TWO PERILS TO YOUTH AND THE NATION.

White Ribbon, Volume 41, Issue 490, 18 July 1936, Page 1

TWO PERILS TO YOUTH AND THE NATION.

(Excerpts from a sermon recent l> preached in the Kirst Baptist Church in Batavia. New York, by the pastor. Rev. George K. Warren.) I shall not burden you with a lot of dates or statistics. I propose to omit the legalities and mechanics, and draw for you a picture. In this diama the main character i* John Barleycorn. This gentleman has fooled millions of people because they did not know him. The fact is he walks abroad under many disguises. He Is a Doctor Jekyl and Mr Hyde. Sometimes he walks with the cultured ami refined; again we find him in the company of thieves, thugs and cutthroats. Many young people have first met him on some social occasion among their friends, and where there was good music and glad fellowship. They were introduced to him through a sparkling glass of wine or other alcoholic drink. Indeed, this John Barleycorn often sits at kings tables, keeping company with princes and princesses. The prophet Daniel tells us that Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand, and he adds significantly: ‘ln that night Belshazzar, the (Tialdean king, was slain." He is conspicuous ut the parties given by social leaders- per sons <f wealth and fashion. Prom ull of this you might fancy he is an estimable gentleman, the patron of the fine arts. But. don’t forget that you can also find him equally conspicuous in the dens of iniquity, in the dark Places where theft and murder are planned. Indeed, he generally is the

genius that inspires these villains to perform their deeds of hellishness. JOHN BARLEYCORN—LIAR AND COWARD. We note that he is profuse in tine promises, but like his father, the Devil, he is a liar. One day an unguarded door <>f the United States Senate chaml»;r was suddenly thrust open, and what appeared to he a ragged, dirty hum reeled in. “Throw that out,” was the disgusted exclamation. “This is an infamous outrage.” Senator Allison sprang forward and tenderly lifted up tlie old man ami laid him on a couch. “Gentlemen,” he said, “you see l)efore you an object lesson of the power of alcohol to deceive and destroy. You see a dirty drunkard. I see one of the bravest of all the million defenders of the Republic, one of the most brilliant orators that any State ever produced, once an Assistant Secretary of Siate.' Once a brave soldier, an orator, and an official of the Nation, that man had listened to the honeyed promises of John Barleycorn. Too late he discovered what a miserable deceiver alcohol is. John Barleycorn tells the world that iw‘er is “liquid bread,” "bottled sunshine." He says it is food, a stimulant, the poor man’s friend. It is astonishing how many people tielieve such lying propaganda. They argue that drinking i*eer harms no man. And yet in the days of the old saloon a large percentage of the crimes committed were the result of l*eer drinking. Here is the word of an old physician: "I think )>eer kills quicker than any other form of liquor. My attention was first called to its insidious effects when I began examining men for life insurance. i passed as unusually good risks five young German business men, who

seemed to be in tlie best of health, and to have super)) constitutions. In a few years I was amazed to see the w hole five drop off, one after another, with what ought to have lieen mild and easily curable diseases. On comparing my experience with that of ~uysicians. 1 found they w ere all having similar luck with confirmed l>eer drinkers, and my practice since has heaped continuation on confirmation.” MORE AU’OHOL, BETTER WORK NO—THK OPI’OWITE. Professor Kraepelin, of Heidellierg University, started out to prove that small dozes of alcohol would help a man to do lietter work. To his surprise, his experiments proved just the opposite. If alcohol is a stimulant, why are engineers forbidden to drink while on duty? Why do athletes abstain while in training? Why do insurance companies take total abstainers at a lower rate and give them larger )>onuses? Ty Cobb, the noted lmsel>all player, said: “No drink for me! It slows me up and dims my batting eye.” Drink is the same kind of stimulant to a tired man that the lash of a whip is to a jaded horse. It isn’t a stimulant at all. it is only an irritant. John Barleycorn attacks defenceless little children ami helpless women. \\ hat would you say or do if you saw some brute strike and starve an innocent child? You would spring to its defence N et this conscienceless monster pays no heed to the cries of a child or the tears of a mother, and we sit by unheeding. I hav d seen children and mothers .suffering from the assault of this brute. In the depth of winter I have gone to the home —no. not the home!—the house of a drunkard. There

