, an 4 his constant struggle
is in the right direction, he is almost sure to regain his will power,
and succeed in overcoming the habit. By exercise, the will gains
strength. The thorns in the flesh of our spiritual nature will be
plucked out, the spiritual life will be developed, and our peace shall
flow as the river. This condition we constantly invoke, and by all the
means within our reach we try to stimulate the desire for a better life.
I am pleased to say our efforts in this direction have not been in vain.
For nearly twenty years we have been engaged in this work, and we have
now more confidence in the means employed than at any other period.
Situated, as we are, in the midst of a great city, with a Christian
sympathy constantly active and co-operating with us, no one can remain
in the institution without being the recipient of beneficial
influences, the effect of which is salutary in the extreme. I am fully
satisfied that the 'Washingtonian Home' is greatly indebted to these
moral agencies for its success."
The following letter, received by us, from Otis Clapp, who has been for
sixteen years president of the "Washingtonian Home," will give the
reader a still clearer impression of the workings of that institution.
It is in answer to one we wrote, asking for information about the
institution in which he had been interested for so many years:
"BOSTON, August 9th, 1877.
"DEAR SIR:--Your letter is received, and I am glad to learn that
your mind is directed to the subject of the curse and cure of
drunkenness. This is one of the largest of human fields to work in.
The 'Washingtonian Home' was commenced in a very humble way, in
November, 1857. An act of incorporation was obtained from the
State, March 26th, 1859.
"The institution has, therefore, been in existence nearly twenty
years. My connection with it has been for eighteen years--sixteen
years as president. During the period of its existence the whole
number of patients has been five thousand three hundred and
forty-eight. Of this number, the superintendent, Dr. Day, estimates
the cured at one-half. Of the remainder, it is estimated that
one-half, making one-quarter of the whole, are greatly improved.
"You say, 'I take the general ground, and urge it strongly upon the
reader that, _without spiritual help--regeneration, in a,
word--there is, for the confirmed inebriate, but little hope, and
no true safety._'
"In this I fully concur. I believe in using all the
agencies--medical, social, moral and religious--to bear upon the
patient, and to encourage him to follow the 'straight and narrow
way.' With this view, a morning service is held each day; a Sunday
evening service at six o'clock, and every Friday evening a meeting,
where patients relate their experience, and encourage each other in
gaining power over the enemy. I have had much experience and
abundant evidence that these meetings are of great value, for the
reason that the patients are the principal speakers, and can do
more to encourage each other than those outside of their own ranks.
These meetings are usually attended by about equal numbers of both
sexes, and, with fine music, can be kept up with interest
indefinitely.
"It would be, in my judgment, a matter of wide economy for the
intelligent citizens of every city, with twenty thousand or more
inhabitants, to establish a home, or asylum for inebriates. Let
those who favor sobriety in the community, take a part in it, and
they will soon learn how to reach the class who needs assistance. A
large, old-fashioned house can be leased at small expense, and the
means raised by contributions of money and other necessary articles
to start. The act of doing this will soon enable those engaged in
the work to learn what the wants are, and how to meet them. It is
only obeying the command, 'Go out into the highways and hedges and
compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.' This is the
Master's work, and those who hear this invitation, as well as those
who accept it, will share in its blessings.
"Those who cultivate the spirit of 'love to God, and good-will to
their fellow-men,' will be surprised to see how much easier it is
to _do_ these things when they _try_, than when they only _think_
about them.
"Much, of course, depends upon the superintendent, who needs to
possess those genial qualities which readily win the confidence and
good-will of patients, and which he readily turns to account, by
encouraging them to use the means which the Creator has given them
to co-operate in curing themselves. The means of cure are in the
patient's own hands, and it is quite a gift to be able to make him
see it."
THE WASHINGTONIAN HOME AT CHICAGO
is on the same plan, in all essential respects, with that of Boston; and
the reports show about the same average of cures and beneficial results.
How the patient is treated in this Home may be inferred from the
following extract from an article on "The Cause, Effect and Cure of
Inebriety," from the pen of Prof. D. Wilkins, the superintendent, which
appeared in a late number of _The Quarterly Journal of Inebriety_. In
answer to the question, How can we best save the poor drunkard, and
restore him to his manhood, his family and society, he says:
"Money, friends, relatives and all have forsaken him, his hope blasted,
his ambition gone, and he feels that no one has confidence in him, no
one cares for him. In this condition he wends his way to an institution
of reform, a penniless, homeless, degraded, lost and hopeless drunkard.
Here is our subject, how shall we save him? He has come from the squalid
dens, and lanes of filth, of misery, of want, of debauchery and death;
no home, no sympathy and no kind words have greeted him, perhaps, for
years. He is taken to the hospital. A few days pass, and he awakes from
the stupidity of drink, and as he opens his eyes, what a change! He
looks around, kind and gentle voices welcome him, his bed is clean and
soft, the room beautiful, tasteful and pleasant in its arrangements, the
superintendent, the physician, the steward and the inmates meet him with
a smile and treat him as a brother. He is silent, lost in meditation.
Thoughts of other days, of other years, pass through his mind in quick
succession as the tears steal gently down his cheeks. He talks thus to
himself: 'I am mistaken. _Somebody does care_ for the drunkard. And if
somebody cares for me, _I ought to care for myself_.' Here reform first
commences. In a few days, when free, to some extent, from alcohol, he is
admitted to the freedom of the institution. As he enters the
reading-room, the library, the amusement, the gymnasium, dining-room and
spacious halls, the conviction becomes stronger and stronger that
somebody is interested in the inebriate, and he should be interested in
himself. Then comes the lessons of the superintendent. He is taught that
he cannot be reformed, but that he can reform himself. That God helps
those only who help themselves. That he must ignore all boon companions
of the cup as associates, all places where liquor is kept and sold,
that, in order to reform himself, he must become a reformer, labor for
the good of his brother; in short, he must shun every rivulet that leads
him into the stream of intemperance, and as a cap-stone which completes
the arch, that he must look to Him from whence cometh all grace and
power to help in time of need.
"As he converses with those that are strong in experience, listens to
the reading of the Holy Scriptures in the morning devotions, joins in
the sweet songs of Zion and unites in unison with his brother inmates in
saying the Lord's Prayer, as he hears the strong experiences in the
public meetings and secret associations of those who have remained firm
for one, two, three, and up to ten or fifteen years, little by little
his confidence is strengthened, and almost before he is aware, the firm
determination is formed and the resolve made, _I will drink no more_. As
week after week, and month after month, glides pleasantly away, these
resolutions become stronger and stronger, and by thus educating his
intellect and strengthening his moral power, the once hopeless,
disheartened and helpless one regains his former manhood and lost
confidence, and becomes a, moral, independent, reformed man. Perhaps the
most difficult thing in this work of reform, is to convince our inmates
that resolving to stop drinking, or even stopping drinking for the time
being, is not reforming. Those admitted, generally, in about two weeks,
under the direction of a skillful physician, and the nursing of a
faithful steward, recover so as to sleep well and eat heartily, and
their wills, seemingly, are as strong as ever. Feeling thus, they often
leave the institution, sobered up, not reformed, and when the periodical
time arrives, or temptation comes, they have no moral power to resist,
and they rush back to habits of intoxication. They forget that the will
is like a door on its hinges, with the animal desires, appetites, evil
inclinations and passions attached to one side, leading them into
trouble and making them unhappy, unless they are held by the strong
power of the sense of moral right attached to the other side, and that
for years they have been stifling and weakening this power, until its
strength is almost, if not entirely, gone, and that the only way they
can possibly strengthen it, independent of the grace of God, is by
education, moral light and testing it under circumstances so favorable
that it will not yield. It took years of disobedience to destroy the
moral power, and it will take years of obedience to restore it again.
The inebriate must be taught that he can refrain from drink only as he
strengthens this moral power, and this requires time and trial. Here is
just where we, as superintendents, or reformers, assume great
responsibility. To understand just when to test, and how much temptation
can be resisted by those under our charge, requires much wisdom and
great experience."
From this extract the reader will learn something of the influences
which are brought to bear upon the inmates of a home for the reformation
of inebriates; and he will see how much reliance is placed on moral and
religious agencies.
TESTIMONY OF THE REFORMED.
From the Chicago Home is issued a monthly paper called _The
Washingtonian_, devoted to the interest of the institution and to
temperance. In this appear many communications from those who are, or
have been, inmates. We make a few selections from some of these, which
will be read with interest:
"When I came into the Home, mind, memory, hope and energy were
shattered. The only animating thought remaining to me was a misty
speculation as to where the next drink was to come from. I had a kind of
feeble perception that a few days more of the life I was leading must
end my earthly career, but I didn't care. As to the 'hereafter'--that
might take care of itself; I had no energy to make any provision for it.
"To-day, how different! A new man, utterly defiant of the devil and all
'his works and pomps,' I am ready and eager to take my place once more
in the battle of life; atone for the miserable time gone by; to take
again the place in the world I had forfeited, bearing ever in my breast
the beautiful maxims of the German poet and philosopher, Schiller: 'Look
not sorrowfully into the past; it comes not back again. Wisely improve
the present; it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without
fear, and with a manly heart.'"
Another writes: "I have been true and faithful to my promise, and have
not touched or tampered with the curse since the first morning I entered
the Home, ten months ago to-day, and, Mr. Superintendent, I shall never
drink again as long as I live. My whole trust and hope is in God, who
made me live, move and have my being; and as long as I trust in Him--and
which I am thoroughly satisfied I always shall--I will be crowned with
success in each and every good effort I make. * * * The day I reached
here, my little ones were out of town, but were telegraphed for at once.
They came in the next morning, and, oh! how my heart rejoiced to see
they knew and loved me. They came to my arms and threw their little arms
around my neck, and hugged and kissed me until I wept with joy. They
begged of me never to leave them again, and I never shall. My dear
father, mother and all now wish me to stay with them, for they feel I
can now be as great a comfort as I once, I might say, was a terror to
them. Thank God, I can prove a comfort to them, and my daily life shall
be such that they never can do without me. Praises be to God for His
goodness and mercy to me, and for showing and guiding me in the straight
path, that which leadeth, at last, to an everlasting life with. Him and
His redeemed in that great and glorious kingdom above."
Another writes, two years after leaving the Home: "In different places
where I lived, I was generally a moving spirit in everything of a
literary character, and, from a naturally social, convivial disposition,
enjoyed the conversation and society of literary men over a glass of
beer more than any other attraction that could have been presented. For
years, this continued, I, all the time, an active spirit in whatever
church I was a member of, and an active worker in whatever I engaged in,
thereby always commanding a prominent position wherever I was. Thus
matters progressed till I was about twenty-seven, and then I began to
realize my position; but, alas, when it was too late. The kindly
admonition of friends and my own intelligence began to tell me the
story, and then how I struggled for months and months--a naturally
sensitive nature only making me worse--till, at last, the conviction
forced itself upon me that, for me there was no redemption, that I was
bound, hand and foot, perfectly powerless, and then I was forced to
accept the fact. My only desire then was to save those dear to me from
any knowledge of the truth; for this reason I chose Chicago for my home.
Not wishing to take my own life in my hands, I was simply waiting for
the moment when, having gone lower and lower, it would, at last, please
God to relieve me of my earthly sufferings. Oh! the mental agonies I
endured! Too true is it that the drunkard carries his hell around with
him. At any moment I was perfectly willing to die, perfectly willing to
trust whatever might be before me in the other world, feeling it could
be no worse. At last, by God's grace, I was directed to the
'Washingtonian Home,' and there, for the first time, I learned that I
could be free; and in this knowledge lies the power of the Home. The
Home took hold of me and bade me be a man, and directed me to God for
help; and, at the same time, told me to work out my own salvation. Its
teachings were not in vain; and to-day I can look up and ask God's
blessing on you all for your kind labors. But for that Home, I should,
to-day, have been filling a dishonored grave."
And another says: "It is now over five years since I applied to Mr.
Drake for admission to the Home. I was then prostrated, both physically
and mentally, to that degree that I had scarcely strength to drag myself
along, or moral courage enough to look any decent man in the face. I was
often assured that to quit whisky would kill me. I thought there was a
probability of that; but, on the other hand, there was a certainty that
to continue it would kill me. I resolved to make one more effort and die
sober, for I never expected to live; had no hope of that. From the day I
entered the Home I have been a changed man. The encouragement and
counsel I received there, gave me strength, to keep the resolution I had
formed, and which I have kept to the present moment, viz: TO DRINK NO
MORE! Ever since I left Chicago, I have held a respectable position; and
now hold the principal position in a house of business, the doors of
which I was forbidden to enter six years ago. I do not write this in any
spirit of self-laudation, but simply to lay the honor where it
belongs--at the door of the 'Washingtonian Home.'"
The following from the "experience" of one of the inmates of the Chicago
"Home," will give the reader an idea of the true character of this and
similar institutions, and of the way in which those who become inmates
are treated. A lady who took an interest in the writer, had said to him,
"You had better go to the Washingtonian Home." What followed is thus
related:
HOW I WAS TREATED IN THE HOME.
"I looked at her in surprise. Send me to a reformatory? I told her that
I did not think that I was sunk so low, or bound so fast in the coils of
the 'worm of the still,' that it was necessary for me, a young man not
yet entered into the prime of manhood, to be confined in a place
designed for the cure of habitual drunkards. I had heard vague stories,
but nothing definite concerning the Home, and thought that the question
was an insult, but I did not reply to the question. All that night my
thoughts would revert to the above question. My life past since I had
become a devotee of the 'demon of strong drink,' passed in review before
my mind. What had I gained? How improved? What had I obtained by it? And
the answer was nothing. Then I asked myself, What had I lost by it? And
the answer came to me with crushing force, everything that maketh life
desirable. Starting out young in years into the busy highways of the
world, with a good fortune, bright prospects and a host of friends to
aid and cheer me on, I had lost ALL in my love for strong drink, and at
times I thought and felt that I was a modern Ishmael.
"The lady, the next morning, again returned to the attack, and then, not
thinking it an insult, but a benefit, to be conferred on me, I yielded a
willing acquiescence. That same evening, with a slow step and aching
head, I walked up Madison Street towards the Washingtonian Home, with
thoughts that I would be considered by the officers of the institution
as a sort of a felon, or, if not that, at least something very near akin
to the brute, and it was with a sinking heart that I pushed open the
main door and ascended the broad, easy stairs to the office. I asked if
the superintendent was in, and the gentlemanly clerk at the desk told me
that he was, and would be down immediately, meanwhile telling me to be
seated. After the lapse of a few minutes, the superintendent, Mr.
Wilkins, came into the office, his countenance beaming with benevolence.
He took the card that I had brought with me, read it, and, turning round
to where I sat, with a genial smile lighting up his countenance, with
outstretched hand, greeted me most kindly and introduced me to the
gentlemen present. I was dumbfounded, and it was with great difficulty
that I restrained myself from shedding tears. It was the very opposite
of the reception that I had pictured that I would receive, and I found
that I was to be treated as a human being and not as a brute. With a
smile, the superintendent addressed me again, and told me to follow him;
and it was with a lighter heart and spirits that I ascended the second
flight of stairs than the first, I can assure you. I was brought to the
steward, who also greeted me most kindly, conversed with me a short
time, fixed up some medicine for me and then took me into the hospital.
By the word 'hospital,' dear reader, you must not take the usual
definition of all that word implies, but in this case, take it as a
moderate-sized room with eight or nine beds, covered with snow-white
sheets and coverlids, and filled with air of the purest; no sickly
smells or suffering pain to offend the most delicate.
"After a most refreshing night's rest--the first that I had had in three
or four long, weary months--I arose, and for a few moments could not
realize where I was, but memory came back, and I fell on my knees and
gave thanks to God that I had fallen into the hands of the 'Good
Samaritans.' After breakfast, I went with great diffidence into the
common sitting-room, where there was about ten of the inmates sitting
smoking, playing checkers, etc. I did not know how I would be received
here, but as soon as I entered I was greeted most kindly and told to
make myself at home. It seemed as if my cup was full and running over,
and for a few moments I could scarcely speak, and I thought that the
institution's motto must be founded on the Saviour's command to 'Love
one another.'
"The first day I was not allowed to go down to the dining-room, I still
being under the care of the hospital steward. The second day I was
discharged from the hospital, assigned a most comfortable and cheerful
furnished bed-room, and allowed the liberty of the whole building, and
the day passed pleasantly. The next morning, at about six, I was
awakened by the clangor of a bell shaken by a vigorous arm. Hurriedly
dressing, I descended to the wash-room and performed my ablutions, and
then waited for the next step. Half an hour having elapsed, the bell was
rung a second time, and we all entered what is called the service-room.
Shortly after Mr. Wilkins and his family entered; the superintendent
read a chapter of the Bible, the inmates sung a hymn, accompanied on the
organ by Miss Clara Wilkins; after a short prayer, the inmates marched
in single file to the head of the room, where Mr. Wilkins stood, his
kind face actually beaming, and with extended hand greeted every
individual inmate. After leaving him we marched to the other side of the
room, where we also received a cheery 'good morning,' and cordial grasp
of the hand from the estimable and motherly wife of the superintendent.
To describe one day is sufficient to picture the manner in which the
inmates of the Home (and I sincerely believe that 'home' is the right
designation for it) pass their time. I have never felt happier or more
contented even in my most prosperous days than I have in these few short
days that I have been an inmate of the Washingtonian Home."
In this institution, according to the last annual report, two thousand
two hundred and fifty-two persons have been treated since it was opened.
Of these, one thousand one hundred and eighteen, or over sixty per
cent., are said to have remained sober, or nearly so, up to this time.
During the last year two hundred and fifty-eight patients were under
treatment (one-third free patients). Of these only thirty had relapsed,
the others giving great promise of recovery.
The Philadelphia institution, known as the "FRANKLIN REFORMATORY HOME
FOR INEBRIATES," has been in existence over five years. It was organized
in April, 1872. In this institution intemperance is not regarded as a
disease, which may be cured through hygienic or medical treatment, but
as _a sin, which must be repented of, resisted and overcome through the
help of God_. In order to place the inebriate, who honestly desires to
reform and lead a better life, under conditions most favorable to this
work of inner reformation and true recovery, all the external
associations and comforts of a pleasant home are provided, as with the
two institutions whose record of good results has just been made. Its
administrative work and home-life vary but little from that of the Homes
in Boston and Chicago. But it is differenced from them and other
institutions which have for their aim the cure of inebriety, in its
rejection of the disease theory, and sole reliance on moral and
spiritual agencies in the work of saving men from the curse of drink. It
says to its inmates, this appetite for drink is not a disease that
medicine can cure, or change, or eradicate. New sanitary conditions,
removal from temptations, more favorable surroundings, congenial
occupation, improved health, a higher self-respect, a sense of honor
and responsibility, and the tenderness and strength of love for wife and
children, may be powerful enough as motives to hold you always in the
future above its enticements. But, trusting in these alone, you can
never dwell in complete safety. You need a deeper work of cure than it
is possible for you to obtain from any earthly physician. Only God can
heal you of this infirmity.
A RELIGIOUS HOME.
While never undervaluing external influences, and always using the best
means in their power to make their institution a home in all that the
word implies, the managers have sought to make it distinctively
something more--_a religious home_. They rely for restoration chiefly on
the reforming and regenerating power of Divine grace. Until a man is
brought under spiritual influences, they do not regard him as in safety;
and the result of their work so far only confirms them in this view.
They say, that in almost every case where an inmate has shown himself
indifferent, or opposed to the religious influences of the Home, he has,
on leaving it, relapsed, after a short period, into intemperance, while
the men who have stood firm are those who have sought help from God, and
given their lives to His service.
Under this view, which has never been lost sight of from the beginning,
in the work of the "Franklin Home," and which is always urged upon those
who seek its aid in their efforts to reform their lives, there has come
to be in the institution a pervading sentiment favorable to a religious
life as the only safe life, and all who are brought within, the sphere
of its influence soon become impressed with the fact. And it is regarded
as one of the most hopeful of signs when the new inmate is drawn into
accord with this sentiment, and as a most discouraging one if he sets
himself in opposition thereto.
WHO ARE RECEIVED INTO "THE FRANKLIN HOME."
As in other institutions, the managers of this one have had to gain
wisdom from experience. They have learned that there is a class of
drinking men for whom efforts at recovery are almost useless; and from
this class they rarely now take any one into the Home. Men of known
vicious or criminal lives are not received. Nor are the friends of such
as indulge in an occasional drunken debauch permitted to send them there
for temporary seclusion. None are admitted but men of good character, in
all but intemperance; and these must be sincere and earnest in their
purpose to reform. The capacity of an institution in which the care, and
service, and protection of a home can be given, is too small for mere
experiment or waste of effort. There are too many who are anxious,
through the means offered in a place like this, to break the chains of a
debasing habit, and get back their lost manhood once more, to waste
effort on the evil-minded and morally depraved, who only seek a
temporary asylum and the opportunity for partial recovery, but with no
purpose of becoming better men and better citizens. Apart from the
fruitlessness of all attempts to permanently restore such men to
sobriety, it has been found that their presence in the Home has had an
injurious effect; some having been retarded in recovery through their
influence, and others led away into vicious courses.
