the trouble to investigate thoroughly the nature and causes of this fearful disease which has destroyed more of the lives and happiness of our people than any other known in the catalogue of human ailments-physical, moral, and social combined-there are many who work entirely upon the surface, and instead of accomplishing anything in the direction of temperance reform or practical prohibition, they rather aggravate and encourage the evil by their misdirected efforts to destroy it. They are of the class who are unfortunately lacking in common sense generally. They do not understand the first principles which enter into the constitution of the human mind and heart. They never see but one side of a question, and fail to see that in its true light. They can cherish at the same time but one thought and desire-can entertain but one idea, and are never satisfied without a hobby, with which they bore the very life out of those with whom they daily come in contact. Many of them are called "cranks'" because of this one-sided and impractical way of thinking and acting upon matters of the greatest concern. They generally mean well, and if they could succeed in carrying into execution the visionary conceptions of their brain, the millennium would be certain to come. There would be no necessity for further delay.

An error quite common to temperance workers is that they try to accomplish too much by a single effort, and are too easily discouraged by the apparent failure of their too sanguine expectations. They are too often sadly deficient in patience and perseverance, and if they are unable to bring about a great revolution in public sentiment on the subject of prohibition and temperance, in a day, a month, or a year, they become despondent; and it is not unfrequently the case that they go over to the enemy and become as enthusiastic in their opposition to the cause as they were before in its favor. I have often seen them work faithfully and efficiently for

weeks and for months in an effort to secure the adoption of local prohibition in their precincts and counties, not only spending their time, but their means with the greatest liberality in the promotion of the cause. In such efforts they have been deluded with the fervent expectation that the adoption of this salutary measure would absolutely put an end to the use of intoxicating liquors for purposes prohibited by the law within the boundaries of the territory for which it is enacted, and for several miles beyond the limits of its legal operation. I have afterwards seen these same individuals among the first to declare local option a failure, and heard them express grave and serious doubts as to the efficiency of any form of prohibitory enactments. To see one or two men staggering from intoxication upon the streets or in the alleys of a local option town is, usually, entirely sufficient to convince them of the utter impracticability of the enforcement of the law, and to make them ashamed to acknowledge that they ever voted for local option. They are equally as uncertain, unstable, and unreliable in other important undertakings which require the exercise of unswerving resolution, patience, and perseverance. John Bunyan's Mr. Pliable aptly represents the true characteristics of this class of temperance workers. Many of them are good people, and with a sufficient amount of will power, stability and determination, would do much in the great work of bringing about the temperance reform which is certainly a "consummation devoutly to be wished." Having said this much by way of introduction, I will endeavor, in the chapters which are to follow, to discover some of the causes of drunkenness, to portray some of its fearful results, and to suggest for the consideration of those whose curiosity may lead them to peruse them, some of the practical remedies for the evil which has produced so much of human despair in the world's history, and which is to-day destroying the lives and happiness of millions of people. It is the purpose of the writer of

these chapters to awaken, if possible, a more intelligent enquiry into the nature of the disease which has been so long preying upon the very vitals of society, and, if possible, direct the remedial efforts of our temperance reformers rather to the very seat of the disease than to the temporary suppression of the effects of the social ailment. We have already tried the latter sufficiently, and while it cannot be said that much good has not been the result of the treatment of the symptoms, in the timely use of these remedies which afford temporary relief to the patient, it must be admitted that the patient, the great body of our people, has advanced very slowly, if at all, in the direction of a permanent cure. But before I proceed to the discussion of some of the causes of this blighting evil, I desire to speak of the difficulties in the way of bringing about the much needed reform.

The first obstacle in the way is, that the disease of the body politic has been of such long duration that it has become thoroughly constitutional. This accursed tendency to drunkenness reaches back almost, if not quite, to the cradle of the race. As far back in the dim ages of the past as we have any record, we find men, some of whom important and prominent characters, at times giving way to this thirst for strong drink. While I shall in the further discussion of the subject insist that the origin of this strange appetite for voluntary insanity is to be found in the perverted habits of mankind and not the economy of nature as put into operation by the hand of the Almighty, I must admit that it reaches beyond the beginning of history. I find that shortly after the flood which swept mankind from the face of the earth, with the exception of one family, the head of that family drank wine to a degree of beastly and humiliating drunkenness. I find in the impartial biographies of the patriarchs that this vice is mentioned among their manifold weaknesses. It is useless to attempt to conceal these blemishes in the per

sonal habits of some who, on account of their virtues or wisdom in other respects became great in spite of their frailties. Indeed, the great men of history in all ages of the world have had their faults, their foibles, and their vices. Besides, the personal history of latter day heroes invariably leave out the dark spots of their character. It is doubtful if there has ever lived a man in the world, (not including the Savior of the world), who would give his consent to the publication of a true history of his life, a true portrayal of every phase of his personal character. A great man's history is written either by his friends or his enemies. former, his great actions are extolled to the skies; his bad traits or his personal frailties are studiously suppressed: if by the latter, his greater vices are shown up in all of their enormity; the smaller, such as partake of a private character, are overlooked and left in the dark.

If by the

In our day the fact that a great man is given to excessive and inordinate drinking is of so small a matter that not even his enemies will think enough of it to give it a place in his biography. In olden times it was not so. The sacred historians, who were impartial above all historians on earth, thought drunkenness a matter of sufficient importance to demand a place in the history of the lives of their heroes. They certainly did not regard it as an exemplification of true greatness, but they must have regarded it as an illustration of the weaknesses of the flesh, which may dwell in the same house of clay with the elements of true greatness of mind and of soul. But this branch of the subject will be thorougly reviewed in a subsequent chapter. That mankind are naturally prone to do evil may be assumed. In assuming that fact, fully taught by inspiration, it must follow that mankind are naturally prone to drink whiskey just as they are disposed to do other acts of wickedness. Moreover, it must be evident that it is, perhaps, above all others one that has never lacked

for cultivation and development. All history, aside from our own personal observation and experience, teaches this beyond question. The result is, that the world has become filled with constitutional drunkards, leaving out' of the estimate all of the moderate drinkers, who are fast drifting into the same unhappy condition. To cure a disease of so long standing as to become chronic or constitutional, sometimes requires many years of unremitting treatment, even by the most skillful physicians. None but the charlatans in this noble and useful profession pretend that they can cure them in a day, a week, or a month. Nature requires time to collect her shattered resources, and through the timely aid of approved remedies, after a long while the system may be restored to its normal condition of vigor and health. While the quack by the use of opiates, sedatives, and his long line of palliative preparations and prescriptions, temporarily relieves the agony of the patient, the skillful physician who understands his calling administers those remedies only which tend to the removal of the causes which operate to produce the disease. I fear that the great body politic, writhing from the effects of this deadly and destructive disease, has been treated by too many professional quacks, and, that the true causes of the great social ailment have not received the consideration from the doctors that their importance has imperatively demanded. Too many quacks; too many King-Cure-alls; too many electric-infallible-instantaneous remedies, which merely destroy the pain which is ever intended as an index of the ravages of the disease, the sign board for the direction of science in the application of effectual remedy. Why is it that the politicians and prominent men of the country persist in their quackery? Why is it that they dare not make a solitary effort to crush out and destroy this deadly disease which is wasting the vitals of the great