OCTOBER 15, 1916 



993 



" The usual recommendation is to load up with 

 whisky. In reality nothing could be worse. The 

 use of whisky for snakebite does much harm." 



Just think of it, friends. For ages past 

 the man wlio was near death because of a 

 snakebite has been deluged with whisky. 

 If he died, they declared he was so far gone 

 tliat even whisky would not save him. If 

 he recovered, in like manner they would 

 declare he would have died sure liad it not 

 been for the booze; whereas the real truth 

 is, the whisky did harm and hindered re- 

 cover}-, ahrays and every time. 



Here is another straw, which I copy from 

 Mr. Bryan's Commoner: 



Strav^is, they say, show the direction of the 

 wind. The fact that the railroads are taking liquor 

 off the diners is a good-sized straw. The sentiment 

 against alcohol is growing. 



DRINKING WHISKY TO ENABLE ONE TO STAND 

 SEVERE COLD. 



It seems almost impossible to get many 

 people over the notion that whisky is good 

 for snakebites, good for enduring severe 

 cold, etc. Our good friend F. E. Porster, 

 of Morrill, Kansas, sends us the following, 

 by Dr. Charles Lerrigo, and which appears 

 in the Farmers' Mail and Breeze. 



" Many people are quite sure that when the weath 

 is biting cold they really need some one of these alco- 

 holic drinks to keep them warm. 



" A company of strong men thought so when they 

 were traveling across the western plains several 

 years ago. There were 20 of these men. It was 

 winter, and they had to spend a terribly cold night 

 m their camp without any fire. They had food 

 enough and plenty of whisky ; but one of the men 

 knew more than the others; and, while they were 

 talking about what they should do to keep warm, he 

 said that for one thing it was not safe for any of 

 them to drink whisky that night. He even went so 

 far as to say that they were far more likely to freeze 

 if they drank it. 



" Two of his friends believed him, and the three 

 took no wliisky before going to sleep ; they were cold 

 in the night, but they were not very uncomfortable. 

 Three of the other men drank a little. They were 

 much colder than the first men, but they did not 

 freeze. Seven men drank more, and their fingers 

 and toes were frostbitten by morning. Six drank 

 a good deal, and they were so badly frozen that they 

 never really got well again, Four drank until they 

 were foolish, and one after the other they all died 

 three or four weeks afterward. The last three men 

 were drunk when they went to bed, and by morning 

 they were frozen to death. 



" Eacli one of these men was strong the day be- 

 fore, and each had the same number of blankets that 

 night. It seemed to be just the whisky and nothing 

 else that made the difference." 



HOW COULD IT BE OTHERWISE? 



We clip the folloAving from the Farm, 

 Stock, and Home: 



A LEFT-HANDED " DISASTER." 



Prior to Jaunary 1, 1916, Breckenridge, Minne- 

 sota, was a " wet " town, en,joying all the business 

 advantages that go with the free dispensing of 

 liquors. Since that time the blight of prohibition 

 has struck the little city on the Red River, and this 



is how the disaster prophesied has affected the sit- 

 uation: A representative of this paper recently spent 

 a couple of hour.s looking around the town for evi- 

 dences of business demoralization. He found a 

 man who had been looking in vain for a suitable 

 house to rent. He found one vacant business place 

 on the main street, and was told that there had been 

 three others, but that they were now occupied, and 

 in each instance by lines of business that provide 

 comfort and well-being for the family. Most disap- 

 pointing of all to the believer in the theory that local 

 prohibition is bad for a town was the report from 

 the business men. The merchants said their ac- 

 counts were being better taken care of than before 

 the saloons went, and a banker reported that it was 

 impossible for him to say just how greatly the busi- 

 ness of the saloons had injured the town, because of 

 the unusual business conditions prevailing during 

 the past few months, causing an increase in bank 

 deposits since January 1 of something to exceed 

 $100,000. He liad observed no increase in the num- 

 ber of small depositors as yet, but understood that 

 working men's bills were being paid up, and looked 

 for a marked increase in the number of small de- 

 positors soon. 



This cold businesslike analysis of the effects of 

 prohibition is worth whole reams of hysterical 

 argument either for or against. 



" IF PROHIBITION IS ADOPTED^ THESE VINE- 

 YARDS WILL BE DESTROYED," ETC. 



As an illustration of the way the liquor 

 party tries to deceive the people, we clip 

 the following from the American Issue: 



The liquor interests have posted signs along the 

 line of railroads in vineyards which read: "If pro- 

 hibition is adopted these vineyards will be destroy- 

 ed." In some instances their sign posters have done 

 absurd things, for in scores of places the signs are 

 placed in vineyards wiiich do not as a rule ship a 

 ton of grapes to wineries. In one place the proprie- 

 tor admitted that he had not sold a pound of grapes 

 from his vineyard for wine-making purposes for 

 some years. 



I have seen the statement elsewhere that 

 the liquor party were putting up these no- 

 tices without even asking permission of the 

 owner of the vineyards or other lands where 

 they ai'e sticking them up. 



Mr. Root : — I have been riding thru a large grape- 

 growing district, and I noticed large signs posted 

 in every vineyard reading thus: "Prohibition will 

 ruin this fine vineyard. Vote No on both proposi- 

 tions." These vineyard lands will grow almost any 

 cereal crop, and produce great wealth. Can't you 

 say something along dry lines that will help out the 

 dry side of the question? I have come to the con- 

 clusion that red liquor and religion will not stay in 

 the same hide. As one goes in, the other comes out. 



Rialto, Cal., Sept. 17. E. J. Atchley. 



BOOZE AND HEAT PROSTRATION. 



I clip the following from The Farming 

 Business : 



DOCTORS BLAME ALCOHOL. 



As a result of a study into the cases of heat 

 prostration. Dr. Karl Meyer, medical warden of the 

 County Hospital in Chicago, and Dr. Harry Gauss, 

 an interne, have found that ninety-eight per cent of 

 the heat strokes are traceable to alcoholism or the 

 use of alcohol. Their opinion is based on an exam- 

 ination of 155 cases of heat prostration taken to 

 the County Hospital during three days of the extra- 

 ordinary hot spell in July. The mortality in these 