There is a chapel in the building, capable of holding over two hundred
persons. In this, Divine worship is held every Sunday afternoon. A
minister from some one of the churches is usually in attendance to
preach and conduct the services. It rarely happens that the chapel is
not well filled with present and former inmates of the Home, their
wives, children and friends. Every evening, at half-past nine o'clock,
there is family prayer in the chapel, and every Sunday afternoon the
president, Mr. S.P. Godwin, has a class for Bible study and instruction
in the same place. On Tuesday evenings there is a conversational
temperance meeting; and on Thursday evening of each week the Godwin
Association, organized for mutual help and encouragement, holds a
meeting in the chapel.
USE OF TOBACCO DISCOURAGED.
The attending physician, Dr. Robert P. Harris, having given much thought
and observation to the effects of tobacco on the physical system, and
its connection with inebriety, discourages its use among the inmates,
doing all in his power, by advice and admonition, to lead them to
abandon a habit that not only disturbs and weakens the nervous forces,
but too often produces that very condition of nervous exhaustion which
leads the sufferer to resort to stimulation. In many cases where men,
after leaving the "Home," have stood firm for a longer or shorter period
of time, and then, relapsing into intemperance, have again sought its
help in a new effort at reformation, he has been able to find the cause
of their fall in an excessive use of tobacco.
Dr. Harris is well assured, from a long study of the connection between
the use of tobacco and alcohol, that, in a very large number of cases
tobacco has produced the nervous condition which led to inebriety. And
he is satisfied that, if men who are seeking to break away from the
slavery of drink, will give up their tobacco and their whisky at the
same time, they will find the work easier, and their ability to stand by
their good resolutions, far greater. See the next chapter for a clear
and concise statement, from the pen of Dr. Harris, of the effects of
tobacco, and the obstacles its use throws in the way of men who are
trying to reform.
WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
The results of the work done in this "Home" are of the most satisfactory
kind. From the fifth annual report, we learn that there have been
received into the Home, since its commencement, seven hundred and
forty-one persons. Of these, the report gives three hundred and
fifty-four as reformed, and one hundred and three as benefited. Two
hundred and ninety-seven were free patients.
WOMAN'S WORK IN THE HOME.
In the management of this Home there is, beside the board of directors,
an auxiliary board of twenty-six lady managers, who supervise the work
of the Home, and see to its orderly condition and the comfort of the
inmates. Through visiting and relief committees the families of such of
the inmates as need temporary care and assistance are seen, and such
help and counsel given as may be required. An extract or two from the
reports of this auxiliary board will not only give an idea of the
religious influences of the institution, but of what is being done by
the woman's branch of the work. Says the secretary, Mrs. E.M. Gregory,
in her last annual report:
"The religious influence exerted by this institution by means of its
Sunday evening services, its Bible class and its frequent temperance
meetings, which are cordially open to all, is silently, but, we think,
surely making itself felt among those brought within its reach, and
establishing the highest and strongest bond among those whose natural
ties are often unhappily severed by intemperance. We find whole
families, long unused to any religious observance, now _regularly, for
years_, accompanying the husband and father to this place of worship,
and joining devoutly in the exercises.
"Especial emphasis is laid upon the doctrine that the only foundation
for a thorough, enduring reformation is found in a radical change of
heart, a preparation for the future life by a conscientious, persistent
effort to lead a Christ-like life here.
"One result of this teaching is found in the fact that several of the
inmates, not in the first pleasant excitement of their rescue from the
immediate horrors of their condition, but after long and faithful
observance of their pledge and constant attendance upon the religious
instruction of the Home, have voluntarily and with solemn resolve united
themselves to some Christian church, and are devoting a large share of
their time and means to the work of bringing in their old companions to
share this great salvation. When, in our visits among their families, we
hear of those who formerly spent all their earnings at the saloon,
bringing nothing but distress and terror into their homes, now walking
the streets all day in search of work, without dinner themselves,
because the 'wife and children need what little there is in the house;'
and another, not only denying himself a reasonable share of the scanty
food, but nursing a sick wife and taking entire care of the children and
house, hastening out, when relieved awhile by a kindly neighbor, to do
'_anything_ to bring in a little money'--when we see changes like these,
accompanied by patience and cheerfulness, and a growing sense of
personal responsibility, we thankfully accept them as proofs of the
genuineness of the work and hopefully look for its continuance."
TOUCHING INCIDENTS.
In a previous report, speaking of the visits made to the families of
inmates, she says: "In no case has a visit ever been received without
expression of absolute pleasure, and especially gratitude, for 'what the
Home has done for me and mine.'
"Although, unhappily, there are instances of men having, through stress
of temptation, violated their pledges, it is believed that not one case
has occurred of a family, once brought together through the influence of
the Home, again being separated by the return to intemperance of the
husband and father, and the results of their faithfulness are to be seen
in the growing comfort and happiness of those dependent on them.
"An aged mother, not only bowed down with the weight of seventy years,
but heart-sick with the 'hope deferred' of ever finding her intemperate
son, heard of him at last, as rescued by the Home; and, being brought to
the Sunday and evening services, met him there, 'clothed and in his
right mind.' The tears streamed down her face, as she said: 'That man is
forty years old, and I've been a widow ever since he was a baby, and
I've wept over him often and often, and _to-day_ I've shed tears enough
to bathe him from head to foot, but, oh! thank the Lord! _these_ are
such _happy_ tears!'
"Said one wife: 'Some days, these hard times, we have enough to eat, and
some days we don't; but _all_ the time I'm just as happy as I can be!
"'I wish you could see my children run, laughing, to the door when their
father comes home. Oh! he is _another_ man from what he was a year ago;
he is so happy at home with us now, and always so patient and kind!
"'Do tell us if there isn't something;--if it is ever so little--that we
women can do for the Home; we _never_ can forget what it has done for
us!'
"Such words, heard again and again with every variety of expression,
attests the sincerity of those who, in widely differing circumstances,
perhaps, have yet this common bond, that through this instrumentality,
they are rejoicing over a husband, a father, a son, 'which was dead, and
is alive--was lost, and is found.'
"Surely, such proof of the intrinsic worth of a work like this, is
beyond all expression--full of comfort and encouragement to persevere."
Again: "Through their instrumentality families long alienated and
separated have been happily brought together. This branch of the ladies'
work has been peculiarly blest; and their reward is rich in witnessing
not only homes made happier through their labors, but hearts so melted
by their personal kindness, and by the Gospel message which they carry,
that husbands and wives, convicted of the sinfulness of their neglect of
the great salvation, come forward to declare themselves soldiers of the
cross, and unite with the Christian church."
THE TESTIMONY OF INMATES.
As the value of this and similar institutions is best seen in what they
have done and are doing, we give two extracts from letters received from
men who have been reformed through the agency of the "Home" in
Philadelphia. In the first, the writer says:
"It has now been nearly two years since I left the Franklin Home. I had
been a drinking man ten years, and it got such a hold on me that I could
not resist taking it. I had tried a number of times to reform, and at
one time, was in the Dashaway's Home, in California, where they steep
everything in liquor, but when I came out I still had the desire to
drink, and only kept from it for nine months. I again commenced, and
kept sinking lower and lower, till I lost my friends, and felt there was
no hope for me. On the 31st day of May, 1873, I came to the Franklin
Home, and have never tasted intoxicating liquor since, which is the
longest time I was ever without it since I commenced to drink. I feel
now that I will never drink again, as I do not associate with drinking
men, or go to places where liquor is sold. It was so different at the
Home from anything I had ever met or heard of, that I went away with
more strength to resist than ever before. When I came to the Home I
could not get a position in Philadelphia, nobody having confidence in
me. Since then I have been engaged as foreman in a manufacturing
establishment, by the very man that had discharged me several times for
drinking, and have been with him a year. I feel more happy and contented
now than any time in ten years past, and if I had a friend who I found
this was taking hold of, I would bring him to the Home, for I believe
any one that is sincere can be reformed, and I would recommend any man
that needs and desires to reform to go to the Home, as I did."
AFTER FIVE YEARS.
Writing to Mr. Samuel P. Godwin, President of the Franklin Home, an old
inmate, five years after his reformation, says: "I received your kind
letter and recognized in it the challenge of the ever-watchful sentinel,
'How goes the night, brother?' I answer back, 'All is well.' I am
delighted to hear of the continued success of 'my second mother,' the
Home, and the Association, my brothers; and I thank God, who is
encouraging you all in your efforts for fallen men, by showing you the
ripening fruits of your labor--efforts and labors that are inspired by a
love of God that enables you to see in every fallen man the soul made
like unto _His_ own image. The Home and all its workers, its principles,
the endless and untiring efforts made, challenge the wonder and
admiration of every Christian heart. Its grand results will admit of but
one explanation, that 'It is God's work.' We, the reclaimed, can never
give expression to the grateful emotions of our hearts. We can only let
our lives be its best eulogy. We hope to vindicate in the future, as we
have in the past, (by adhering to its principles) the great Christian
truth, the grace of God is all-powerful, all-saving. _Oh! what has not
the Home done for us all!_ It sought us amid temptations, misery and
sorrow, and took us into its warm and fond embrace, clearing away the
debris that intemperance and misfortune had piled up, tearing down all
false theories of disease and seizing our convictions. It reached down
into our hearts by its admirable practical mode of imparting its
principles, impressing all its lessons with the examples of living,
active men, who, through its aid, accepting its teachings and practicing
them, have become reformed men--in a word, conquerors of self. By its
love, fostering care and ever-watchful solicitude for us, it has
awakened the lessons of love and faith learned at a dear mother's knee
in childhood, which, if forgotten for a time, were never entirely dead,
and required but just such an influence to warm them into life. It
enables me to say to you now, at the end of five years, I have been a
total abstinence man for that time, and by and with the help of God, I
will die that."
But enough has been educed to show the importance of this and other
"Homes" for the recovery of inebriates, and to direct public attention
to their great value. Those already established should be liberally
sustained by the communities in which they are located, and similar
institutions should be organised and put in operation in all the larger
cities of the Union. Thousands of outcast, helpless, perishing men, who,
but for the fatal habits they have acquired, would be good and useful
citizens, might, if this were done, be every year restored to
themselves, their families and to society. If we cannot, as yet, stay
the curse that is upon our land, let us do all in our power to heal what
has been hurt, and to restore what has been lost.
In every truly reformed man, the temperance cause gains a new and
valuable recruit. The great army that is to do successful battle with
the destroying enemy that is abroad in the land, will come chiefly from
the ranks of those who have felt the crush of his iron heel. So we gain
strength with every prisoner that is rescued from the enemy; for every
such rescued man will hate this enemy with an undying hatred, and so
long as he maintains his integrity, stand fronting him in the field.
Dr. Harris, the attending physician of the "Franklin Reformatory Home,"
whose long experience and careful observation enable him to speak
intelligently as to the causes which lead to relapses among reformed
men, has kindly furnished us with the following suggestions as to the
dangers that beset their way. The doctor has done a good service in
this. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. We are also indebted to him
for the chapter on "Tobacco as an Incitant to the Use of Alcoholic
Stimulant," which immediately follows this one, and which was especially
prepared by him for the present volume.
DANGERS THAT BESET THE REFORMED INEBRIATE.
BY DR. R.P. HARRIS.
_"Come, take a drink."_--How pernicious is this treating generosity of
the inebriate, and how important to the reformed to be firm in declining
his invitation. To hesitate, is, in most cases, to yield.
_Old companions._--These should be avoided, and made to understand that
their company is not congenial; and new and safe ones should be
selected.
_Attacks of sickness._--A quondam inebriate should never employ a
physician who drinks, and should always tell his medical attendant that
he cannot take any medicine containing alcohol. It is very unsafe to
resort to essence of ginger, paregoric, spirits of lavender or burnt
brandy, and friends very injudiciously, sometimes, recommend remedies
that are dangerous in the extreme. We saw one man driven into insanity
by his employer recommending him a preparation of rhubarb, in Jamaica
spirits, which he took with many misgivings, because, six years before
he had been a drunkard. The old appetite was revived in full force at
once. Diarrhoea can be much better treated without tinctures and
essences than with them, as proved by the large experience of the
Franklin Home, where they are never prescribed.
_Bad company of either sex._--Remember what is said of the strange woman
in Proverbs v., 3-12; and the advice given in the first Psalm. Lust has
driven to drunkenness and death many a promising case of reform.
_Entering a tavern._--It is never safe to buy a cigar, take a glass of
lemonade, eat a plate of oysters or even drink water at a bar where
liquors are sold. The temptation, and revival of old associations, are
too much for weak human nature to withstand.
_Politics, military organizations, etc._--Many a man has been made a
drunkard by the war, or by becoming an active politician. Associations
of men leading to excitement of any kind stimulate them to invite each
other to drink as a social custom. Former inebriates should avoid all
forms of excitement. Said a former politician, who has not drank for
five years: "If I was to go back to politics, and allow matters to take
their natural course, I should soon drift again into drunkenness."
"_Idleness_," says the French proverb, "is the mother of all vices;"
hence the advantage and importance of being actively employed.
_Working in communities._--There are no men more inclined to drunkenness
than shoemakers, hatters and those in machine shops. Shoemakers are
especially difficult to reform, as they incite each other to drink, and
club together and send out for beer or whisky.
_Use of excessive quantities of pepper, mustard and horse-radish._--No
person can use biting condiments to the same degree as drunkards; and
reformed men must largely moderate their allowance, if they expect to
keep their appetite under for something stronger. Tavern-keepers
understand that salt and peppery articles, furnished gratis for lunch,
will pay back principal and profit in the amount they induce men to
drink.
_Loss of money or death in the family._--These are among the most severe
of all the trials to be encountered by the reformed drunkard. Hazardous
ventures in stocks or business are dangerous in the extreme. Without the
grace of God in the heart, and the strength that it gives in times of
depression of spirits under severe trial, there are few reformed men who
can bear, with any safety, the loss of a wife or very dear child.
Thousands who have, for the time, abandoned the habit have returned to
it to drown, in unconsciousness, their feeling of loss; hence the great
and vital importance of an entire change of heart to enable a man to go
to his faith for consolation, and to look to God for help in times of
trial and temptation.
[Illustration: BOYHOOD.
The first Step.]
[Illustration: YOUTH.
The Second Step.]
[Illustration: MANHOOD.
A Confirmed Drunkard.]
[Illustration: OLD AGE.
A Total Wreck.]
CHAPTER X.
TOBACCO AS AN INCITANT TO THE USE OF ALCOHOLIC STIMULANTS, AND AN
OBSTACLE IN THE WAY OF A PERMANENT REFORMATION.
BY DR. R.P. HARRIS, PHYSICIAN OF THE "FRANKLIN REFORMATORY HOME."
When we consider the almost universal use of tobacco, especially in the
form of smoking, among our male population, it is not to be wondered at
that this powerful poison has come to be regarded as an innocent and
almost necessary vegetable production, not to be used as food exactly,
but greatly allied to it as an article of daily consumption. Few stop to
reason about its properties or effects; they remember, perhaps, how sick
they were made by the first chew or smoke, but this having long passed,
believe that as their systems have become accustomed, _apparently_, to
the poison, it cannot be doing them any real injury. When we reflect
that tobacco contains from one to nearly seven per cent, of
_nicotine_--one of the most powerful vegetable poisons known--a few
drops of which are sufficient to destroy life, it is not difficult to
perceive that this faith in the _innocence_ begotten of use must be
fallacious. We have met with instances where the poisonous effects of
tobacco were manifest after every smoke, even where the attempt to
accustom the system to its use had been persevered in for many years;
and yet the men never realized what was the matter with them, until they
had, under medical advice, ceased to use the drug.
Before the discovery of anæsthetics, tobacco was used as a remedy to
produce relaxation in cases of strangulated hernia; and although very
cautiously administered in the form of tea, or smoke per rectum, proved
fatal in many instances. As little as twelve grains in six ounces of
water having thus acted; and from half a drachm to two drachms in a
number of instances. When men chew as high as a pound and a quarter of
strong navy tobacco a week, or three packages of fine-cut in a day, it
must certainly tell upon them sooner or later; or even in much less
quantity.
If men used tobacco in moderation, there would be much less objection to
it, if it was not so intimately
ASSOCIATED WITH THE HABIT OF DRINKING.
This is recognized by the trade, in the fact that we see many tobacco
stores as the entrance to drinking saloons. Ninety-three per cent. of
the men who have been admitted to the Franklin Reformatory Home used
tobacco, and eighty per cent. of them chewed it. There may be possibly
as high as ninety-three per cent. of male adults who smoke, but eighty
per cent. of chewers is undoubtedly a large proportion as compared with
those in the same ranks of society who do not drink.
Although the poisonous symptoms of tobacco are, in a great degree, the
same in different persons at the inception of the habit, the effects
vary materially in after years according to the quantity and variety
used, the form employed and the habits and temperament of the user. One
man will chew a paper a week, another four, many use one a day, and a
few from one and a half to three a day, besides smoking. Occasionally,
but very rarely, we find a man who limits himself to one cigar a day, a
number allow themselves but three, but of later years even these are
moderate compared with those who use eight, ten or more.
There are many men who, for years, preserve a robust, hale appearance
under both tobacco and whisky, who are, notwithstanding their apparent
health, steadily laying the foundation of diseased heart, or
DERANGEMENT OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS
or nervous system from the former, or an organic fatal disease of the
liver or kidneys from the latter.
Healthy-looking men are often rejected by examiners of life insurance
companies because of irregular and intermittent action of the heart from
tobacco; and equally robust subjects are forced to abandon the habit
because of tremors, vertigo or a peculiar form of dyspepsia. We have
known men who died from the use of tobacco, and others who met a like
fate from whisky, who were never fully in the state denominated drunk.
Men may earn a hobnail liver and dropsy by the constant, steady use of
alcoholic drink taken systematically, so as always to keep within the
limits of intoxication; or they may, in the same way, get a diabetes or
Bright's disease.
Abundant testimony in regard to the effects of tobacco in creating an
appetite for strong drink has been given by the inmates of the Franklin
Home. In a few exceptional cases the use of tobacco does not appear to
create any sense of thirst; and this is specially the case with the
smokers who do not spit when smoking. Some men seem to be free from any
alcoholic craving when using tobacco, and say that when they commence to
drink they give up the drug for the time being. These are exceptional
cases, for excess in drinking generally leads to an excess in the use of
tobacco, often to double the amount ordinarily employed. We have often
been told by moderate drinkers, that they frequently
FELT A DESIRE FOR A LITTLE WHISKY AFTER A SMOKE,
and they have confessed that they were only saved from a habit of
drinking to excess by the fact that they had no innate fondness for
alcoholic stimulation. Unfortunately, there is a large and increasing
class of men who, finding that water does not, but that alcohol does,
relieve the dryness of throat and diseased thirst resulting from
tobacco, are led, little by little, into the habit of using whisky to
excess. Such men, after, it may be, a long abstinence, are not
unfrequently led back into their old habits by an attack of nervousness,
resulting from a temporary excessive use of tobacco, and a feeling that
all that is wanting to relieve this is a glass of whisky, which being
taken, at once determines a debauch of long or short duration, according
to the habits and character of the party. Many a _so-called periodical
drinker_ fixes the return of his period by an act of this kind, and with
such cases it is all-important to their permanent reformation, that they
should cease entirely and forever from the use of tobacco. We have, in a
few instances, prevailed upon men to do this, but in a large majority of
cases, where they have admitted the connection between the two habits,
in their own person, or volunteered to tell how much tobacco had acted
in forming and keeping up their appetite for whisky, they have failed in
being able to sum up sufficient resolution to abandon the use of the
drug, saying that they felt the importance of the step, and would be
glad to be able to give it up, but that the habit was
TEN TIMES AS DIFFICULT TO CONQUER AS THAT OF WHISKY-DRINKING.
All that we have been able to accomplish in such cases has been to check
the excessive use. We have repeatedly assured men, after a careful
examination of their peculiar cases, that they would certainly drink
again unless they gave up their tobacco, and have seen this opinion
verified, because they took no heed to the warning. We have also been
gratified in a few instances by hearing a man say that he felt confident
that he could never have accomplished his reformation as he had done, if
he had not taken the advice given him about abandoning his tobacco. In
contrast with the men of weak purpose, we have to admire one who had
resolution enough to break off the three habits of opium-eating,
whisky-drinking and tobacco-chewing--no trifling matter--when the first
was of ten and the last of more than thirty years' duration.
