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Stimulants and Narcotics
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delicately reared, sensitive, cultured, and refined, linked to one
whom drink transforms into a sot or a demon. Think of the children,
robbed of home comforts, education, and training, living in terror of
him who should be their pride and protection, thrust into the world,
bearing the brand of shame, often with the hereditary curse of the
drunkard’s thirst.
Think of the frightful accidents that are every day occurring
through the influence of drink. Some official on a railway train
neglects to heed a signal or misinterprets an order. On goes the train;
there is a collision, and many lives are lost. Or a steamer is run
aground, and passengers and crew find a watery grave. When the
matter is investigated, it is found that someone at an important post
was under the influence of drink. To what extent can one indulge the
liquor habit and be safely trusted with the lives of human beings?
He can be trusted only as he totally abstains.
The Milder Intoxicants
Persons who have inherited an appetite for unnatural stimulants
should by no means have wine, beer, or cider in their sight, or
within their reach; for this keeps the temptation constantly before
them. Regarding sweet cider as harmless, many have no scruples in
purchasing it freely. But it remains sweet for a short time only; then
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fermentation begins. The sharp taste which it then acquires makes
it all the more acceptable to many palates, and the user is loath to
admit that it has become hard, or fermented.
There is danger to health in the use of even sweet cider as ordi-
narily produced. If people could see what the microscope reveals
in regard to the cider they buy, few would be willing to drink it.
Often those who manufacture cider for the market are not careful
as to the condition of the fruit used, and the juice of wormy and
decayed apples is expressed. Those who would not think of using
the poisonous, rotten apples in any other way, will drink the cider
made from them, and call it a luxury; but the microscope shows that
even when fresh from the press, this pleasant beverage is wholly
unfit for use. [
When this statement was made in 1905, it was com-
mon practice to manufacture cider as here described by the author.
Today, in places where the purity of foods is not controlled, apple