I found little children, half-starved and almost naked, no coal in the house to make a Are. 1 have seen the mother broken by abuse and hunger, too weak to care for her starving children. The husband was keeping company with John Barleycorn in some dirty saloon, making a drunken laiast of himself. No wonder Carrie Nation seized a hatchet to destroy the saloon. (The saloon was illegal in Kansas.) Not content with despoiling living children, John Barleycorn puts his polluting hand on the child unborn, for alcohol is a protoplasmic poison, corrupting the very seed of life. KNOWING WHERE DANGER “A IN’T.” Isn't it strange that when the wreckage of drink is so evident, young people permit themselves to Is* seduced by the monster? Their intelligence ought to unmask the wretch and expose his deception. Yet some very intelligent young men. and young women too. seem to imagine that they display their courage and independence by visiting the places where drink is sold or served. The story was told by Mark Twain that when he was a river pilot on the Mississippi in his young days, a stranger once stood by him at the wheel, and remarked carelessly. “I suppose you hold your Job here because you know where the dangerous places in the river are.” “No,” replied Twain. “I hold my job because I know’ where they ain't.” It’s a good thing to know where the channels of safety are, and stay there. The story was told of President Lincoln that when he visited General Grant’s camp in Virginia, in 1861. he was met by the General and his staff, and upon being asked how he had stood the trip, said, “I am not feeling very well. I got pretty badly shaken up on the bay coming down, and am not altogether over it yet.” "Let me send for a bottle of champagne for you. Mr President,” suggested one of the staff officers. "That is the best remedy I know for seasickness.” “No, no. my young friend,” was the President’s reply, ”1 have seen many a man seasick on shore from drinking that very article.” JOHN BARLEYCORN —THIEF AND TYRANT. Not only is John Barleycorn a lying coward, but he is a thief. The ordinary thief may steal your money or property, but alcohol steals your health, your will-power, your character. The man who fell among thieves on the Jericho road was a thousand times better off than if he had fallen into the company of John Barleycorn. The Jericho bandits stole his money and wounded him, but they could not steal his character. Alcohol has power to damn the soul. John Barleycorn is also a conscienceless tyrant One of the tyrannies our colonial fathers charged to the account of King George the Third was that of taxation without representation. The

law itself was not really so grievous, hut it was the principle of the thing that Ailed them with anger. Some time ago a presiding Judge in one of the Chicago Courts made this statement: “Not only are the saloons of Chicago responsible for much of the cost of the police force and fifteen Justice Courts, but also of the criminal courts, the county gaol, and a great portion of Joliet prison.” But that is only a part of the list of the expenses for which the saloon is responsible. Who pays the heavy taxes for the support of all these institutions? Not the drunkard —he seldom has money or property. These crushing taxes are paid chiefly by the sober, industrious citizens of the State. THE SOBER AND THRIFTY BEAR BURDEN IMPOSED BY LIQUOR. Moreover, the drunkard does not ask the permission of the taxpayer. The burden is saddled upon the thrifty, upright citizen, and he is compelled to pay. If this is not high-handed tyranny, where will you find it? History has shown that for every dollar paid by the liquor business in America the State has to pay six dollars to repair the ravages and harm done by that business. But no man can pay for the Injury done to men’s minds, health and character. Who can pay for the damage done to our young women who have Isen dishonoured through drink? Who can give little children the love and protection of a father brutalised by drink? Who can restore the innocent travellers slaughtered on the highway by drunken When you talk alx>ut the drink problem, see John Barleycorn as he really is—a despicable, cowardly tyrant. From “Union Signal."