We have been repeatedly asked which was the most injurious, smoking or
chewing, and have replied, that everything depended upon the amount of
nicotine absorbed in the process, and the loss to the system in the
saliva spit out. Men have died from the direct effect of excessive
smoking, and quite recently a death in a child was reported from the
result of blowing soap-bubbles with an old wooden pipe. We have known a
little boy to vomit from drawing air a few times through the empty
meerschaum pipe of his German teacher. The smoking of two pipes as the
first essay, very nearly caused the death of a young man, whose case was
reported by Dr. Marshall Hall.
The least poisonous tobaccos are those of Syria and Turkey, but the
cigarettes made of them in the East and imported into this country are
said to be impregnated with opium. Virginia tobacco, for the pipe or
chewing, contains a large percentage of nicotine, and the former is
often impregnated with foreign matters, recognizable by the choking
effect of the smoke when inhaled, or by the removal of the epithelium
(outer skin) of the tongue at the point under the end of the pipe-stem.
If we fail in our efforts to reform the tobacco habit, the next best
thing to do, is to show men what the nature and capabilities of the
poison are, and endeavor to persuade them to use the milder varieties
and in a moderate quantity.
ONE OF THE GREAT CURSES OF THE RISING GENERATION
is the passion for imitating and acquiring the evil habits of men, under
an impression that it hastens their approach to manhood. Weak, frail,
delicate boys, with inherited tendencies to disease, who should, by all
means, never use tobacco, or anything injurious, are often as
obstinately bent upon learning to smoke, in spite of medical advice, as
those in whom a moderate use would be far less objectionable. A recent
observer, in examining into the cases of thirty-eight boys who had
formed the habit of using tobacco, found that twenty-seven of them had
also a fondness for alcoholic stimulants. A large proportion of the
Franklin Home inmates attribute their habit of drinking to the effects
of company; many commenced in the army, and many were induced to drink
at first by invitation. If smoking was a solitary habit, it would be
less likely to lead to drinking; but the same companionship, and habits
of treating prevail, as in the saloon, and the step from the _estaminet_
to the bar-room under invitation, is an easy one, where the diseased
thirst, so often induced by tobacco, favors the movement to treat.
We have no prejudice against tobacco, other than what would naturally
arise in the mind from a careful examination of the effects of the
poison in hundreds of cases. We have seen large, hale-looking men forced
in time to abandon, although very reluctantly, the use of tobacco in
every form; and the most bitter enemy we have ever met to the _vile
weed_ as he termed it, was a physician, who had been forced to give up
chewing on account of the state of his heart, after years of indulgence.
We have seen many such instances, and, in one case, the abandonment of
the habit entirely cured a dyspepsia of twenty-eight years' standing.
CHAPTER XI.
THE WOMAN'S CRUSADE.
For every one saved through the agency of inebriate asylums and
reformatory homes, hundreds are lost and hundreds added yearly to the
great army of drunkards. Good and useful as such institutions are, they
do not meet the desperate exigencies of the case. Something of wider
reach and quicker application is demanded. What shall it be? In
prohibition many look for the means by which the curse of drunkenness is
to be abated. But, while we wait for a public sentiment strong enough to
determine legislation, sixty thousand unhappy beings are yearly
consigned to drunkards' graves.
What have temperance men accomplished in the fifty years during which
they have so earnestly opposed the drinking usages of society and the
traffic in alcoholic drinks? And what have they done for the prevention
and cure of drunkenness? In limiting the use of intoxicants, in
restricting the liquor traffic and in giving a right direction to public
sentiment, they have done a great and good work; but their efforts to
reclaim the fallen drunkard have met with sad discouragements. In the
work of prevention, much has been accomplished; in the work of cure,
alas! how little. The appetite once formed, and the unhappy victim finds
himself under the control of a power from which he can rarely get free.
Pledges, new associations, better and more favorable surroundings, all
are tried, and many are saved; but the number of the saved are few in
comparison with those who, after a season of sobriety, fall back into
their old ways.
In all these many years of untiring efforts to lift up and save the
fallen, what sad disappointments have met our earnest and devoted
temperance workers. From how many fields, which seemed full of a rich
promise, have they gathered only a meagre harvest. But still they have
worked on, gaining strength from defeat and disappointment; for they
knew that the cause in which they were engaged was the cause of God and
humanity, and that in the end it must prevail.
Meantime, the bitter, half-despairing cry, "O Lord, how long!" was going
up from the lips of brokenhearted wives and mothers all over the land,
and year by year this cry grew deeper and more desperate. All hope in
man was failing from their hearts. They saw restrictive legislation here
and there, and even prohibition; but, except in a few cases, no removal
of the curse; for behind law, usage, prejudice, interest and appetite
the traffic stood intrenched and held its seat of power.
At last, in the waning years of the first century of our nation's
existence, their failing hope in man died utterly, and with another and
deeper and more despairing cry, the women of our land sent up their
voices to God. Not now saying "O Lord, how long!" but "Lord, come to our
help against the mighty!"
What followed is history. The first result of this utter abandonment of
all hope in moral suasion or legal force, and of a turning to God in
prayer and faith, was that strange, intense, impulsive movement known as
the "Woman's Crusade."
BEGINNING OF THE CRUSADE.
Let us briefly give the story of its initiation late in the month of
December, 1873. Dr. Dio Lewis, in a lecture which he had been engaged to
deliver at Hillsboro, Ohio, related how, forty years before, his pious
mother, the wife of a drunkard, who was struggling to feed, clothe and
educate her five helpless children, went, with other women who had a
similar sorrow with her own, to the tavern-keeper who sold their
husbands drink, and, kneeling down in his bar-room, prayed with and for
him, and besought him to abandon a business that was cursing his
neighbors and bringing want and suffering into their homes. Their
prayers and entreaties prevailed. After telling this story of his
mother, the lecturer asked all the women present who were willing to
follow her example to rise, and in response, nearly the entire audience
arose. A meeting was then called for the next morning, to be held in the
Presbyterian church.
Dr. Lewis was a guest at the old mansion of Ex-Governor Trimble, father
of Mrs. E.J. Thompson, a most cultivated, devoted Christian woman,
mother of eight children. She was not present at the lecture, but
"prepared," as she writes, "as those who watch for the morning, for the
first gray light upon this dark night of sorrow. Few comments were made
in our house," she continues, "upon this new line of policy until after
breakfast the next morning, when, just as we gathered about the
hearth-stone, my daughter Mary said, very gently: 'Mother, will you go
the meeting this morning?' Hesitatingly I replied: 'I don't know yet
what I shall do.' My husband, fully appreciating the responsibility of
the moment, said: 'Children, let us leave your mother alone; for you
know where she goes with all vexed questions;' and pointing to the old
family Bible, left the room. The awful responsibility of the step that I
must needs next take was wonderfully relieved by thought of the 'cloudy
pillar' and 'parted waters' of the past; hence, with confidence, I was
about turning my eye of faith 'up to the hills,' from whence had come
my help, when, in response to a gentle tap at my door, I met my dear
Mary, who, with her Bible in hand and tearful eyes, said: 'Mother, I
opened to Psalm cxlvi., and I believe it is for you.' She withdrew and I
sat down to read the wonderful message from God. As I read what I had so
often read before, the Spirit so strangely 'took of the things of God,'
and showed me new meanings, I no longer hesitated, but, in the strength
thus imparted, started to the scene of action.
"Upon entering the church, I was startled to find myself chosen as
leader. The old Bible was taken down from the desk, and Psalm cxlvi.
read. Mrs. General McDowell, by request, led in prayer, and, although
she had never before heard her own voice in a public prayer, on this
occasion 'the tongue of fire' sat upon her, and all were deeply
affected. Mrs. Cowden, our Methodist minister's wife, was then requested
to sing to a familiar air--
"'Give to the winds thy fears!
Hope, and be undismayed;
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears:
He will lift up thy head.'
"And while thus engaged, the women (seventy-five in number) fell in line,
two and two, and proceeded first to the drug stores and then to the
hotels and saloons."
Thus began this memorable Crusade, which was maintained in Hillsboro for
over six months, during which time the saloons were visited almost
daily.
Within two days, the women of Washington Court-House, a neighboring
town, felt the inspiration of their sisters, and inaugurated the
movement there. A description of what was done at this place will afford
the reader a clear impression of the way in which the "Crusaders"
worked, and the results that followed their efforts. We quote from the
account given by Mrs. M.V. Ustick:
"After an hour of prayer, forty-four women filed slowly and solemnly
down the aisle and started forth upon their strange mission, with fear
and trembling, while the male portion of the audience remained at church
to pray from the success of this new undertaking; the tolling of the
church-bell keeping time to the solemn march of the women, as they
wended their way to the first drug store on the list (the number of
places within the city limits where intoxicating drinks were sold was
fourteen--eleven saloons and three drug stores). Here, as in every
place, they entered singing, every woman taking up the sacred strain as
she crossed the threshold. This was followed by the reading of the
appeal and prayer, and then earnest pleading to desist from their
soul-destroying traffic and to sign the dealers' pledge. Thus, all the
day long, going from place to place, without stopping even for dinner or
lunch, till five o'clock, meeting with no marked success; but invariably
courtesy was extended to them.
"The next day an increased number of women went forth, leaving the men
in the church to pray all day long. On this day the contest really
began, and at the first place the doors were found locked. With hearts
full of compassion, the women knelt in the snow upon the pavement to
plead for the Divine influence upon the heart of the liquor-dealer, and
there held their first street prayer-meeting. The Sabbath was devoted to
a union mass-meeting. Monday, December 29th, is one long to be
remembered in Washington as the day on which occurred the first
surrender ever made by a liquor-dealer of his stock of liquors of every
kind and variety to the women, in answer to their prayers and
entreaties, and by them poured into the street. Nearly a thousand men,
women and children witnessed the mingling of beer, ale, wine and whisky,
as they filled the gutters and were drunk up by the earth, while bells
were ringing, men and boys shouting, and women singing and praying to
God, who had given the victory.
"On the fourth day, the campaign reached its height; the town being
filled with visitors from all parts of the country and adjoining
villages. Another public surrender and another pouring into the street
of a larger stock of liquors than on the day before, and more intense
excitement and enthusiasm. In eight days all the saloons, eleven in
number, had been closed, and the three drug stores pledged to sell only
on prescription.
"Early in the third week the discouraging intelligence came that a new
man had taken out license to sell liquor in one of the deserted saloons,
and that he was backed by a whisky house in Cincinnati to the amount of
five thousand dollars to break down this movement. On Wednesday, 14th of
January, the whisky was unloaded at his room. About forty women were on
the ground and followed the liquor in, and remained holding an
uninterrupted prayer-meeting all day and until eleven o'clock at night.
The next day--bitterly cold--was spent in the same place and manner,
without fire or chairs, two hours of that time the women being locked
in, while the proprietor was off attending a trial. On the following
day, the coldest of the winter of 1874, the women were locked out, and
remained on the street holding religious services all day long. Next
morning a tabernacle was built in the street just in front of the house,
and was occupied for the double purpose of watching and praying through
the day; but before night the sheriff closed the saloon, and the
proprietor surrendered. A short time afterwards, on a dying bed, this
four-day's liquor-dealer sent for some of these women, telling them
their songs and prayers had never ceased to ring in his ears, and urging
them to pray again in his behalf; so he passed away."
From this beginning the new temperance movement increased and spread
with a marvelous rapidity. The incidents attendant on the progress of
the "Crusade" were often of a novel and exciting character. Such an
interference with their business was not to be tolerated by the liquor
men; and they soon began to organize for defense and retaliation. They
not only had the law on their side, but in many cases, the
administrators of the law. Yet it often happened, in consequence of
their reckless violations of statutes made to limit and regulate the
traffic, that dealers found themselves without standing in the courts,
or entangled in the meshes of the very laws they had invoked for
protection.
In the smaller towns the movement was, for a time, almost irresistible;
and in many of them the drink traffic ceased altogether. But when it
struck the larger cities, it met with impediments, against which it beat
violently for awhile, but without the force to bear them down. Our space
will not permit us to more than glance at some of the incidents
attendant on this singular crusade. The excitement that followed its
inauguration in the large city of Cleveland was intense. It is thus
described by Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton in her history of the Woman's Crusade,
to which we have already referred:
HOW THE CRUSADERS WERE TREATED.
"The question was constantly asked: 'Will the women of a conservative
city of one hundred and fifty thousand go upon the street as a
praying-band?' The liquor-dealers said: 'Send committees of two or three
and we will talk with them; but coming in a body to pray with us brands
our business as disreputable.' The time came when the Master seemed to
call for a mightier power to bear upon the liquor traffic, and a company
of heroic women, many of them the wives of prominent clergymen, led by
Mrs. W.A. Ingham, said: 'Here am I; the Lord's will be done.'
"On the third day of the street work, the whisky and beer interest
seemed to have awakened to a full consciousness of the situation.
Drinkers, dealers and roughs gathered in large numbers on the street to
wait for the praying women. A mob, headed by an organization of brewers,
rushed upon them, kicking them, striking them with their fists and
hitting them with brickbats. The women were locked in a store away from
the infuriated mob, who, on the arrival of a stronger body of police,
were dispersed, cursing and yelling as they went. The next day, taking
their lives in their hands, a larger company of women went out, and
somewhat similar scenes were enacted. Meantime, public meetings, called
in the churches, were so crowded that standing room could not be found.
The clergy, as one man, came to the front. Business men left their
stores and shops, ministers their studies, and a thousand manly men went
out to defend the praying women. The military companies were ordered to
be in readiness, resting on their arms; the police force was increased,
and the liquor interest soon made to feel that the city was not under
its control. The mob never again tried its power. For three months, with
scarcely a day's exception, the praying-bands, sometimes with twenty in
each, working in various parts of the city; sometimes with five hundred,
quietly and silently, two by two, forming a procession over a quarter of
a mile in length, followed by scores in carriages, who could not bear
the long walks, went from saloon to saloon, holding services where the
proprietors were willing, and in warehouses which were thrown open to
them, or in vacant lots near by, when they were unwilling. Men took off
their hats, and often wept as the long procession went by. Little
children gathered close to the singers, and catching the words, sang
them months afterwards in their dingy hovels. Haggard women bent their
heads as they murmured with unutterable sadness, 'You've come too late
to save my boy or my husband.' Many saloon-keepers gave up their
business and never resumed it. Many who had lost all hope because of the
appetite which bound them, heard from woman's lips the glad tidings of
freedom in Christ, and accepted the liberty of the Gospel."
In many other places the crusaders met with violence from exasperated
liquor-dealers and their brutish associates. A pail of cold water was
thrown into the face of a woman in Clyde, Ohio, as she knelt praying in
front of a saloon. Dirty water was thrown by pailfuls over the women at
Norwalk. At Columbus, a saloon-keeper assaulted one of the praying-band,
injuring her seriously. In Cincinnati, forty-three women were arrested
by the authorities for praying in the street and lodged in jail. In
Bellefontaine, a large liquor-dealer declared that if the praying-band
visited him he would use powder and lead; but the women, undeterred by
his threat, sang and prayed in front of his saloon every day for a week,
in spite of the insults and noisy interferences of himself and
customers. At the end of that time the man made his appearance at a
mass-meeting and signed the pledge; and on the following Sunday
attended church for the first time in five years.
DECLINE OF THE CRUSADING SPIRIT.
From Ohio the excitement soon spread to other Western States, and then
passed east and south, until it was felt in nearly every State in the
Union; but it did not gain force by extension. To the sober,
second-thought of those who had, in singleness of heart,
self-consecration and trust in God, thrown themselves into this work
because they believed that they were drawn of the Spirit, came the
perception of other, better and more orderly ways of accomplishing the
good they sought. If God were, indeed, with them--if it was His Divine
work of saving human souls upon which they had entered, He would lead
them into the right ways, if they were but willing to walk therein. Of
this there came to them a deep assurance; and in the great calm that
fell after the rush and excitement and wild confusion of that first
movement against the enemy, they heard the voice of God calling to them
still. And, as they hearkened, waiting to be led, and willing to obey,
light came, and they saw more clearly. Not by swift, impetuous impulse,
but through organization and slow progression was the victory to be won.
In the language of Frances E. Willard, in her history of "The Woman's
National Christian Temperance Union," to be found in the Centennial
temperance volume: "The women who went forth by an impulse sudden,
irresistible, divine, to pray in the saloons, became convinced, as weeks
and months passed by, that theirs was to be no easily-won victory. The
enemy was rich beyond their power to comprehend. He had upon his side
the majesty of the law, the trickery of politics and the leagued
strength of that almost invincible pair--appetite, avarice. He was
persistent, too, as fate; determined to fight it out on that line to the
last dollar of his enormous treasure-house and the last ounce of his
power. But these women of the Crusade believed in God, and in themselves
as among His appointed instruments to destroy the rum-power in America.
They loved Christ's cause; they loved the native land that had been so
mindful of them; they loved their sweet and sacred homes; and so it came
about that, though, they had gone forth only as skirmishers, they soon
fell into line of battle; though they had ignorantly hoped to take the
enemy by a sudden assault, they buckled on the armor for the long
campaign. The woman's praying-bands, earnest, impetuous, inspired,
became the woman's temperance unions, firm, patient, persevering. The
praying-bands were without leadership, save that which inevitably
results from 'the survival of the fittest;' the woman's unions are
regularly officered in the usual way. They first wrought their grand
pioneer work in sublime indifference to prescribed forms of
procedure--'so say we all of us' being the spirit of 'motions' often
made, seconded and carried by the chair, while the assembled women
nodded their earnest acquiescence; the second are possessed of good,
strong constitutions (with by-laws annexed), and follow the order of
business with a dutiful regard to parliamentary usage. In the first,
women who had never lifted up their voices in their own church
prayer-meetings stood before thousands and 'spoke as they were moved;'
in the second, these same women with added experience, and a host of
others who have since enlisted, impress the public thought and
conscience by utterances carefully considered. The praying-bands, hoping
for immediate victory, pressed their members into incessant service; the
woman's unions, aware that the battle is to be a long one, ask only for
such help as can be given consistently with other duties."
As the result of this intelligent effort at effective organization by
the women who inaugurated and were prominent in the "Crusade," we have
"The Woman's National Christian Temperance Union," with its auxiliary
and local unions in nearly every State; one of the most efficient
agencies in the practical work of temperance reform which the country
has yet seen.
CHAPTER XII.
THE WOMAN'S NATIONAL CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION.
During the summer of 1874, when the reaction which had checked the
"Crusade" was recognized as something permanent by the more thoughtful
and observant of the women who had been engaged in it, they paused for
deliberation, and took counsel together. Great victories had been won in
the brief season during which they were masters of the field; and now
that the enemy had rallied his forces, and intrenched himself behind
law, public opinion, politics and the State, should they weakly give up
the contest? Not so. They had discovered wherein the weakness, as well
as the strength, of their enemy lay, and had come into a new perception
of their own powers and resources.
ORGANIZATION.
The first step taken was to call conventions in the various States where
the Crusade had been active. These were attended by delegates chosen by
the local praying-bands. The result was the organization, in some of the
States, of what were known as "Temperance Leagues." Afterwards the word
"Unions" was substituted for Leagues. Having organized by States, the
next thing was to have a National Union. In August of that year, the
first National Sunday-School Assembly was held at Chautauqua Lake, near
Buffalo, New York. Many of the most earnest workers in the temperance
Crusade, from different parts of the United States, and from the various
denominations of Christians, were present, and the conviction was
general that steps should at once be taken towards forming a National
League, in order to make permanent the work that had already been done.
After much deliberation, a committee of organization was appointed,
consisting of a woman from each State. This committee issued a circular
letter, asking the various Woman's Temperance Leagues to hold meetings,
for the purpose of electing one woman from each Congressional district
as a delegate to a National Convention, to be held in November, at
Cleveland, Ohio. A single paragraph from this circular will show the
spirit that animated the call.
"It is hardly necessary to remind those who have worked so nobly in the
grand temperance uprising that in union and organization are its success
and permanence, and the consequent redemption of this land from the
curse of intemperance. In the name of our Master--in behalf of the
thousands of women who suffer from this terrible evil, we call upon all
to unite in an earnest, continued effort to hold the ground already
won, and move onward together to a complete victory over the foes we
fight."
Delegates representing sixteen States were present at the convention,
which held its first session in Cleveland, commencing on the 18th of
November, 1874, and lasting for three days. Prominent among its members
were active leaders of the Crusade, but, besides these, says Miss
Willard, "there were present many thoughtful and gifted women, whose
hearts had been stirred by the great movement, though until now they had
lacked the opportunity to identify themselves with it. Mrs. Jennie F.
