38o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The most pronounced product is found in the hopeless drunkard, 

 who, in squalid rags, with rotten tissues, the embodiment of intellectual 

 and moral degradation, utterly beyond hope, the line of possible resto- 

 ration long past, hangs around the tavern-door, and, with the odor of 

 alcohol floating on his breast, whiningly begs a copper from the mass 

 of vitality around him, of which he himself is a withered and decaying 

 branch. This man is incapable of labor ; he is unwilling to entertain 

 the idea of toil. He is beyond any capacity for labor ; he is no longer 

 capable of discharging his duty as a citizen ; he is a social parasite of 

 the lowest and foulest order, as useless as a tapeworm. He has aban- 

 doned all self-respect, because there is nothing left in him for himself 

 or any one else to respect. He is a shameless liar, who will make the 

 most solemn protestations as to the truth of what it is patent enough 

 is false. There is no depth of moral degradation to which he will not 

 descend for the means to purchase a little more of the fluid which has 

 ever been his bane. 



Betwixt him, however, and his patrons, many of whom enter the 

 tavern to celebrate some little matter by a glass together, there is a 

 potential association, not always at first sight readily apparent. The 

 effect of alcoholic indulgence is seductive ; and it often creeps on 

 unobserved, doing much irretrievable mischief ere its presence is unmis- 

 takable. It is not the intention of the writer here to discuss the ques- 

 tion of the moderate use of alcoholic beverages, but rather to point 

 out the fruits, the evil consequences, of excess. Betwixt the hopeless 

 drunkard and the casual taker of a social glass there are a thousand 

 grades and modifications. Nor does it necessarily follow that the one 

 shall degenerate into the other ; very commonly he does not ; but, 

 unfortunately, he may, and not unfrequently does. Too frequently, 

 indeed, the practice grows, especially in those who naturally lack self- 

 restraint, or cannot control their impulses, however capable in other 

 respects. The dangers of alcoholic allurement are various in their 

 degrees of potency in difl"erent individuals. 



Not only that, but there is no little influence exercised by the im- 

 mediate motives for which alcohol is taken. The future progress of 

 the individual indulging in alcoholic excess is widely different, accord- 

 ing to the mental attitude at the time. Thus, betwixt the man who 

 has been taking alcohol to excess at intervals extending over many 

 years, and the young woman who is just commencing to drink because 

 she is unhappy, there is a wide gulf. The one, so far as the alcohol is 

 concerned, will probably live to an advanced age ; the prospects of life 

 in the other are very poor, and the ruin -will be swift and complete. In 

 the one there are long intervals of sobriety, during which the effects of 

 the debauch will, to a great extent, wear off ; in the other the act will 

 be repeated as often as opportunity will permit ; one act of indulgence 

 will lead to, indeed will induce another, and the oft and quickly re- 

 peated act will become a constant habit, whose effects are soon felt. 