Willing presided over the convention, which was one of the most earnest
and enthusiastic ever held. A constitution was adopted, also a plan of
organization intended to reach every hamlet, town and city in the land.
There was a declaration of principles, of which Christianity alone could
have furnished the animus. An appeal to the women of our country was
provided for; another to the girls of America; a third to lands beyond
the sea; a memorial to Congress was ordered, and a deputation to carry
it appointed; a National temperance paper, to be edited and published by
women, was agreed upon, also a financial plan, asking for a cent a week
from members; and last, not least, was appointed a special committee on
temperance work among the children. Four large mass-meetings were held
during the convention, all of them addressed by women. Mrs. Annie
Wittenmyer, of Philadelphia, was elected president; Miss Frances E.
Willard, of Chicago, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Mary C. Johnson, of
Brooklyn, recording secretary; Mrs. Mary A. Ingham, of Cleveland,
treasurer, with one vice-president from each State represented in the
convention."
The spirit of this assembly of workers is shown in the closing
resolution, which it adopted unanimously:
"_Resolved_, That, recognizing the fact that our cause is, and is
to be, combated by mighty, determined and relentless forces, we
will, trusting in Him who is the Prince of Peace, meet argument
with argument, misjudgment with patience, denunciation with
kindness, and all our difficulties and dangers with prayer."
FIRST YEAR'S WORK.
During the first year six State organizations were added to the number
represented in the beginning, including scores of local unions. A
monthly paper was established; a deputation of women sent to Congress
with a memorial, to which hundreds of thousands of signatures had been
obtained, asking for inquiry and legislation in regard to the liquor
traffic; a manual of "Hints and Helps," concerning methods of temperance
work, prepared and issued; and other agencies of reform, and for the
extermination of the liquor traffic, set in motion.
The reports from State Unions, made to the first annual meeting, held in
Cincinnati, November, 1875, were, in most cases, highly encouraging. In
Ohio, a large number of local unions were formed, nearly two hundred
friendly inns established, while reading-rooms, juvenile societies and
young people's leagues were reported as multiplying all over the State.
Indiana showed effective work in the same direction; so did Illinois. In
both of these States many local unions, reform clubs and juvenile
organizations came into existence, while the work of temperance
agitation was carried on with untiring vigor. Iowa reported fifty local
unions, eleven juvenile societies, seven reform clubs and six
coffee-houses and reading-rooms. But, how better can we sum up the
results of this year's work, and how better give a clear idea of the new
forces which were coming into the field under the leadership of women,
than by giving an extract from the first annual report of the
corresponding secretary, Miss Frances E. Willard:
"Briefly to recapitulate, bringing out salient features, Maine has
given, since the Crusade, the idea of the temperance camp-meeting,
which, though not original with us, has been rendered effective largely
through the efforts of our own workers. Connecticut influences
elections, has availed itself of petitions and given us the best form on
record. New York has kept alive the visitation of saloons, and proved,
what may we never forget, that this is always practicable, if conducted
wisely. In the relief and rescue branches of our work, the Empire State
is perhaps without a rival. The women of Pennsylvania have bearded the
gubernatorial lion in his den, and the Hartranft veto had the added sin
of women's prayers and tears denied. Maryland and the District of
Columbia prove that the North must look to her laurels when the South is
free to enter on our work. As for Ohio, as Daniel Webster said of the
old Bay State, 'There she stands; look at her!'--foremost among leaders
in the new Crusade. Michigan is working bravely amid discouragements.
Illinois has given us the most promising phase of our juvenile work, and
leads off in reform clubs. Our best organized States are Ohio, Indiana,
New York, Pennsylvania and Iowa. By reason of their multiplied
conventions of State, district and county, their numerous auxiliaries,
their petitions and their juvenile work, Ohio and Indiana bear off the
palm, and stand as the banner States of our Union up to this time, each
of them having as many as two hundred and fifty auxiliaries.
"Our review develops the fact that of the forty-seven States and
Territories forming the United States, twenty-two States have formed
temperance unions auxiliary to the Woman's National Union. Of the
twenty-five not yet organized, twelve are Southern States and eight are
Territories; while of the remaining five, three are about to organize
State unions, and have already flourishing local unions. So, that,
without exaggeration, we may say we have fairly entered into the land to
possess it. To bring about this vast result of organization, and to
maintain it, there have been held (not to mention conventions of
districts and counties, the name of which is legion,) forty-five State
conventions of women, almost all within the last year.
"The number of written communications sent out during the year from our
Western office to women in every State in the Union, is nearly five
thousand. This is exclusive of 'documents,' which have gone by the
bushel from the Eastern and Western offices, and also of the incessant
correspondence of our president. Either president or secretary has
spoken in nearly every State in which our organization exists. During
the summer months, conventions, camp-meetings and local auxiliaries in
large numbers have been addressed by officers of our National and State
Unions in all of the Eastern and Middle and in many of the Western
States. Noteworthy in our history for the year, is the monster petition
circulated in nearly every State, presented to Congress on our behalf by
Senator Morton, of Indiana, and defended in an eloquent speech before
the Finance Committee by our president."
THE SECOND YEAR'S WORK.
The second annual meeting of the "Woman's National Christian Temperance
Union" was held in Newark, N.J., in October, 1876. From the reports made
to this meeting, we take the following interesting statements, showing
how actively the work, for which this great National Association was
organized, has been prosecuted.
Twenty-two State unions were represented at this meeting, and local
unions were reported as having been formed for the first time in
Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas, preparatory to State organizations.
An International Temperance Convention of women had been held in the
Academy of Music, Philadelphia, from which resulted an International
Woman's Temperance Union. A summary of the work of the year says:
"In almost every organized State, the request of our National Committee
that ministerial, medical and educational associations be asked to
declare their position in relation to temperance reform has been
complied with. In every instance, the ladies have been courteously
received, and in no case has the declaration of opinion been adverse,
and in many, most hopeful to our cause. The letter of Mrs. Wittenmyer to
the International Medical Convention recently held in Philadelphia,
secured the important declaration against alcohol made by that body.
"In February, our president, accompanied by Mrs. Mary R. Denman,
President of New Jersey W.T.U., made a trip to Kentucky, Tennessee and
Louisiana, in the endeavor to enlist our Southern sisters in the
temperance work. Large meetings were addressed and several local unions
organized.
"In the month, of May thirty-six temperance meetings were held in the
State of Ohio, by the corresponding secretary, who has also made a trip
through Michigan, and spoken in all the Eastern, Middle and several of
the Western States since the last meeting.
"Our recording secretary, Mrs. Mary C. Johnson, has visited Great
Britain, by invitation of Christian women there, for the purpose of
introducing our Gospel work. Going in the spirit of the Crusade, Mrs.
Johnson's labors have awakened an earnest spirit of inquiry and activity
among the thoughtful and comparatively leisure class. During her six
months' absence in England and Ireland, she addressed one hundred and
twenty-one audiences and conducted forty prayer-meetings.
"'Mother Stewart,' of Ohio, has also visited England and Scotland this
year, under the auspices of the Good Templars, and much good has
resulted from her labors.
"Our union has circulated the petition to Congress for a Commission of
Inquiry into the costs and results of the liquor traffic in America, and
to the Centennial Commissioners praying them not to allow the sale of
intoxicants on the Exposition grounds. The desired Commission of Inquiry
has been ordered by the Senate in response to the wish of the united
temperance societies of the land, but the subject did not come before
the House at the last session.
"Our paper has constantly increased in its hold upon the local unions,
whose devotion to its interests augurs well for its future success.
"The number of documents scattered among our auxiliaries cannot be
accurately stated, but is not less than twelve or fifteen thousand, and
the correspondence of the officers by letter and postal-card, will not
fall short of the same estimate. To correct misapprehensions, it should,
perhaps, be stated that no officer of the National Union has received a
dollar for services or traveling expenses during the year."
A WORKING ORGANIZATION.
To meet annually in convention and pass resolutions and make promises is
one thing; to do practical and effective work all through the year is
quite another. And it is just here that this new temperance organization
exhibits its power. The women whom it represents are very much in
earnest and mean work. What they resolve to do, if clearly seen to be in
the right direction, will hardly fail for lack of effort. In their plan
of work, one branch particularly embraces the children. If the rising
generation can not only be pledged to abstinence; but so carefully
instructed in regard to the sin and evil of intemperance, and their
duty, when they become men and women, to make war upon the liquor
traffic, and to discountenance all form of social drinking, then an
immense gain will be had for the cause in the next generation, when the
boys and girls of to-day will hold the ballots, make the laws, give
direction to public sentiment and determine the usages of society.
LOOKING AFTER THE CHILDREN.
To what extent, then, are the State and local unions looking after the
children? Writing, as we now are, before the third annual meeting of the
National Union, and, therefore, without a general report of the year's
work before us, we are unable to give a statement in full of the
important temperance work which has been done with and for the rising
generation. But, from official and other reliable sources of
information, we are in possession of facts of a most gratifying
character. In the State of Minnesota, as the result of woman's efforts,
they have had for several years a "Sunday-School Temperance League," and
their last annual report gives seventeen thousand as the number of
children already "pledged to abstain from all intoxicants as a
beverage." Says their report for 1877, "We have carried the work into
sixty-one new schools, held sixty-three anniversary meetings and
temperance concerts, instigated about one thousand addresses in the
Sunday-schools, secured six thousand six hundred and seventy-four
signers to our pledges, and one thousand and fifteen to our
constitution."
In most of the larger towns throughout the United States where active
local unions exist, juvenile unions, bands of hope or temperance
associations by some other name, have been formed among the children.
These have, in many cases, a large membership; often as high as from
five to six hundred. In Rockford, Ill., the juvenile union numbers over
eight hundred boys and as many girls. The pledge taken by these children
includes, in some localities, tobacco and profanity as well as
intoxicants.
THE WORK OF REFORM AND RESCUE.
In the work of reform and rescue, the State and local unions are very
active, especially in the larger towns and cities. In the smaller towns,
religious temperance meetings are held weekly, and in the larger cities,
daily, and sometimes twice a day. Chicago has as many as eighteen
meetings every week. In Chapters XIX. and XX. of the first part of this
volume, we have described at length, and from personal observation, the
way in which these temperance prayer-meetings are generally conducted,
and the means used for lifting up and saving the poor drunkard.
What are known as "Reform Clubs," have grown out of the efforts made of
these praying women, to hold in safety the men whom they have been able
to rescue. These clubs are numerous in New England and the Western
States, and have a large membership, which is composed exclusively of
reformed men. The common platform upon which they all stand is: 1. Total
abstinence. 2. Reliance upon God's help in all things. 3. Missionary
work to induce others to sign the pledge. In Newark, N.J., there is a
club with a membership of over six hundred reformed men, nearly all of
whom have been rescued in the past three years, through the efforts of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of that city.
In an interview with Mrs. Wittenmyer, President of the National Union,
who had received reports of the third year's work from the various
unions, we learned that, after deducting from the returns all who were
known to have broken the pledge, ten thousand remained as the number
reported to have been saved during the year, and who were still standing
in the strength which God had given them. The larger part of these
rescued men had united themselves with the church, and were earnestly
endeavoring to lead Christian lives.
KEEPING ALIVE A SENTIMENT ADVERSE TO THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
Another and most important branch of the work of the "Woman's Christian
Temperance Union," is that of arousing, keeping alive and intensifying a
sentiment adverse to the liquor traffic. So long as the State and
National Governments give the sanction of law to this traffic, they find
their efforts to save the fallen, utterly unavailing in far too many
instances. In an appeal made by the women of the State Union to the
voters of Massachusetts, under date of August 15th, 1877, the curse of
this traffic is exhibited in words of solemn earnestness. The document
is strong and convincing, yet temperate and respectful. We copy it
entire as presenting arguments and considerations which every humane and
Christian voter in the land should lay deeply to heart:
"The Woman's Christian Temperance Union comes to you with a solemn and
earnest appeal.
"Our mission is the redemption of the Commonwealth from the curse of
intemperance. During the past year we have labored incessantly for this
end, and have expended nearly twenty thousand dollars in efforts to
rescue the perishing, and to educate public sentiment in favor of total
abstinence.
"In this work we have met numerous obstacles--the apathy of the people,
the inherited and depraved appetites of drunkards, and the perilous
social customs of the day, which are indorsed by the practice of many
otherwise excellent people. Worse than all these combined is the
influence of the licensed dram-shop. We can arouse the indifferent to
action; we can enkindle in the drunkard aspirations for a better life
than that of debauchery; we hope, in time, by constant agitation, to
change the social customs of the day. But against the influence of the
licensed dram-shop we are powerless. We have no ability to cope with
this most formidable enemy of virtue, prosperity and good order.
"A long and bitter experience compels us to say that the most untiring
efforts to reclaim the drunkard have, in many instances, proved
unavailing, because his demoralized will has been powerless to resist
the temptations placed in his path by the sanction of the State.
"Worse, if possible, even than this--the licensed dram-shop is
instrumental in creating a new generation of drunkards. For thither
resort our young men, the future hope of the country, who speedily fall
before the seductions of the place, their habits of sobriety are
subverted, their moral sense is blunted, their will palsied, and they
drift rapidly into the appalling condition of habitual drunkenness. The
licensed dram-shops are recruiting offices, where another army of
drunkards is enlisted, to fill the ranks depleted by dishonored
deaths--and the great Commonwealth extends over them the ægis of its
protection, indorsing them by the sanction of law. The people of
Massachusetts drink annually twenty-five million dollars' worth of
intoxicating liquors. _Only God can furnish the statistics of sorrow,
poverty, disease, vice and crime, begotten by this fearful consumption
of strong drink._
"Under these discouraging circumstances, men of Massachusetts, we appeal
to you! The licensed dram-shop is the creature of political action. We
are wholly destitute of political power, by which it must be overthrown.
Anguished by the peril of fathers and brothers, husbands and sons, we
appeal to you to make good the oft-repeated assertion that the men of
the State represent and protect the women of the State at the
ballot-box. We beseech you to make earnest efforts to secure the repeal
of the license law at the next election, and the enactment of a law
prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage.
"We are sure we speak the sentiment of the Christian people of this
State, and of all who stand for morality, thrift, virtue and good order,
when we say that the great State of Massachusetts should not take sides
with the drunkard-maker against his victim. If either is to be protected
by law, it should be the drunkard, since he is the weaker, rather than
the rumseller, who persistently blocks the pathway of reform.
"We know that we utter the voice of the majority of the women of the
State when we plead the cause of prohibition--and the women of
Massachusetts outnumbers its men by more than sixty thousand. It is
women who are the greatest sufferers from the licensed dram-shops of the
community--and we pray you, therefore, voters of Massachusetts, to take
such action that the law which protects these drinking shops may be
blotted from the statute book at the next election."
This appeal from the Christian women of Massachusetts is signed by Mrs.
Mary A. Livermore, President, and Mrs. L.B. Barrett, Secretary of the
State branch of the Woman's National Temperance Union, and shows the
animating spirit of that body. No one can read it without a new
impression of the wickedness of a traffic that curses everything it
touches.
But not alone in Massachusetts are the women of the "Union" using their
efforts to shape public opinion and influence the ballot. In all the
States where unions exist, this part of the work is steadily prosecuted;
and it cannot be long ere its good results will become manifest at the
polls in a steadily increasing anti-license vote, and, ultimately in the
ranging of State after State with Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire on
the side of prohibition.
INFLUENCE ON THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
In still another direction important gains have been realized. But for
the efforts of the Woman's National and State Temperance Unions we
should scarcely have had the declaration of the International Medical
Congress of 1876, adverse to the use of alcohol as food or medicine.
Early in their work, the women of the "Union," seeing how largely the
medical prescription of alcohol was hurting the cause of temperance, and
being in possession of the latest results of chemical and physiological
investigation in regard to its specific action on the body, sent
delegations to various State medical associations at their annual
meetings, urging them to pass resolutions defining its true status as a
food or a medicine and discouraging its use in the profession. With most
of these medical associations they found a respectful hearing; and their
presentation of the matter had the effect of drawing to the subject the
attention of a large number of medical men who had not, from old
prejudices, or in consequence of their absorption in professional
duties, given careful attention to the later results of scientific
investigation. As a consequence, many physicians who had been in the
habit of ordering alcoholic stimulants for weak or convalescent
patients, gave up the practice entirely; while those who still resorted
to their use, deemed it safest to be more guarded in their
administration than heretofore.
ACTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS.
But the crowning result of this effort to induce the medical profession
to limit or abandon the prescription of alcohol, came when the
International Congress, one of the largest and ablest medical bodies
ever convened, made, through its "Section on Medicine," the brief, but
clear and unequivocal declaration already given in a previous chapter,
and at once and forever laid upon alcohol the ban of the profession.
Official communications were addressed to this body by the National
Temperance Society, through its president, Hon. Wm. E. Dodge, by the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, through its president, Mrs. Annie
Wittenmyer, and by the New York Friends' Temperance Union, asking from
it a declaration as to the true character of alcohol and its value in
medicine.
The following is the full text of the memorial of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union:
_To the Chairman and Members of the International Medical Congress_:
"HONORED SIRS:--I take the liberty, as a representative of the Woman's
National Christian Temperance Union of the United States, to call your
attention to the relation of the medical use of alcohol to the
prevalence of that fearful scourge, _intemperance_.
"The distinguished Dr. Mussey said, many years ago: 'So long as alcohol
retains a place among sick patients, so long there will be drunkards.'
"Dr. Rush wrote strongly against its use as early as 1790. And at one
time the College of Physicians at Philadelphia memorialized Congress in
favor of restraining the use of distilled liquors, because, as they
claimed, they were 'destructive of life, health and the faculties of the
mind.'
"'A Medical Declaration,' published in London, December, 1872, asserts
that 'it is believed that the inconsiderate prescription of alcoholic
liquids by medical men for their patients has given rise, in many
instances, to the formation of intemperate habits.' This manifesto was
signed by over two hundred and fifty of the leading medical men of the
United Kingdom. When the nature and effects of alcohol were little
known, ft was thought to be invaluable as a medicine. But in the light
of recent scientific investigations, its claims have been challenged and
its value denied.
"We are aware that the question of the medical use of alcohol has not
been fully decided, and that there is a difference of opinion among the
ablest medical writers. But we notice that as the discussion and
investigation goes on, and the new facts are brought out, its value as a
remedial agent is depreciated.
"A great many claims have been brought forward in its favor, but one by
one they have gone down under the severe scrutiny of scientific
research, until only a few points are left in doubt. In view of this,
and the _startling fact_ that tens of thousands die annually from its
baneful effects, we earnestly urge you to give the subject a careful
examination.
"You have made the study of the physical nature of man your life-work,
and you are the trusted advisers of the people in all matters pertaining
to the treatment of diseases and the preservation of life and health.
"You are, therefore, in a position to instruct and warn the masses in
regard to its indiscriminate use, either as a medicine or a beverage.
"We feel sure that, true to your professional honor, and the grave
responsibilities of your distinguished position, you will search out and
give us the facts, whatever they may be.
[Illustration: A VICTIM OF THE DRINKING CLUB.]
"If you should appoint a standing committee from your own number, of
practical scientific men, who would give time and thought to this
question, it would be very gratifying to the _one hundred thousand_
women I represent, and most acceptable to the general public.
"I am, with high considerations of respect,
"Your obed't servant,
"ANNIE WITTENMYER,
"_Pres't W. Nat. Chris. Temp. Union.
"Philadelphia, Sept. 6th, 1876._"
How was this memorial received? Scarcely had it been presented ere a
member moved that it be laid on the table without reading; but ere the
vote could be taken the voice of another member rose clear and strong in
the question whether that body could afford to treat a hundred thousand
American women with such a discourtesy! And the motion to lay on the
table was lost.
A vote to refer to the "Section on Medicine" was largely carried; and to
that section the petitioners took their case, and were not only accorded
a gracious and respectful hearing, but, after a full discussion of the
subject, a declaration against the use of alcohol, as a substance both
hurtful and dangerous--possessing no food value whatever, and as a
medicine, being exceedingly limited in its range. All the points in
reply were passed upon unanimously by the section to which the matter
was referred, and afterwards by the Congress in full session, with but a
single dissenting vote, and the result officially communicated to the
president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. An official
notification of the action of the Congress was also sent to Hon. Wm. E.
Dodge, president of the National Temperance Society.
Other aspects of the work of this young and vigorous organization might
be given; but enough has been presented to show that its agency in
temperance reform is already far-reaching and powerful; and to give
assurance that if the spirit which has influenced and directed its
counsels so wisely from the beginning, can be maintained, it will
achieve still greater and more important victories for the cause of
temperance.
CHAPTER XIII.
REFORM CLUBS.
These differ in some aspects from most of the associations which, prior
to their organization, had for their object the reformation of men who
had fallen into habits of drunkenness. The distinguishing
characteristics of the reform club is its religious spirit, its
dependence upon God and its reliance upon prayer.
The first movement in this direction was made in Gardiner, Maine, in
January, 1872, by Mr. I.K. Osgood. He says of himself that in fifteen
years he had run down from a moderate and fashionable drinker of wine,
to a constant and immoderate drinker of the vilest spirits; and from the
condition of a respectable business man to one of misery and
destitution. Coming back to his wretched home late one night, he saw
through the window his poor wife sitting lonely and sorrowful, waiting
for his return. The sight touched his heart and caused him to reflect,
and then to resolve, that God being his helper he would never drink
again. That resolution he found himself able, by God's help, to keep. A
few months later he began the work of trying to reform others. His
first effort was with a lawyer, an old friend, who was as much reduced
by drink as he had been. After much entreaty, this man consented to
break off drinking and sign the pledge. Mr. Osgood then drew up the
following call for a meeting which both signed: "REFORMERS'
MEETING.--There will be a meeting of reformed drinkers at City Hall,
Gardiner, on Friday evening, January 19th, at seven o'clock. A cordial
invitation is extended to all occasional drinkers, constant drinkers,
hard drinkers and young men who are tempted to drink. Come and hear what
rum has done for us."
A crowd came to the City Hall. The two men addressed the meeting with
great earnestness, and then offered the pledge, which was signed by
eight of their old drinking companions. These organized themselves into
a reform club, which soon reached a hundred members, all of whom had
been men of intemperate habits. The movement soon attracted attention in
other places, especially among drinking men, and clubs multiplied
rapidly throughout the State. In a few months, the aggregate membership
reached nearly twenty thousand. In June of the following year, Mr.
Osgood began his work in Massachusetts, under the auspices of the
Massachusetts Temperance Alliance, organizing about forty clubs, one of
which, in Haverill, numbered over three thousand members. In New
Hampshire and Vermont, many clubs were organized by Mr. Osgood and some
of his converts.
DR. HENRY A. REYNOLDS.
Another effective worker in the field is Dr. Henry A. Reynolds, of
Bangor, Maine, where he was born in 1839. In 1863, he graduated from the
Medical College of Harvard University, and was assistant surgeon in the
First Maine Regiment, heavy artillery, during two years of the war,
receiving an honorable discharge. He then entered upon the practice of
medicine in his native city, and continued therein until 1874. But he
had inherited a taste for strong drink, through the indulgence of which
he became its abject slave. After many efforts at reform which proved of
no avail, he resolved to look to Almighty God, and ask for strength to
overcome his dreadful appetite. About this time there was, in the city
of Bangor, a band of Christian women who met frequently to pray for the
salvation of the intemperate. At one of their meetings, the doctor
presented himself--it was two days after he had knelt alone in his
office and prayed to God for help--and publicly signed the pledge.
Sympathy for those who were in the dreadful slough from which he had
been lifted, soon began stirring in his heart, and he sought, by various
methods, to influence and save them. After working for several months,
with only partial success, it became evident, that for sure and
permanent work, there must be organization, and he conceived the plan of
a reform club made up exclusively of those who had been drinking men;
believing, as he did, that there must exist between two men who had
once been intemperate, a sympathy which could not exist between a man
who has, and one who has never, drank to excess. As soon as this matter
became clear to him, Dr. Reynolds, by notice in a daily paper, invited
the drinking men of the city to meet him at a certain place. Eleven men
responded to the call, and the Bangor Reform Club, the first of its
kind, was organized, September 10th, 1874, with Dr. Henry A. Reynolds as
president. The motto of the new organization was, "Dare to do Right."
Filled with the true missionary spirit, this little band held other
meetings, and did their utmost to bring in new members, and so
successful were their efforts, that in a few weeks their membership
swelled to hundreds, and the whole city was in a state of excitement
over the new and strange work which had been inaugurated.
From Bangor, the excitement soon spread through the State. Dr. Reynolds,
believing that God had called him to the work of saving men from
intemperance and leading them to Christ, gave up his profession and
threw himself into the work of preaching temperance and organizing
reform clubs. Within a year forty-five thousand reformed men were
gathered into clubs in the State of Maine. In August, 1875, at a meeting
of the National Christian Temperance Camp-Meeting Association, held at
Old Orchard, Maine, where temperance workers from all parts of the
country had congregated, the president of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union of Salem, Massachusetts, learned of the great work of
reform progressing in Maine under the leadership of Dr. Reynolds, and
invited him to introduce his work in Massachusetts by holding a series
of meetings in Salem during the month of September. So the work began in
the Old Bay State, and within a year, forty thousand men of that
Commonwealth, who had been habitual drinkers, were organized into reform
clubs.
FORMATION OF CLUBS.
The method pursued by Dr. Reynolds in the formation of these clubs is
very simple. There is a constitution with by-laws, to which the
following pledge is prefixed: "Having seen and felt the evils of
intemperance, therefore, Resolved, That we, the undersigned, for our own
good, and the good of the world in which we live, do hereby promise and
engage, with the help of Almighty God, to abstain from buying, selling
or using alcoholic or malt beverages, wine and cider included." Article
III. of the constitution gives the qualification for membership: "All
male persons of the age of eighteen or upwards, who have been in the
habit of using intoxicating liquor to a greater or less extent, are
eligible to membership in this club." After organizing a club of persons
who have been addicted to drink, Dr. Reynolds appeals to the Christian
women of the locality to throw around them the shield of their care and
sympathy, and urges upon the people at large the necessity of upholding
and encouraging them in every possible way.
The meetings of the clubs are held at least once during the week, in the
evenings; and on Sunday afternoons or evenings, the clubs, with the
Woman's Christian Temperance Unions, hold public religious temperance
meetings, which are often crowded to overflowing. The order of exercises
at these public meetings consist of prayer, reading of Scripture and
brief addresses by reformed men, interspersed with the singing of such
hymns as "Rock of Ages," "Hold the Fort," "I Need Thee Every Hour," etc.
Brief addresses are the rule, and a hymn is usually sung between each
address.
The badge worn by members of these reformed clubs is a red ribbon. Their
motto is "Dare to do Right."
One of the first fruits of the establishment of a reform club in any
locality, is an increase in church attendance, and a decrease in the tax
rate. In many towns where they exist, liquor-selling has become
unprofitable, and liquor-drinking a custom that hurts a man's social
standing.
From the East, Dr. Reynolds extended his labors into the West, where his
work has been chiefly confined to the State of Michigan. In a letter to
the _Union_, the organ of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, under
date of July, 1877, the aspect and results of Dr. Reynolds's work in
that State are thus referred to by a correspondent from Evanston: "His
plan is to take a State and settle down in it 'to stay' until it
capitulates to the red-ribbon pledge. None but men over eighteen years
of age are allowed to sign this pledge. Eighty thousand men in Michigan,
to-day, wear the ribbon, which is a token of their signature--all of
them have been drinking men. 'None others need apply' as members of Dr.
Reynolds's Reform Clubs. His method is to speak in a general way to the
public on the evening of his arrival--his meetings being held in a hall
and thoroughly announced. The next afternoon, the doctor addresses
women, chiefly from the medical point of view. If they have not a W.T.U.
he organizes one. The second night he talks to the public generally
again, and organizes his club, then goes on his way, and leaves the town
rejoicing. The doctor is thoroughly business-like and methodical. There
is no doubt about his securing, in every State he visits, the same
results as in Michigan, for his ability is marked, his experience
growing, his sincerity complete and all his work is 'begun, continued
and ended' in a firm reliance upon God."
To give an idea of the excitement created by the presence of Dr.
Reynolds in any community, and of the results of his efforts to reclaim
intemperate men, we copy the following brief reference to his work in
the spring of 1877:
"It is impossible to give figures, for there are additions every day of
hundreds in the State, and the climax of enthusiasm is by no means
reached in any town while Dr. Reynolds is there.
"In Jackson, Sabbath evening, February 11th, two months after the
organization of the club, Union Hall was so packed that the galleries
settled and were cleared, and hundreds could not gain admittance.
"As the result of ten days' work in Saginaw Valley--at the three
cities--(Bay City, Saginaw City and East Saginaw), the clubs number
about three thousand men.
"From there, Dr. Reynolds went to Lansing, our capital, and at the first
signing, two hundred and forty-five joined the club, which is far up in
the hundreds now.
"The last and greatest victory is Detroit. Slow, critical, conservative,
staid, not-any-shams-for-me Detroit.
"Friday and Saturday nights there were crowded houses. Sabbath
afternoon, two thousand five hundred _men_ together, and a club of three
hundred and forty-five formed. Sabbath evening, no room could hold the
people, and the club reached nearly nine hundred. It is safe to say
to-day that a thousand men in the city of Detroit are wearing the red
ribbon.
"Dr. Reynolds has done another grand work, and that is in bringing up
the W.C.T. Unions. Everywhere this follows, churches are packed with
women. Dr. Reynolds tells them how they can help the men and their
families, and they fall into line by the hundreds. Three hundred have
enlisted in Bay City, four hundred in Lansing, two hundred in East
Saginaw, and so on, all over the State."
The establishment of reform clubs has been more general in New England
and the Western States than in other parts of the country, though their
organization in some of the Middle States has been attended with marked
success. Vermont has a large number of clubs, the membership ranging
from one hundred to fifteen hundred.
FRANCIS MURPHY.
The work of Francis Murphy, which, has been attended with such
remarkable fervors of excitement in nearly every community where he has
labored, is not so definite in its purpose, nor so closely organized,
nor so permanent in its results as that of Dr. Reynolds. He draws vast
assemblies, and obtains large numbers of signers to his pledge, which,
reads:
"With malice towards none and charity for all, I, the undersigned, do
pledge my word and honor, God helping me, to abstain from all
intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and that I will, by all honorable
means, encourage others to abstain."
An Irishman by birth, and full of the warm impulse and quick enthusiasm
of his people, he has thrown himself into the work of temperance reform
with an earnestness that commands a hearing, and with an ardor of
appeal and solicitation that is, for the time, almost irresistible.
In the fall of 1869, Francis Murphy found himself in the cell of a
prison in the city of Portland, Maine, to which he had been committed
for drunkenness. He had been a liquor-seller, commencing the work as a
sober man with a good character, and ending it in ruin to himself and
family, and with the curse of the drunkard's appetite upon him. A
Christian gentleman, Captain Cyrus Sturdevant, had obtained permission
of the authorities to visit the jail and talk and pray with the
prisoners. This brought him into personal contact with Mr. Murphy, who
was not only deeply humiliated at the disgrace into which his
intemperate life had brought him, but almost in despair. He tells the
story of this part of his life with a moving eloquence. Capt.
Sturdevant, after some solicitation, induced him to leave his cell one
Sunday morning and attend religious services with the prisoners. He was
in a state of mind to be deeply impressed by these services, and the
result was a solemn resolution to walk, with God's help, in a new and
better way. While yet a prisoner, he began his work of trying to save
men from the curse of drink, and to lead them to enter upon a religious
life; and his influence with his fellow-prisoners was very marked and
for good. On leaving the jail, he began at once his efforts to rescue
others from the slavery from which he had escaped. His first appearance
as a lecturer was in the city of Portland. The effort was well received
by the audience, and at its close he found himself an object of special
interest. From this time, he gave himself almost wholly to the cause of
temperance. After working for a time in Portland, and assisting in the
organization of a reform club, he extended his efforts to other parts of
the State of Maine, and afterwards to New Hampshire and the adjoining
States, in which, he labored for nearly three years with marked and
often extraordinary success. From New England, Mr. Murphy went, on
invitation, to the West, and was very active there, especially in Iowa
and Illinois, in which States he aroused the people, and was
instrumental in the organization of large numbers of local societies and
reform clubs.
In the winter of 1876-7, his work in Pittsburgh was attended with
remarkable results; over sixty thousand signatures were obtained to his
pledge, and over five hundred saloons in Allegheny and neighboring
counties closed their doors for want of patronage. The succeeding spring
and summer Mr. Murphy spent in Philadelphia, where the excitement was
almost as great as it had been in Pittsburgh. But, as in the last-named
city, too large a portion of the harvest which had been reaped was left
to perish on the ground for lack of the means, or the will, to gather
and garner it. The real substantial and enduring work here has been that
of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; which not only held its
meetings daily during the exciting time of the Murphy meetings, but has
held them daily ever since, keeping, all the while, hand and heart upon
the men who are trying in earnest to reform, and helping, encouraging
and protecting them by all the means in their power.
Mr. Murphy continues to work in various parts of the country, attracting
large audiences wherever he appears, and leading thousands to sign his
pledge. He has done and is still doing good service in the cause to
which he is so earnestly devoting himself.
CHAPTER XIV.
GOSPEL TEMPERANCE.
As we have seen in the chapters on the "Crusade," the "Woman's Christian
Temperance Union," and the "Reform Clubs," this new temperance movement,
which has attained in the last few years such large dimensions, has in
it many of the features of a religious revival. On this account, and to
distinguish it from all preceding efforts to break down the liquor
traffic and save the drunkard, it has been called a Gospel temperance
movement. Its chief reliance with many has been on prayer and faith, as
agencies by which the mighty power of God could be so determined as not
only to save the drunkard from the curse of his debasing appetite, but
to so move and act upon the liquor-seller as to lead him to abandon his
accursed traffic.
THE VALUE OF PRAYER AND FAITH ALONE.
At the commencement of this movement, which took the form of what is
known as the "Woman's Crusade," the power of prayer seemed for awhile to
be an almost irresistible force. Thousands and tens of thousands of men
were, as they felt assured in their hearts, freed in an instant of time
from an appetite which had been growing and strengthening for years,
until it held complete mastery over them; and this in answer to the
prayer of faith. And hundreds of saloon and tavern-keepers abandoned
their evil work, because, as was believed, God, in answer to the prayers
of pious men and women, had turned upon them the influences of His Holy
Spirit, and constrained them to this abandonment.
For awhile this power of prayer was regarded as the force that was to
break down the liquor traffic, and rescue the people from the curse of
appetite. If prayer were persistent enough, and faith strong enough, God
would come to the rescue, overthrow the enemy, and redeem and save the
wretched victims he was holding in such cruel bondage. But, as time
moved on, and the enemy, whose ranks were at first thrown into
confusion, rallied his forces and held himself secure against renewed
attack, there came a doubt in the minds of many as to the value of
prayer and faith, as the sole agency by which the rule of the demon of
intemperance was to be overthrown; and the same doubt came as to the
power of prayer and faith alone to work the removal of an appetite for
drink, when it was found by sad experience that of the thousands of men
who signed the pledge under religious excitement, and made public
declaration that, through faith in Christ, they had been healed of their
infirmity, only a few were able to stand in the hour of temptation; and
these stood fast because they rested in no vain security. They knew,
from an inner conviction, that appetite had not been destroyed; and
that, in some unguarded moment, it would spring upon and endeavor to
enslave them again. But, with God's help, they had resolved to hold it
in check. Humbly they looked to Him for strength--meantime watching, as
well as praying--to fight and overcome when their hour of trial and
darkness came. So they stood ever on guard; and God gave them the
strength they asked for, and victory after victory, until their enemy
was under their feet; not dead, but held there by the power which is
given to every one who will use it against the enemies of his soul.
PRAYER SUPPLEMENTED BY ORGANIZED WORK.
Not so much dependence on prayer and faith now as on organized work in
the natural plane of means and forces. This came as an orderly sequence,
and gave to the cause of Gospel temperance a surer foundation to rest
upon, and a larger promise of success. There was no turning away from
God; no weakness of faith in His Divine power and readiness to save; but
clearer light as to His ways with man, and as to how He is able to save,
to the uttermost, all who come unto Him. The instances going to show
that men were not cured of the appetite for strong drink in a moment of
time by prayer and faith, were too many and too sorrowful not to force
this conviction upon the mind of every thoughtful and observant
Christian man and woman. And, so, even while many sincere and
self-devoted workers in this cause still hold to the view that God can,
and will, if the faith be strong enough, change a man in an instant of
time, and with no co-operation of his own beyond this act of faith, from
vileness to purity--from a love of evil to a love of good--the sounder,
safer and more Scriptural doctrine that, if a man would be saved from
the enemies of his soul, he must fight and overcome them in the strength
which God gives to all who will ask and receive, is the one now more
generally preached to reformed men; and, as a result, the number of
those who stand fast in the new life to which they have attained, is
steadily increasing.
THE APPETITE FOR DRINK NOT TAKEN AWAY IN A MOMENT.
Still, far too widely in this Gospel work of saving fallen men from the
power of appetite, is the delusive idea held out that if a man will
"give his heart to Christ," as it is called; that is, pray humbly,
sincerely and in faith to have his sins forgiven, and his soul purified
from all evil by an application of Divine grace; God will, in answer to
this prayer alone, and in an instant of time, take away the appetite for
drink which has been for years gradually gaining the mastery over him.
We have heard a man declare, in the presence of an assemblage of men who
had been slaves to drink, and who were seeking for a way of escape, that
God had, in answer to his prayers, destroyed in a moment the appetite
which had long held him in a close bondage; and that, if they would come
to Him and give Him their hearts, He would work in them the same miracle
of spiritual healing. As we listened to his confident speech, we felt
how great was the danger in which he himself stood, and how much better
it would have been for his hearers if he had kept silent.
HOW MANY ARE REALLY SAVED.
Facts are solid things, and weigh heavily in the scale of argument. They
are not always pleasant to look at; but it is weakness to ignore them.
Let us take a few facts in connection with this Gospel temperance work.
The first of these came to our knowledge while we were revolving the
contents of this chapter, and before we had commenced writing it. A
leading temperance worker, who was an active participant in the Murphy
movement, and who holds that there is for the confirmed drunkard no hope
or safety but in the power of religion, stated to us that during the
Moody and Sankey revival in Philadelphia, something over two hundred
drunken men were reclaimed and converted; changed in heart, as it was
declared, and "_saved_" by the power of God. These were gathered
together on a certain evening in one of the churches, and the gentleman
to whom we have referred was among those who addressed them. The poor,
weak, and in too many instances, friendless and homeless men were
talked to, and then committed to God in prayer. They had His grace in
their hearts--had been "saved" through prayer and faith--and would He
not care for, protect and defend them?
Alas, for the sequel! Of all these two hundred converted and "saved"
men, who had, in a moment of time, been changed from servants of
sensuality and sin into children of God, their souls made "whiter than
snow," not over five or six can to-day be found in the ranks of sober
men!
In and around Pittsburgh, during the religious temperance revival which,
under Francis Murphy, wrought such marvels in that city and
neighborhood, over fifty thousand signatures were obtained to the
pledge, the signers, in a large number of cases, professing faith in
Christ, and having an inner assurance, as they believed, that He would
keep them, by the power of His grace, from again falling into the sin
and misery of intemperance. But, to-day, only a small proportionate
number can be found out of this great multitude who are standing fast by
their profession. A like result has followed the great Gospel work of
Mr. Murphy in Philadelphia. Of the thirty or forty thousand who signed
the pledge and professed to be saved through faith in Christ, the number
of men who have been rescued from drunkenness can scarcely be counted by
hundreds; and of these the large proportion owe their salvation to the
natural safeguards and orderly external conditions which were brought
to the aid of spiritual resolve and spiritual forces.
When the excitement of these great revivals was over, and the contagious
enthusiasm had died away, and men fell back into their old ways, amid
old surroundings and temptations, each alone in the house of his own
real life, then came
THE TRIAL AND THE TEST,
and it was found that to depend on grace alone, and the inner change it
had effected in answer to prayer, was to rest, too often, in a vain
security. The new convert was the same as to the essential evil quality
of his life as before his conversion--or turning round to go the other
way--and if he stood still where he had turned, and did not, in a new
life of practical obedience to Divine laws, walk forward in the Heavenly
road, his conversion would avail him nothing. Not that he was left alone
by God to stand or fall as he might. No human heart ever felt even the
faintest motions of that Divine pity, and compassion, and yearning to
save his lost and perishing children, which is felt by our Heavenly
Father, who is very love itself. But He cannot save humanity by
destroying it, and this destruction would take place the moment he
touched man's freedom to choose between good and evil. Of his own will,
man has turned away from God; and of his own will he must return to Him
if ever he return at all. The way of return has been opened and made
plain, and God is forever calling and entreating His poor, wandering
ones to come back, and offering them strength to walk, and weapons to
fight, and armor for defense. But He cannot walk for them, nor fight for
them, nor defend them unless they put on the armor His mercy supplies.
They must, of themselves, using the strength He gives them, walk in the
Heavenly way; and with the sword of Divine truth He places in their
hands, do battle with the enemies of their souls. There is no other
means of attaining Heaven. This strength to walk and fight and overcome,
is the Divine grace that saves. It is the free gift of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ; the very power of God unto salvation.
THE DIVINE GRACE THAT SAVES.
It is by the application of this Divine grace that men are saved from
their sins and from the power of hell. But they can never receive it as
passive subjects. They must take it and apply it in and of themselves,
and use it as if it were their own; yet never forgetting that it is the
gift of God, and never ceasing to acknowledge and thank Him for His
infinite goodness and mercy in teaching their "hands to war;" in
"girding" them "with strength unto the battle," and in giving them a
"lamp unto their feet and a light unto their path," so that they may
walk in safety.
If salvation were of grace alone, as so many teach in this Gospel
temperance work, what need of "sword," or "armor," or a "lamp unto the
feet?" for if, in answer to prayer and faith, a man's evil nature is
instantly changed, he is no longer subject to temptation, and cannot,
therefore, enter into combat with evil; and if God lift him out of the
darkness of his carnal nature into the light of regeneration solely in
answer to prayer, what need of any lamp unto his feet or light unto his
path? He is no longer a pilgrim and a wayfarer, journeying heavenward
through an enemy's land.
We press this subject on the reader's attention, because so much of
success or failure in this great Gospel temperance work depends on a
right understanding of spiritual laws and a true comprehension of the
means of salvation. Holding, as we do, that, for the thousands and
hundreds of thousands of unhappy and wretched men and women in our land
who have become the almost helpless slaves of an appetite which is
rarely, if ever, wholly destroyed, no true succor lies in anything but
Divine grace and help, we feel that a great responsibility rests with
all who, in the providence of God, have been drawn into this work.
Referring to the loose, and we cannot help saying hurtful teachings of
too many temperance revivalists, Rev. Charles I. Warren, writing in the
New York _Christian Advocate_, says:
"Religious conversion, all are agreed, is the first necessity for all
men, and especially for inebriates, as the surest hope of a real and
permanent reformation of life. And intemperate men, especially those
who become demented rather than demonized, it is well known, are always
easily moved by religious influences, even when so drunk that they would
wisely be deemed incompetent to execute a will for the disposal of
earthly property, and incapable of giving testimony in a court of law.
"Yet, this idea of a spiritual renovation of the heart, while the head
is too intoxicated to apprehend a moral obligation, is almost beyond
rational belief. It is difficult to conceive that any man, in such a
state of voluntarily-induced imbecility, too drunk to hold intelligent
converse with men, can be competent to transact business with God, to
receive and answer those calls from the Holy Spirit that decide the
eternal destinies of the soul."
And he adds: "We judge instinctively that all men, intemperate or sober,
must work out their own salvation with fear, while God works in them to
will and to do."
This is the key-note to the whole subject of spiritual regeneration. It
is active co-operation; work, conflict, victory; and this down on the
sphere of common life, and in the midst of temptation--not out of the
world, but "in the world;" not something done in and for a man while he
waits in prayer on God, but after he has fought his battle with some
enemy of his soul, and overcome in the strength which God has given him
in answer to prayer. Only they who have fought and conquered can possess
the land and dwell there in safety.
AN UNSOUND AND DANGEROUS DOCTRINE.
In a meeting at which we were present, and where from one to two hundred
reformed men were gathered for religious worship, and for help and
counsel, the hymn commencing
"Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,"
was sung. At its close, a man rose from his seat and entered his protest
against the singing of that hymn any more. It is not true, he said, that
the man whom God has converted feels any proneness to wander. He had had
the grace of God in his soul for--we don't remember how many years--and
he could testify that the desire to wander from God's commandments had
been wholly removed. He, therefore, repeated his protest against the use
of a hymn containing a sentiment so dishonorable to a truly saved
Christian. As he sat down, a very young man arose and added the weight
of his testimony to the assertion of his older Christian brother. He
also, in answer to prayer, as he confidently asserted, had attained unto
that higher life which is not only free from sin, but from even the
desire to wander from the ways of holiness.
As we looked into and read the faces of these two men, we sighed for
what we saw therein, and pitied them for the peril in which they stood.
But our greater concern was for the poor, weak, almost helpless ones we
saw around us, and for the effect of this delusive error which had been
so needlessly thrown into their minds. If any of them should rest in
the belief that they, too, had, by the grace of God, been wholly set
free from the bondage of sin; that the appetite for drink and the lust
of all evil had been extinguished, and their proneness to wander from
God taken away in simple answer to prayer, then would their danger, we
felt, be so imminent as to leave but little room for hope of their
standing in the new life. A stumbling-block had been laid in their way
over which they must almost surely fall.
We are writing for the help and safety of men for whom there is but
little or no hope of rescue from the depths of evil and sensuality into
which they have fallen, except in a truly religious life; not a life of
mere faith, and sentiment and fancied holiness, but of earnest conflict
and daily right living. A life in which not only intemperance is to be
shunned, as a sin against God, but every impure and evil desire of the
heart, and every thought and purpose of wrong to the neighbor. And,
believing as we do, that God's grace and power can only be given to
those who will take it as active subjects--not mere passive
recipients--and by using it as if it were their own, avail themselves of
its purifying and regenerating influence, we can do no less than
question and reject any doctrine that even seems to give a different
impression, as delusive and exceedingly dangerous.
To make Gospel temperance the true power of God unto the salvation of
intemperate men, we must have in it, and with it, the Gospel of
conflict with evil, the Gospel of daily right living, the Gospel of love
to the neighbor and the Gospel of common sense. And these are coming
more and more into the work, which is widening and increasing, and every
year adding thousands upon thousands to the number of those who are
saved from the curse of drink.
CHAPTER XV.
TEMPERANCE COFFEE-HOUSES AND FRIENDLY INNS.
The cure of a drunkard is always attended with peculiar difficulties.
The cost is often great. Sometimes cure is found to be impossible. A
hundred may be protected from the ravages of intemperance at the cost of
saving one who has fallen a victim to the terrible malady. "An ounce of
prevention is worth a pound of cure."
While so much is being done to reform and save the drunkard, the work of
prevention has not been forgotten. Great good has been accomplished in
this direction through the spread of total-abstinence principles. In
this the various temperance organizations have done much, and especially
with the rising generation. But, so long as men are licensed by the
State to sell intoxicating drinks, the net of the tempter is spread on
every hand, and thousands of the weak and unwary are yearly drawn
therein and betrayed to their ruin. In our great cities large number of
men who have to do business at points remote from their dwellings, are
exposed to special temptations. The down-town lunch-room and dining-room
have, in most cases, their drinking bars; or, if no bar is visible, the
bill of fare offers in too many cases, any kind of intoxicating
beverage that may be desired. Thousands of men are, in consequence,
yearly led away from sobriety.
Seeing this, efforts have been made during the past few years to
establish, cheap temperance coffee-houses, where workingmen and others
may get a good noonday lunch, or a morning and evening meal at a
trifling cost. In all cases, these have been found of great service to
the cause of temperance. A pint mug of excellent coffee, with sugar and
milk, and a large, sweet roll, costing five cents, are found to make a
far better and healthier lunch than the highly-seasoned hashes and
scraps called "free lunches," which must be washed down by a, five or
ten-cent glass of liquor.
THE EXPERIMENT IN PHILADELPHIA.
The success which has attended the establishment of cheap temperance
coffee-houses in this city (Philadelphia), is quite remarkable. In the
fall of 1874, Joshua L. Baily, one of our active, clear-headed
merchants, who had been for many years an earnest temperance man,
determined to give the cheap coffee-house experiment a fair trial, cost
what it might; for he saw that if it could be made successful, it would
be a powerful agency in the work of prevention. He began in a modest
way, taking a small store at the corner of Market and Fifteenth Streets,
and fitting it up in a neat and attractive manner. With a few pounds of
coffee, and a few dozens of rolls, the place was opened, the single
attendant, a woman, acting the double part of cook and waiter. For five
cents a pint mug of the best Java coffee, with milk and sugar, and a
good-sized roll, were furnished.
From the very start "The Workingmen's Central Coffee-House," as Mr.
Baily called it, was successful. In the immediate neighborhood five
hundred workmen were employed on the city buildings, and opposite stood
the Pennsylvania Railroad freight depot, to which came daily about the
same number of men--draymen, teamsters and others. It took but a few
days to so crowd the new coffee-room at the usual lunching time as to
require an additional assistant. From day to day the business went on
increasing, until more help and larger accommodations became necessary.
Soon a complete kitchen had to be built in the basement, and the
adjoining store added, in order to meet the steadily-enlarging demands
upon the new establishment. The fame of the good coffee, which was
better than most people found at home, spread far and near, and larger
and larger numbers of clerks, workingmen and others, turned their steps
daily, at lunch time, towards the Central Coffee-House. It was so much
better than the poor stuff served in most of the eating-houses; and,
with the sweet roll added, so much better than the free lunch and glass
of beer or whisky with which too many had been accustomed to regale
themselves.
SIGNAL SUCCESS.
Steadily swelled the tide of custom. Within a year a third store,
adjoining, was added. But the enlarged premises soon proved inadequate
to the accommodation of the still-increasing crowd.
At this writing "The Central" is from six to seven times larger than
when first opened; and there lunch in its rooms, daily, nearly two
thousand persons. One room has been fitted up for ladies exclusively, in
which from forty to fifty can lunch at one time.
But Mr. Baily looked beyond the cheap coffee and rolls by which he was
able to keep so many away from bar-rooms and restaurants where liquor
was sold. He believed in other influences and safeguards. And to this
end, and at his own cost, he fitted up the various rooms over the seven
stores extending along Market Street from Fifteenth to Broad, in which
the coffee-rooms are located, and set them apart for various uses. Here
is a lecture-hall, capable of seating four hundred persons; a free
reading-room, well warmed and lighted and supplied with the best daily
newspapers, American and English illustrated publications, and the
standard periodicals; besides four other rooms that will hold from
seventy to one hundred persons, which are used for various meeting
purposes, all in connection with temperance. Five regular services are
held in the lecture-room every week, viz.: "Bible Reading," on Sunday
afternoon; "Temperance Experience meeting," on Monday evening; "Prayer
and Praise meeting," Tuesday evening; "Gospel Temperance meeting," on
Thursday evening; and "Youths' Temperance meeting," Friday evening.
These meetings are often crowded, and, like the coffee-rooms below,
attract audiences made up from every rank in society. At many of these
meetings, Mr. Baily presides in person.
Encouraged by the success of this first effort, Mr. Baily opened another
cheap coffee-house in the very centre of the wholesale trade of the
city, where thousands of clerks, workingmen and merchants were in the
habit of resorting for lunch or dinner to the restaurants and bar-rooms
in the neighborhood. This, located at No. 31 South Fourth Street, he
called "The Model Coffee-House."
CROWDED FROM THE FIRST.
From the first it was crowded even to an uncomfortable extent. The
demands of its patrons soon rendered larger quarters a necessity. A new
building was erected specially adapted to the purpose, many novel
features being introduced which a twelve-month's experience had
suggested.
The _new_ "Model" opened June 1st, 1876. Many persons thought it was too
large, and that it would never be filled. But it was thronged on the day
of opening, and on every day since the demands upon it have been fully
up to its capacity. The number lunching here daily is about three
thousand.
In the establishment of the coffee-houses there were, of course, many
mistakes, the results of inexperience. Many things had to be unlearned
as well as many learned. But mistakes were promptly corrected. With the
growth of the work, ability to provide for it seemed to keep pace, and
modifications in the management were adopted as necessity dictated. Not
much was anticipated at the commencement beyond furnishing a mug of
coffee and a roll of bread, but it soon became apparent that something
more than this was needed. To meet this necessity, the coffee-house bill
of fare was greatly extended, and now quite a variety of nutritious and
substantial dishes are provided, and each at the uniform price of _five
cents_. The main feature--the coffee--is, however, preserved. A full
pint mug of the best Java (equal to two ordinary cups) with pure, rich
milk and white sugar, and two ounces of either wheat or brown bread, all
for _five cents_, is the every-day lunch of many a man who, but for this
provision, would be found in the dram shop.
No dish, as we have said, costs over five cents, which is the standard
price the year round, whatever the fluctuations of markets may be. In
addition to the bread and coffee already mentioned for five cents, the
bill of fare comprises puddings of rice, tapioca and corn starch, baked
apples dressed with sugar and milk, all sorts of pies (half a pie being
given for a portion), mushes of cracked wheat, corn and oatmeal,
dumplings, eggs, potatoes, beans, ham, corned beef, liver, "scrapple,"
sausage, custards, soups, pickles and, in season, fresh fruits. Of
bread, there are Boston and Philadelphia brown, wheat, Philadelphia and
Vienna rolls. A pint glass of milk with a roll, costs five cents; butter
three cents, and extra rolls one cent each; so that for ten or fifteen
cents a man gets a full luncheon, as every portion of food is equal to a
large saucer heaped.
These establishments require, of course, the most methodical, orderly
and careful management, with capable matrons at the head of each, and a
steward or superintendent to make intelligent purchases. At the "Model
Coffee-House," there are nearly fifty employees, and, excepting three or
four men, they are girls and women. The upper rooms of the building are
for the lodgings, offices, laundry and drawing-room, for the use of the
employees. The girls, who are mostly of country birth and training, are
thus furnished with a good and safe home, where they have books and
music, large and well-furnished chambers, a good table--they dine at one
family table in their own dining-room--and have their washing and
ironing done in the house. They are required to be neat and tidy in
appearance, respectable and discreet in character and manner.
THE GOOD DONE.
The good that is done through an instrumentality like this can never be
fully known. Of those who are drawn into paths of safety, we do not so
often hear as of those who are led astray. But enough is already known
of the good done by these two coffee-houses to give large encouragement
for their establishment in other localities and other cities. Hundreds
of young men who had fallen into the dangerous habit of taking a glass
of beer every day with their lunch, now take a fragrant cup of coffee
instead, and find themselves better for the change; hundreds more who
had begun to feel the insidious encroachments of appetite, have been
able to get out of the way of temptation.
The question that naturally arises with all who look practically at this
matter is, whether there is any profit in the business of keeping a
cheap temperance coffee-house? Can a pint of coffee, with sugar, milk
and a two-ounce roll of bread, be furnished for five cents and leave any
margin for profit? Mr. Baily's experiment has proved that it can.
FRIENDLY INNS.
But not alone in Philadelphia is the cheap coffee-house to be found.
There are hundreds of them in our various towns and cities, though none
on so large a scale as here; and they are rapidly multiplying and doing
good. "The Friendly Inn," and "The Holly-Tree Inn," are places somewhat
similar in character, but partaking more of the nature of an "inn" than
a simple eating-house. These have, usually, a pleasant parlor, with
light, and warmth, and books, into which, any one may come and pass the
evening, instead of drifting into a saloon, and where cheap meals and
lodgings can be had if needed. In Cleveland, Ohio, Christian temperance
work, which is very large and effective, is carried on almost entirely
in connection with "Friendly Inns," of which there are five. A chapel,
reading-room, sleeping apartments and a cheap restaurant are maintained
in connection with each of these inns. The women engaged in the cause of
Gospel temperance in that city regard them as most valuable auxiliaries
to the spiritual work in which they are engaged. In a large number of
cases, they have been the direct means of bringing men in whom few
traces of goodness could at first be discerned in such contact with
religious influences as to win them over to a better life.
CHAPTER XVI.
TEMPERANCE LITERATURE.
The greatest and most effective agency in any work of enlightenment and
reform is the press. By it the advanced thinker and Christian
philanthropist is able to speak to the whole people, and to instruct,
persuade and influence them. He can address the reason and conscience of
thousands, and even of hundreds of thousands of people to whom he could
never find access in any other way, and so turn their minds to the right
consideration of questions of social interest in regard to which they
had been, from old prejudices or habits of thinking, in doubt or
grievous error.
No cause has been more largely indebted to the press than that of
temperance reform. From the very beginning of agitation on the subject
of this reform, the press has been used with great efficiency; and
to-day, the literature of temperance is a force of such magnitude and
power, that it is moving whole nations, and compelling Parliaments,
Chambers of Deputies and Houses of Congress to consider the claims of a
question which, if presented fifty years ago, would have been treated,
in these grave assemblages, with levity or contempt.
For many years after the reform movement began in this country, the
press was used with marked effect. But as most of the books, pamphlets
and tracts which were issued came through individual enterprise, the
editions were often small and the prices high; and as the sale of such
publications was limited, and the profit, if any, light, the efforts to
create a broad and comprehensive temperance literature met with but
feeble encouragement. But in 1865, a convention was called to meet at
Saratoga to consider the subject of a national organization so
comprehensive and practical that all the friends of temperance in
religious denominations and temperance organizations could unite therein
for common work. Out of this convention grew the
NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY AND PUBLICATION HOUSE,
which began, at once, the creation of a temperance literature worthy of
the great cause it represented. The president of this society is Hon.
William E. Dodge, of New York. The vice-presidents are ninety-two in
number, and include some of the most distinguished men in the country;
clergymen, jurists, statesmen, and private citizens eminent for their
public spirit and philanthropy. It has now been in existence some twelve
years. Let us see what it has done in that time for temperance
literature and the direction and growth of a public sentiment adverse to
the liquor traffic. We let the efficient corresponding secretary and
publishing agent, J.N. Stearns, speak for the association he so ably
represents. Its rooms are at No. 58 Reade Street, New York. Referring to
the initial work of the society, "It was resolved," says Mr. Stearns,
"that the publishing agent should keep 'all the temperance literature of
the day.' This was found to consist of less than a dozen different
publications in print, and these of no special value. All the plates of
valuable works before in existence were either shipped across the water
or melted up and destroyed. The society commenced at once to create a
literature of its own, but found it was not the work of a moment. The
first publication outside of its monthly paper, was a four-page tract by
Rev. T.L. Cuyler, D.D., in February, 1866, entitled 'A Shot at the
Decanter,' of which about two hundred thousand copies have been
published."
FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED.
"The first book was published in May of the same year, entitled,
'Scripture Testimony against Intoxicating Wine.' Prizes were offered for
the best tracts and books, and the best talent in the land sought and
solicited to aid in giving light upon every phase of the question. The
result has been that an immense mass of manuscripts have been received,
examined, assorted, some approved and many rejected, and the list of
publications has gone on steadily increasing, until in the eleven years
it amounts to four hundred and fifty varieties upon every branch, of
the temperance question. There were over twenty separate so-called
secret temperance societies, each with a different ritual and
constitution, with subordinate organizations scattered all over the
land. These contained probably about one million of members. Then there
were churches, open societies, State temperance unions, etc., each
operating independently and with no common bond of union. Some were for
moral suasion alone, others for political action, while others were for
both united. The great need for some national organization which should
be a common centre and ground of union, a medium of communication
between all, and to aid, strengthen and benefit every existing
organization and denomination, was felt all over the land.
"This society was organized to supply such a need. It is both a society
and a publication house. The need and demand came from every quarter for
facts, statistics, arguments and appeals upon every phase of the
question, in neat, cheap and compact form, which, could be sent
everywhere and used by everybody. Public opinion had settled down
against us, and light was needed to arouse it to right action. The
pulpit and the platform were to be supplemented by the press, which,
henceforth, was to be used in this great and rapidly strengthening
cause, as in every other, to reach the individuals and homes of every
portion of the land."
AFTER TWELVE YEARS.
"Twelve years have passed--years of anxious preparation and toil, of
seed-planting and sowing, and they have been improved. This society now
publishes books and tracts upon the moral, economical, physiological,
political, financial, religious, medical and social phases of the
reform. We have the writings of over two hundred different persons in
almost every walk and station in life. We already have a literature of
no mean character. Its influence is not only felt in every State and
Territory in the land, but in every country on the globe.
* * * * *
"Among the early publications of the society were those printed upon
'The Adulteration of Liquors,' 'The Physiological Action of Alcohol,'
'Alcohol: Its Nature and Effects,' 'Alcohol: Its Place and Power,' 'Is
Alcohol Food?' Text-Book of Temperance,' etc., followed later by
'Bacchus Dethroned,' 'The Medical Use of Alcohol,' 'Is Alcohol a
Necessary of Life?' 'Our Wasted Resources,' 'On Alcohol,' 'Prohibition
does Prohibit,' 'Fruits of the Liquor Traffic,' 'The Throne of
Iniquity,' 'Suppression of the Liquor Traffic,' 'Alcohol as a Food and
Medicine,' etc.
"The truths of these books and pamphlets, which have been reproduced in
a thousand ways in sermons, addresses, newspapers, etc., have already
permeated the community to such an extent as to bear much fruit."
In the creation of a literature for children, the society early issued
_The Youths' Temperance Banner_, a paper for Sunday-schools. This has
attained a circulation of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand copies
monthly. It has also created a Sunday-school temperance library, which
numbers already as many as seventy bound, volumes; editions of which
reaching in the aggregate to one hundred and eighty-three thousand five
hundred and seventy-six volumes have already been sold. The society also
publishes a monthly paper called the _National Temperance Advocate_,
which has a wide circulation.
REMARKABLE GROWTH OF TEMPERANCE LITERATURE.
The number of books, pamphlets and tracts which have been issued by the
National Temperance Society during the twelve years of its existence, is
four hundred and sixty, some of them large and important volumes.
To this extraordinary production and growth of temperance literature in
the past twelve years are the people indebted for that advanced public
sentiment which is to-day gathering such force and will.
And here, let us say, in behalf of a society which has done such grand
and noble work, that from the very outset it has had to struggle with
pecuniary difficulties.
Referring to the difficulties and embarrassments with which the society
has had to contend from the beginning, the secretary says:
"The early financial struggles of the society are known only to a very
few persons. It was deemed best by the majority of the board not to let
the public know our poverty. Looking back over the eleven years of
severe struggles, pecuniary embarrassments, unexpected difficulties,
anxious days, toiling, wearisome nights, with hopes of relief dashed at
almost every turn, surrounded by the indifference of friends, and with
the violent opposition of enemies, we can only wonder that the society
has breasted the storm and is saved from a complete and total wreck. * * *
This society never was endowed, never had a working capital, never has
been the recipient of contributions from churches or of systematic
donations from individuals. It never has had a day of relief from
financial embarrassment since its organization; and yet there never has
been a day but that the sum of ten thousand dollars would have lifted it
out of its embarrassments and started it with a buoyant heart on towards
the accomplishment of its mission."
And he adds: "Notwithstanding all these constant and ever-pressing
financial embarrassments, the society has never faltered for one moment,
but has gone steadily on doing its appointed work, exploring new fields,
and developing both old and new truths and documents and principles, and
it stands to-day the strongest and most solid and substantial bulwark
against intemperance in the land."
A MOST IMPORTANT AGENCY.
As the most important of all the agencies now used for the suppression
of the liquor traffic, and as the efficient ally of all let us rally to
the support of our great publication house and see that it has ampler
means for the work in which it is engaged. There are hundreds of
thousands of men and women in our land who are happy and prosperous
to-day because of what this society has done in the last twelve years to
create a sentiment adverse to the traffic and to the drinking usages of
society. Its work is so silent and unobtrusive in comparison, with that
of many other efficient, but more limited instrumentalities, that we are
apt to lose sight of its claims, and to fail in giving an adequate
support to the very power, which is, in a large measure, the source of
power to all the rest.
If we would war successfully with our strong and defiant enemy, we must
look to it that the literature of temperance does not languish. We are
not making it half as efficient as it might be. Here we have a
thoroughly organized publication house, with capable and active agents,
which, if the means were placed at its disposal, could flood the country
with books, pamphlets and tracts by millions every year; and we leave it
to struggle with embarrassments, and to halting and crippled work. This
is not well. Our literature is our right arm in this great conflict, and
only in the degree that we strengthen this arm will we be successful in
our pursuit of victory.
[Illustration: FINANCIAL VIEW OF THE LICENSE SYSTEM.
"Whatever revenue license pays the State is fully counterbalanced by the
increased cost of jails, poorhouses and police, for which the patient
public pays immense taxation. The moral burdens from the infamous
traffic are all additional to the financial."]
CHAPTER XVII.
LICENSE A FAILURE AND A DISGRACE.
For over two hundred years in this country, and for a much longer period
of time in Great Britain and some of the countries of Continental
Europe, attempts have been made to protect the people against the evils
of intemperance by restrictive liquor laws. But as these laws were
permissive and not prohibitory, the evil was not restrained. Nay, its
larger growth came as the natural consequence of such laws, for they not
only gave to a few men in every community the right to live and grow
rich by doing all in their power to increase the evil, but threw around
them the protection of the State; so leaving the people powerless in
their hands.
HISTORY OF LICENSE IN MASSACHUSETTS.
The history of all restrictive laws which have stopped short of absolute
prohibition, is a history of the saddest of failures, and shows that to
license an evil is to increase its power.
Judge Robert C. Pitman, in his "Alcohol and the State," an exceedingly
valuable discussion of the "Problem of Law as Applied to the Liquor
Traffic," gives an instructive history of the license laws of
Massachusetts from early colonial times down to the year 1877. The
experience of Massachusetts is that of every other community, State or
nation, which has sought to repress drunkenness and its attendant evils
by the enactment of license laws; and we ask the reader's earnest and
candid consideration of the facts we shall here present.
As early as 1636, an effort was made in the Old Colony to lessen
intemperance by the passage of a restrictive law, declaring "That none
be suffered to retail wine, strong water or beer, either within doors or
without, except in inns or victualing-houses allowed." That this law did
not lessen the evil of drunkenness is plain from the fact that, in 1646,
in the preamble to a new liquor law it was declared by the Massachusetts
colony that, "Forasmuch as drunkenness is a vice to be abhorred of all
nations, especially of those who hold out and profess the Gospel of
Christ, and seeing _any strict law will not prevail unless the cause be
taken away_, it is, therefore, ordered by this Court,"--What? Entire
prohibition of the sale of intoxicating drinks? No. Only, "That no
merchant, cooper or any other person whatever, shall, after the first
day of the first month, sell any wine under one-quarter of a cask,
neither by quart, gallon or any other measure, _but only such taverners
as are licensed to sell by the gallon_." And in order still further to
protect and encourage the publican in his Tested and exclusive right, it
was further enacted that, "Any _taverners_ or other persons who shall
inform against any transgressor, shall have one-half of the fines for
his _encouragement_." This law contained a section which forbids any
person licensed "to sell strong waters, or any private housekeeper to
permit any person to sit drinking or tippling strong waters, wine or
strong beer in their houses."
THE EVIL STILL INCREASING.
Still the evil of drunkenness went on increasing under the license
system, until in 1692, we find in a preamble to certain more stringent
laws for the regulation of the traffic, this sad confession: "And
forasmuch as the ancient, true and principal use of inns, taverns,
ale-houses, victualing-houses and other houses for common entertainment
is for receipt, relief and lodging of travelers and strangers, and the
refreshment of persons on lawful business. * * * And not for
entertainment and harboring of lewd or idle people to spend or consume
their time or money there; therefore, _to prevent the mischief and great
disorders happening daily by abuse of such houses_, It is further
enacted," etc.--not prohibition of the sale; but further restrictions
and penalties. How far these restrictions and penalties were effective,
appears from the statue of 1695, in the preamble of which is a complaint
that divers persons who had obtained license to sell liquor to be taken
away and not drunk in their houses, did, notwithstanding, "give
entertainment to persons to sit drinking and tippling there," while
others who "_have no license at all_ are yet so hardy as to run upon the
law," to the "great increase of drunkenness and other debaucheries."
These colonial fathers, in their efforts to lessen the evil of drinking
by restrictive license, for which a fee to the State was required,
opened a door for the unlicensed dram-shop, which was then, as it is
now, one of the worst forms of the liquor traffic, because it is in the
hands of more unscrupulous persons, too many of whom are of the lowest
and vilest class, and whose tippling-houses are dens of crime and infamy
as well as drunkenness.
How this was in the colony of Massachusetts under license in 1695 is
seen above, and further appears in this recital taken from the statute
to further limit the spread of drunkenness, wherein it refers to "divers
_ill-disposed and indigent persons, the pains and penalties in the laws
already made not regarding,_ who are so hardy _as to presume to sell and
retail_ strong beer, ale, cider, sherry wine, rum or other strong
liquors or mixed drinks, and _to keep common tippling-houses_, thereby
harboring and entertaining apprentices, Indians, negroes and other idle
and dissolute persons, tending to the ruin and impoverishment of
families, and all impieties and debaucheries, and _if detected are
unable to pay their fine_." All such were sentenced to the
whipping-post.
Three years later, the curse of the licensed traffic had so augmented
that another effort was made for its regulation by the enactment of a
new and more comprehensive law entitled, "An Act for the Inspecting and
_Suppressing of Disorders_ in Licensed Houses."
WORSE AND WORSE.
How successful the good people of Massachusetts were in holding in check
and regulating the evil which they had clothed with power by license,
appears in the preamble to a new Act passed in 1711, "For reclaiming the
over great number of licensed houses, many of which are chiefly used for
revelling and tippling, and become _nurseries of intemperance and
debauchery_, indulged by the masters and keepers of the same for the
sake of gain."
So it went on, from bad to worse, under the Colonial Government, until
1787, when the State constitution was adopted. To what a frightful
magnitude the evil of drunkenness, provided for and fostered by license,
had grown, appears from an entry in the diary of John Adams, under date
of February 29th, 1760, in which he says that few things were "so
fruitful of destructive evils" as "licensed houses." They had become, he
declares, "the eternal haunts of loose, disorderly people of the town,
which renders them offensive and unfit for the entertainment of any
traveler of the least delicacy." * * * "Young people are tempted to
waste their time and money, and to acquire habits of intemperance and
idleness, that we often see reduce many to beggary and vice, and lead
some of them, at least, to prison and the gallows."
In entering upon her career as a State, Massachusetts continued the
license system, laying upon it many prudent restrictions, all of which
were of no avail, for the testimony is complete as to the steady
increase of drunkenness, crime and debauchery.
TESTIMONY OF JOHN ADAMS.
Writing to Mr. Rush, in 1811, John Adams says: "Fifty-three years ago I
was fired with a zeal, amounting to enthusiasm, against ardent spirits,
the multiplication of taverns, retailers, dram-shops and
tippling-houses. Grieved to the heart to see the number of idlers,
thieves, sots and consumptive patients made for the physicians in these
infamous seminaries, I applied to the Court of Sessions, procured a
Committee of Inspection and Inquiry, reduced the number of licensed
houses, etc., _but I only acquired the reputation of a hypocrite and an
ambitious demagogue by it_. The number of licensed houses was soon
reinstated; drams, grog and sotting were not diminished, _and remain to
this day as deplorable as ever_."
OPENING A WIDER DOOR.
In 1816, so demoralized had the sentiment of the people become, and so
strong the liquor interest of the State, that the saving provision in
the license laws, which limited the sale of liquor to inns and taverns,
was repealed, and licenses were granted to common victualers, "who shall
not be required to furnish accommodations" for travelers; and also to
confectioners on the same terms as to inn-keepers; that is, to sell and
to be drunk on the premises. This change in the license laws of
Massachusetts was declared, by Judge Aldrich, in 1867, to be "one of the
most fruitful sources of crime and vice that ever existed in this
Commonwealth."
Up to as late as 1832, attempts were continued to patch up and amend the
license laws of the State; after that they were left, for a time, to do
their evil work, all efforts to make them anything but promoters of
drunkenness, crime and poverty being regarded as fruitless.
"Miserable in principle," says Judge Pitman, "license laws were found no
less inefficient in practice." Meantime, the battle against the liquor
traffic had been going on in various parts of the State. In 1835, a law
was secured by which the office of county commissioner (the licensing
authority) was made an elective office; heretofore it had been held by
appointment. This gave the people of each county a local control over
the liquor question, and in the very first year the counties of Plymouth
and Bristol elected boards committed to the policy of no license. Other
counties followed this good example; and to bar all questions of the
right to refuse every license by a county, the power was expressly
conferred by a law passed in 1837.
A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.
The good results were immediately apparent in all places where license
to sell intoxicating drinks was refused. After a thorough investigation
of the matter, the Judiciary Committee of the Legislature reported the
evidence to be "perfectly incontrovertable, that the good order and the
physical and moral welfare of the community had been promoted by
refusing to license the sale of ardent spirits; and that although the
laws have been and are violated to some extent in different places, the
practice soon becomes disreputable and hides itself from the public eye
by shrinking into obscure and dark places; that noisy and tumultuous
assemblies in the streets and public quarrels cease where license is
refused; _and that pauperism has very rapidly diminished from the same
cause_."
An attempt to prohibit entirely the retail liquor traffic was made in
1838, by the passage of what was known as the "Fifteen-Gallon Law,"
which forbade the sale of spirituous liquors in a less quantity than
fifteen gallons, which had to be "carried away all at one time;" except
by apothecaries and practicing physicians, who might sell for use in the
arts and for medicinal purposes.
But this law remained in operation only a year and a half; when, in
concession to the liquor interest of the State, which had been strong
enough to precipitate a political revolution and get its own men in the
legislature, it was repealed.
"But the State," says Judge Pitman, "while the memory of license was
fresh, was not to fall again under its sway. The struggle for local
prohibition was at once renewed, and in a few years license had ceased
throughout the Commonwealth. The statement may surprise many; but I have
the authority of the city clerk of Boston for saying, that 'no licenses
for the sale of intoxicating liquors were granted in Boston between 1841
and 1852.' * * * And so the chapter of license was apparently closed. It
had not only had its 'day,' but its centuries in court; and the
well-nigh unanimous verdict was: '_disgrace_--_failure_'"
So strong was this conviction in the minds of the people of
Massachusetts, that Governor Bullock, in 1861, while acting as chairman
of the Judiciary Committee of the House, gave it expression in these
notable words: "It may be taken as the solemnly declared, judgment of
the people of the Commonwealth, that the principle of licensing the
traffic in intoxicating drinks as a beverage, _and thus giving legal
sanction to that which is regarded in itself as an evil, is no longer
admissible in morals or in legislation_"
THE LIQUOR POWER IN THE ASCENDANT AGAIN.
But in 1868, adverse influences prevailed, and after all her sad and
disgraceful experience, Massachusetts abandoned her prohibition of the
traffic and went back to license again; but the evil consequences began
to show themselves so quickly that the law was repealed in less than a
year.
Governor Claflin, in his message to the legislature in January, 1869,
thus speaks of the effect of the new license law: "The increase of
drunkenness and crime during the last six months, as compared with the
same period of 1867, is very marked and decisive as to the operation of
the law. _The State prisons, jails and houses of correction are being
rapidly filled_, and will soon require enlarged accommodation if the
commitments continue to increase as they have since the present law went
in force."
While the chaplain of the State prison in his annual report for 1868,
says: "The prison never was so full as at the present time. If the
rapidly increasing tide of intemperance, so greatly swollen by the
present wretched license law, is suffered to rush on unchecked, there
will be a fearful increase of crime, and the State must soon extend the
limits of the prison, or create another."
This law was repealed, as we have seen. A year of its bitter fruit was
enough for the people.
SUBMITTING AGAIN TO THE YOKE.
But, strange to say, after all she has suffered from license laws, the
old Bay State has again submitted to the yoke, and is once more in the
hands of the great liquor interest. In 1874, she drifted out from the
safe harbor of prohibition, and we find her, to-day, on the stormy and
storm-wrecked sea of license. A miserable attempt has been made by the
friends of this law to show that its action has been salutory in Boston,
the headquarters of the liquor power, in the diminution of dram-shops
and arrests for drunkenness. Water may run up hill in Boston; but it
obeys the law of gravitation in other places. We leave the reader to
draw his own conclusions from this extract from the report of the
License Commissioners of that city, made February 1st, 1877: "It must be
admitted that the business of liquor-selling in this city is, to a very
large extent, in the hands of _irresponsible men and women_, whose idea
of a license law ends with the simple matter of paying a certain sum,
the amount making but little difference to them, _provided they are left
to do as they please after payment_. Besides the saloons and bar-rooms,
which are open publicly, the traffic in small grocery stores, in cellars
and in dwelling-houses, in some parts of the city, _is almost
astounding. The Sunday trade is enormous, and it seems as if there were
not hours enough in the whole round of twenty-four, or days enough in
the entire week to satisfy the dealers_."
The experience of Massachusetts is, as we have already said, the
experience of every community, State or nation in which an effort has
been made to abridge the evils of intemperance by licensing the
dram-shop.
And to whom and to what class of citizens does the State accord, under
license, the privilege of making gain out of the people's loss? For
whom is every interest in the nation taxed and every industry hurt? For
whom are the houses of the poor made poorer; and the supply of bread
diminished? For whom are a crime-assaulted and pauper-ridden people
driven to build jails and poor-houses, and insane asylums, and maintain
courts and juries and a vast army of police, at the cost of millions of
dollars every year?
For great benefactors to whom the nation owes a debt of gratitude? For
men who are engaged in great industrial or commercial enterprises?
Promoters of education? leaders in the great march of civilization? Even
if this were so, better not to have accepted the service than pay for it
at so fearful a cost.
Who and what are these men?--this great privileged class? Let us see. In
Boston, we have the testimony of the License Commissioners that
liquor-selling is in the hands of "irresponsible men and women," who pay
a license for the privilege of doing "as they please after payment." And
for the maintenance of these "irresponsible" men and women in their
right to corrupt and degrade the people, a forced tax is laid on every
bit of property and every interest in the great city of Boston! What was
the tax on tea to this? And yet, Boston patiently submits!
Is it better in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Chicago
or any other of our large cities? Not a whit! In some it is worse,
even, than in the capital of the old Bay State. In one of these
last-mentioned cities, where, under the license system so dear to
politicians, and for which they are chiefly responsible, between seven
and eight thousand places in which liquor is sold at retail exist, an
effort was made in 1876 to ascertain the character and antecedents of
every person engaged in dram-selling. We are not able to say how
carefully or thoroughly the investigation was pursued, but it was in the
hands of those who meant that it should be complete and accurate. One
fact elicited was, that the proportion of native-born citizens to the
whole number engaged in the business was less than one-sixth. Another
was, that over six thousand of these dram-sellers belonged to the
criminal class, and had suffered imprisonment, some for extended terms
in the State prison. And another was, that nearly four thousand of the
drinking-places which had been established under the fostering care of
State license laws were houses of ill-fame as well! Comment is
unnecessary.
We cannot lessen the evil nor abate the curse of drunkenness so long as
we license a traffic, which, from its essential hostility to all the
best interests of society, naturally falls into the hands of our worst
citizens, who persistently violate every salutory and restrictive
feature in the laws which give their trade a recognized existence.
What then? Is there any remedy short of Prohibition? We believe not.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PROHIBITION.
It has taken nearly half a century to convince the people that only in
total abstinence lies any hope of cure for the drunkard. When this
doctrine was first announced, its advocates met with opposition,
ridicule and even insult. Now it has almost universal acceptance. The
effort to hold an inebriate's appetite in check by any restriction that
included license, has, in all cases, proved so signal a failure, that
the "letting down," or "tapering off" process has been wholly abandoned
in inebriate asylums. There is no hope, as we have said, but in complete
abstinence.
NO REMEDY BUT PROHIBITION.
Is there any other means of cure for national drunkenness? The remedy of
license has been found as valueless for the whole people as restriction
for the individual. Appetite, when once depraved, becomes, in the
individual, lawless, exacting and unscrupulous; not hesitating to
trample on duty, justice, humanity and every public and private virtue.
It will keep no faith; it will hold to no pledge, however solemnly
taken. It must be wholly denied or it will be wholly master.
As in the individual, so in the nation, State or community. Appetite
loses nothing by aggregation; nor are the laws of its action changed. If
not denied by prohibition in the State, as by total abstinence in the
individual, it will continue to entail upon the people loss and ruin and
unutterable woes. License, restrictive permission, tax, all will be vain
in the future as they have been in the past. There is no hope, no help,
no refuge in anything but _Prohibition_!
And here we art met by two questions, fairly and honestly asked. First.
Is prohibition right in the abstract as a legislative measure? Second.
Can prohibitory laws be enforced, and will they cure the evil of
drunkenness?
First, as to the question of legislative action. Can the State forbid
the sale of intoxicating drinks as a beverage without violating the
natural right of certain citizens, engaged in the manufacture and sale
of these articles, to supply them to customers who wish to purchase?
We answer, that no man has a natural right to do wrong; that is, to
engage in any pursuit by which he makes gain out of loss and injury to
his neighbor. The essential principle of government is the well-being of
the people. It guarantees to the weak, security against the strong; it
punishes evil doers, and seeks to protect its citizens from the evil
effects of that unscrupulous selfishness in the individual which would
trample on the rights of all the rest in its pursuit of money or power.
Now, if it can be shown that the liquor traffic is a good thing; that
it benefits the people; makes them more prosperous and happy; improves
their health; promotes education and encourages virtue, then its right
to exist in the community has been established. Or, even if the good
claimed for it be only negative instead, of positive, its right must
still be unquestioned. But what if it works evil and only evil in the
State? What if it blights and curses every neighborhood, and town, and
city, and nation in which it exists; laying heavy taxes upon the people
that it may live and flourish, crippling all industries; corrupting the
morals of the people; enticing the young from virtue; filling jails, and
poor-houses, and asylums with a great army of criminals, paupers and
insane men and women, yearly extinguishing the light in thousands of
happy homes? What then?
Does this fruit of the liquor traffic establish its right to existence
and to the protection of law? Let the reader answer the question for
himself. That it entails all of these evils, and many more, upon the
community, cannot and will not be denied. That it does any good, cannot
be shown. Fairly, then, it has no right to existence in any government
established for the good of the people; and in suppressing it, no wrong
can be done.
PROHIBITION NOT UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
How the question of prohibition is regarded by the highest legal
authority in the United States will appear from the following opinions
officially given by four of the Justices of our Supreme Court. They are
expressed in no doubtful or hesitating form of speech:
Chief Justice Taney said: "If any State deems the retail and internal
traffic in ardent spirits injurious to its citizens, and calculated to
produce idleness, vice or debauchery, I see nothing in the Constitution
of the United States to prevent it from regulating or restraining the
traffic, or from prohibiting it altogether, if it thinks proper."--[5
Howard, 577.]
Hon. Justice McLean said: "A license to sell is a matter of police and
revenue within the power of the State."--[5 Ibid., 589.] "If the foreign
article be injurious to the health and morals of the community, a State
may prohibit the sale of it."
Hon. Justice Catron said: "If the State has the power of restraint by
license to any extent, she may go to the length of prohibiting sales
altogether."--[5 Ibid., 611.]
Hon. Justice Grier said: "It is not necessary to array the appalling
statistics of misery, pauperism and crime which have their origin in the
use and abuse of ardent spirits. The police power, which is exclusively
in the State, is competent to the correction of these great evils, and
all measures of restraint or prohibition necessary to effect that
purpose are within the scope of that authority."--[Ibid., 532.]
That the State has a clear right to prohibit the sale of intoxicating
drinks, because this sale not only hurts all other interests, but
destroys the health and degrades the morals of the people, has been
fully shown.
The question next to be considered is, Can prohibitory laws be enforced?
and if so, will they remove from the people the curse of drunkenness?
CAN PROHIBITORY LAWS BE ENFORCED?
As to the complete enforcement of any salutory law, that depends mainly
on the public sentiment regarding it, and on the organized strength of
its opposers. If the common sentiment of the people were in favor of
every man's liberty to steal whatever he could lay his hands on, it
would be found very difficult to convict a rogue, no matter how clearly
expressed the law against stealing. A single thief in the jury-box could
defeat the ends of justice. A hundred loop-holes for escape can always
be found in the provisions of a law with which the majority of the
people are not in sympathy. Indeed, it often happens that such
loop-holes are provided by the law-makers themselves; and this is
especially true in too many of the laws made for the suppression of the
liquor trade.
Is this an argument against the enactment of laws to protect the people
from great wrongs--especially the weaker and more helpless ones? To the
half-hearted, the indifferent and the pusillanimous--yes! But with
brave, true men, who have at heart the best interests of humanity, this
can only intensify opposition to wrong, and give strength for new
efforts to destroy its power. These have an undying faith in the
ultimate victory of good over evil, and mean, so far as they are
concerned, that the battle shall continue until that victory is won.
Judge Pitman has eloquently expressed this sentiment in the closing
pages of his recent work, to which we have more than once referred.
Speaking of those who distrust the practicability of securing such
legislation as will effectually destroy the liquor trade, he says: "They
are appalled at the power of the traffic. They see that it has uncounted
wealth at its command; that it is organized and unscrupulous; that it
has the support of fierce appetite behind it and the alliance of every
evil lust; that it is able to bribe or intimidate the great political
parties. All this is true; but still it is not to be the final victor.
It has all the elemental moral forces of the human race against it, and
though their working be slow, and their rate of progress dependent on
human energy and fidelity, the ultimate result is as certain as the
action of the law of gravity in the material universe. Wealth may be
against us; rank may affect to despise us; but the light whose dawn
makes a new morning in the world, rarely shines from palace or crown,
but from the manger and the cross. Before the aroused consciences of the
people, wielding the indomitable will of a State, the destroyers of soul
and body shall go down forever."
THE VALUE OF PROHIBITORY LAWS WHEN ENFORCED.
It remains now to show how far prohibitory laws, when enforced, have
secured the end for which they were created. On this point, the evidence
is clear and satisfactory. In Vermont, a prohibitory law has existed for
over twenty-three years. In some parts of the State it is rigidly
enforced; in others with less severity. Judge Peck, of the Supreme Court
says: "The law has had an effect upon our customs, and has done away
with that of treating and promiscuous drinking. * * * _In attending
court for ten years, I do not remember to have seen a drunken man."_ In
St. Johnsbury, where there is a population of five thousand, the law has
been strictly enforced; and the testimony in regard to the town is this:
"There is no bar, no dram-shop, no poor, and no policeman walks the
streets. It is the workingman's paradise."
Connecticut enacted a prohibitory law in 1854. In 1855, Governor Dutton
said, in his annual message to the General Assembly: "There is scarcely
an open grog-shop in the State, the jails are fast becoming tenantless,
and a delightful air of security is everywhere enjoyed."
In Meriden, the chaplain of the reform school testified that "crime had
diminished seventy-five per cent." In New London, the jail was
tenantless. In Norwich, the jails and almshouses were reported "as
almost empty." But in 1873, the liquor influence was strong enough in
the legislature to substitute license for prohibition. The consequence
was an immediate increase of drunkenness and crime. Two years
afterwards, the Secretary of State declared that "there was a greater
increase of crime in one year under license than in seven years under
prohibition."
Vineland, New Jersey, has a population of ten thousand. Absolute
prohibition is the law of that community. One constable, who is also
overseer of the poor, is sufficient to maintain public order. In 1875,
his annual report says: "We have practically no debt. * * * The police
expenses of Vineland amount to seventy-five dollars a year, the sum paid
to me, and our poor expenses are a mere trifle."
In Potter County, Pennsylvania, there has been a prohibitory law for
many years. Hon. John S. Mann says: "Its effect, as regards crime, is
marked and conspicuous. _Our jail is without inmates, except the
sheriff_, for more than half the time."
Other instances of local prohibition in this country could be given, but
these are sufficient.
Bessbrook, a town in Ireland of four thousand inhabitants, has no
liquor-shop, and whisky and strong drink are strictly prohibited. _There
is no poor-house, pawn-shop or police-station._ The town is entirely
free from strife, discord or disturbance.
In the county of Tyrone, Ireland, no drinking house is allowed. In 1870,
Right Hon. Claude Hamilton said: "At present there is not a single
policeman in that district. The poor-rates are half what they were
before, and the magistrates testify to the great absence of crime."
In many parts of England and Scotland there is local prohibition, and
the uniform testimony as to the absence of pauperism and crime is as
unequivocal as that given above.
THE MAINE LAW--ITS COMPLETE VINDICATION.
But it is to the State of Maine, where a prohibitory law has existed for
over a quarter of a century, and where prohibition has been put to the
severest tests, that we must look for the more decisive proofs of
success or failure.
On the evidence which Maine furnishes, the advocates of legal
suppression are content to rest their case. In order to get a brief, but
thoroughly accurate and reliable history of the Maine law, we addressed
a letter to Hon. Neal Dow, of Portland, Maine, asking him to furnish us,
for this volume, with the facts and evidence by which our readers could
for themselves judge whether the law were a dead letter, as some
asserted, or effective and salutory. In reply, Mr. Dow has kindly
furnished us with the following deeply interesting and important
communication:
TESTIMONY OF HON. NEAL DOW.
PORTLAND, October 12th, 1877.
T.S. ARTHUR, ESQ.:
_Dear Sir_--I will gladly furnish you with a brief history of the
Maine Law, and a statement of its operation and effects in Maine,
in the hope that the wide circulation of the work you have in
preparation may serve to correct the mistaken notion that prevails,
to the effect that the law has failed of any useful result, and
that the liquor traffic is carried on as extensively in Maine as
ever it had been, with all its baleful effects upon the moral and
material interests of the State.
In the old time the people of Maine were as much addicted to the
use of strong drinks as those of any other part of the country; and
the effects of this shocking habit were seen everywhere in shabby
buildings, neglected farms and in wide-spread poverty. There were,
in this State, magnificent forests of the best pine timber in the
world. The manufacture of this timber into "lumber" of various
descriptions, and the sale of it, were the leading industries of
Maine. The products of our vast forests were sent chiefly to the
West India Islands, and the returns were mostly in rum and in
molasses, to be converted into rum by our own distilleries, of
which there were many among us, in various parts of the
State--seven of them in this city, running night and day. This rum,
almost the whole of it, whether imported or home-made, was consumed
among our own people. It was sent in the way of trade and in
exchange for "lumber" into every part of our territory; not a town
or village, or rural district escaped, however remote or thinly
populated it might be.
The result of this was, that almost the entire value of all this
vast industry went down the throats of our people in the shape of
rum, either imported or home-made. I have heard men say who had
been extensively engaged in this lumber trade, that Maine is not a
dollar the richer, and never was, on account of this immense
business; but that the people were poorer in consequence of it, and
more miserable than they would have been if the pine forests had
been swept away by a great conflagration.
The effects of this course of trade were seen everywhere throughout
the State. In scarcely any part of it was there any evidence of
business prosperity or thrift, but, generally, there was abundant
evidence of poverty, untidiness and decay. In the lumbering towns
and villages, where the innumerable saw-mills were, the greatest
bustle and activity prevailed. The air resounded with the loud
noises coming from these mills. Night and day they were "run,"
never ceasing until the "logs" were "worked up." Relays of hands
were employed at all these lumbering centres, so that the saw-mills
never stopped even for an hour during "the season," except for some
occasional repairs. All these men drank rum; a quart a day per man
was a moderate quantity; but a great many of them required two
quarts a day. The result of this was, that the entire wages of the
men were consumed in drink, except a meagre share that went to the
miserable wives and children at home.
Everywhere throughout the State the results of this way of life was
to be seen--in the general poverty of the people, and in the
shabbiness of all their surroundings. But some persons conceived
the idea that all this evil was not necessary and inevitable; that
it came from the liquor traffic, which might be prohibited and
suppressed, as lottery-tickets, gambling-houses and impure books
and pictures had already been. And they devoted themselves
constantly and industriously to the work of correcting the public
opinion of the people as to the liquor traffic by demonstrating to
them that this trade was in deadly hostility to every interest of
the State, while no good came from it, nor could come from it, to
State or people.
This educational work was carried on persistently for years;
meetings were held by these persons in every little country-church
and town-house, and in every little wayside school-house, where the
farmers and their wives and children assembled at the call of these
missionaries, to listen to their burning denunciation of the liquor
traffic, which lived only by spreading poverty, pauperism,
suffering, insanity, crime and premature death broadcast over the
State. The result of this teaching was, that the public opinion of
the State became thoroughly changed as to the character of the
liquor traffic and its relation to the public prosperity and
welfare.
When we thought the time had come for it, we demanded of the
Legislature that the law of "license," then upon the statute books,
which represented the public opinion of the old time, should be
changed for a law of prohibition, representing the improved public
opinion of the present time; and, after two unsuccessful attempts
to procure such a law, we obtained what we desired, an act of
absolute prohibition to the manufacture and sale of strong drink--a
measure for which we had labored long and industriously for many
years.
At the time of the enactment of this statute, now known as the
MAINE LAW the world over, the liquor traffic was carried on
extensively in the State, wholesale and retail, precisely as it is
now in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and in every other State
where that trade is licensed and protected by the law. The Maine
Law went into operation immediately upon its approval by the
Governor, and by its provisions, liquors kept for sale everywhere,
all over the State, were liable to be seized, forfeited and
destroyed, and the owners to be punished by fine and imprisonment.
The municipal authorities of the cities and towns allowed the
dealers a reasonable time to send away their stocks of liquors to
other States and countries, where their sale was permitted by the
law.
The liquor-traders availed themselves of this forbearance of the
authorities, and did generally send their stock of liquors out of
the State. The open sale of liquors came instantly to an end
throughout all our territory, and where it continued, it was done
secretly, as other things are done in violation of law. The
manufacture of intoxicating liquors was entirely stopped, so that
in all the State there was absolutely none produced, except cider,
which might be made and used for vinegar.
The effect of this policy of prohibition to the liquor traffic was
speedily visible in our work-houses, jails and houses of
corrections. The jail of Cumberland County, the most populous of
the State, had been badly over-crowded, but within four months of
the enactment of the law there were but five prisoners in it, three
of whom were liquor-sellers, put in for violation of the law. The
jails of Penobscot; Kennebec, Franklin, Oxford and York were
absolutely empty. The inmates of the work-houses were greatly
reduced in number, and in some of the smaller towns pauperism
ceased entirely.
But, during all this time, in every part of the country, reports
were industriously circulated that the law was inoperative for
good, and that liquors were sold in Maine as freely and in as large
quantities as before the law. These false statements were
industriously and persistently made everywhere by those interested
in the liquor trade, and by those impelled by appetite or passion.
It is sufficient for me to say here that the Maine Law, from the
first, has been as faithfully executed as our other criminal laws
have been, though there has been, at certain times, and in certain
localities, considerable complicity with the violators of it, on
the part of many officers of the law, so that the Legislature has
at last provided heavy penalties for the punishment of prosecuting
officers, justices of the peace and judges of municipal and police
courts, in case of failure in their duty. I am glad to be able to
say that the judges of our higher courts have, from the first, been
true to their duty in the administration of this law, as of all
others.
In much the larger part of Maine, in all the rural districts, in
the villages and smaller towns, the liquor traffic is absolutely
unknown; no such thing as a liquor-shop exists there, either open
or secret. The traffic lingers secretly only in the larger towns
and cities, where it leads a precarious and troubled life--only
among the lowest and vilest part of our foreign population. Nowhere
in the State is there any visible sign of this horrible trade. The
penalties of the law, as they now stand, are sufficient to
extinguish the traffic in all the small towns, and to drive it into
dens and dark corners in the larger towns. The people of Maine now
regard this trade as living, where it exists at all, only on the
misery and wretchedness of the community. They speak of it
everywhere, in the press, on the platform, and in legislative
halls, as the gigantic crime of crimes, and we mean to treat it as
such by the law.
For some years after the enactment of the law, it entered largely
into the politics of the State. Candidates were nominated by one
party or the other with reference to their proclivities for rum or
their hostility to it, and the people were determined in their
votes, one way or the other, by this consideration.
Now, the policy of prohibition, with penalties stringent enough to
be effective, has become as firmly settled in this State as that of
universal education or the vote by ballot. The Republican party, in
its annual conventions, during all these years, has affirmed,
unanimously, its "adhesion to prohibition and the vigorous
enforcement of laws to that end;" and the Democratic party, in its
annual convention of this year, rejected, by an immense majority,
and with enthusiastic cheers, a resolution, proposed from the
floor, in favor of "license."
The original Maine Law was enacted by a vote in the House of
eighty-six to forty, and in the Senate by eighteen to ten. There
have been several subsequent liquor laws, all in the direction of
greater stringency; and the Legislature of this year enacted an
additional law, with penalties much more stringent than any which
had preceded it, without a dissenting vote. No one can mistake the
significance of this fact; it was an unanimous affirmation of
adhesion to the policy of prohibition, after a steady trial of it
and experience of its results for more than a quarter of a century.
And, since that time, the people have passed upon it at the late
annual election by an approval of the policy and of the men who
favor it--by an immense majority. If it be conceded that the people
of Maine possess an ordinary share of intelligence and common
sense, this result would be impossible, unless the effect of
prohibition had been beneficial to the State and to them.
While we were earnestly at work in bringing up the public opinion
of the State to the point of demanding the prohibition of the
liquor traffic, as a more important political and social question
than any other or all others, I was startled at hearing a gentleman
of the town of Raymond declare that in his town the people
consumed in strong drink its entire valuation in every period of
eighteen years eight months and twenty-five days! "Here are the
figures," he said; "I know the quantity of liquor brought into the
town annually. I am so situated that I am able to state this
accurately, beyond all possibility of doubt, except that liquors
may be brought here by other than the ordinary mode of
transportation without my knowledge; but the quantities stated in
this paper (which he held in his hand), and their cost are within
my knowledge." This was part of a speech to his fellow-townsmen,
and his statement was admitted to be true. Now there is not a drop
of liquor sold in that town, and there has not been any sold there
for many years. This statement may strike us at first blush to be
tremendously exaggerated, that the people of any locality should
consume in strong drink the entire value of its real estate and
personal property in every period of less than twenty years. But
let us examine it.
We learn from the Bureau of Statistics that the annual liquor bill
of the United States is seven hundred millions of dollars. This
does not include the enormous quantity of "crooked whisky" which
has been put upon the market with or without the knowledge,
consent, assent or complicity of our public officers, from the
highest to the lowest. The drink bill of the United Kingdom, with a
population smaller than ours, is more than this by many millions.
This valuation--seven hundred millions of dollars--is the price, by
the quantity, taken from the figures as they come into the public
office, while the cost to the consumers is vastly greater. Now,
this sum with annual compound interest for ten years, amounts to
the enormous figure of eight billions nine hundred and forty-four
millions one hundred and forty-one thousands of dollars--almost
nine thousand millions of dollars! For twenty years the amount is
twenty-five billions two hundred and forty-five millions six
hundred and eighty-one thousands of dollars. Twenty-five thousand
two hundred and forty-five millions of dollars and more; actually
as much, within a fraction, as the entire value of the personal and
landed property of the United States! My friend of Raymond may
well be credited in the statement made to his fellow-townsmen.
Now, as the result of the Maine Law, in Maine, the wealth and
prosperity of the people have greatly increased. This can be seen
in every part of the State, and is obvious to the most casual
observer who knew what Maine was before the law of prohibition and
knows what it has been since and down to the present time.
Evidences of industry, enterprise and thrift everywhere, instead of
the general poverty, unthrift and shabbiness of the old rum-time.
The share of Maine of the National drink-bill would be about
thirteen millions of dollars, and but for the Maine Law, we should
be consuming our full proportion; but now I feel myself fully
warranted in saying that we do not expend in that way one-tenth of
that sum. A mayor of the city of Portland, in a message to the City
Council, said: "The quantity of liquor now sold is not one-fiftieth
part as much as it was before the enactment of the law." The
difference, whatever it may be, between the sum we should waste in
strong drink, but for the law, and that which we actually squander
in that way, we have in our pockets, in our savings banks and in
our business, so that Maine has suffered far less, financially,
during this crisis than any other part of the country.
I have said the drink-bill of Maine, but for prohibition, would be
about thirteen millions of dollars annually, in proportion to that
of the whole country. Now, this sum, with annual compound interest
at six per cent., in ten years will amount to one hundred and
seventy millions three hundred and nineteen thousand five hundred
and twenty-eight dollars, and in twenty years to four hundred and
sixty-three millions eight hundred and fifty-four thousand four
hundred and twenty dollars--more than twice the entire valuation of
the State by the estimate made in 1870, which was two hundred and
twenty-four millions eight hundred and twenty-two thousand nine
hundred and thirteen dollars. There was a reason then for the
fact, that in the old rum-time the people of Maine were poor and
unthrifty in every way--and for that other fact, that now they are
prosperous and flourishing, with a better business than that of any
other State, proportionately.
Notwithstanding the fact that in Portland a great conflagration
destroyed ten millions of dollars in 1866, burned down half the
town, and turned ten thousand people out of doors, the prosperity
of the city has been steadily on the increase. Its valuation, in
1860, was twenty-one millions eight hundred and sixty-six thousand
dollars, and in 1870, twenty-nine millions four hundred and
thirty-nine thousand two hundred and fifty-seven dollars. In the
last year the increase in valuation, in spite of the hard times,
was four hundred and eighty thousand dollars, while Boston, with
free rum, has lost more than eight millions, and New York and
Brooklyn has experienced an immense depreciation.
I think I have said enough to satisfy every intelligent,
unprejudiced man that the absolute prohibition and suppression of
the liquor traffic has been in the highest interest of our State
and people.
I am very truly, yours,
NEAL DOW.
And here we close our discussion of the most important of all the social
questions that are to-day before the people; and, in doing so, declare
it as our solemn conviction, that until the liquor traffic is abolished,
and the evils with which it curses the people removed, all efforts at
moral reforms must languish, and the Church find impediments in her way
which cannot be removed. The CURSE is upon us, and there is but one
CURE: _Total Abstinence_, by the help of God, for the individual, and
_Prohibition_ for the State.
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