Drunkenness.
--The records kept at the different station houses, exhibits the fact that a large proportion of the arrests are either directly for intoxication or from acts caused by that undesirable state.
It is certainly painful to see men who were cut out for some better use than making hogs of themselves, go down beneath the potent blows of the fiery old
King, who is generally supposed to be dominant in the realms of whiskey alone.
Yet we see such sights often enough to convince us that man is by no means infallible.
The man himself, and the family of the man, who is the slave of an ungovernable appetite, who is possessed by an unquenchable thirst for so dangerous an extinguisher as whiskey, is indeed to be pitied.
It did very well for
Byron, who had plenty of money, and could go on a ‘"bust"’ for a week at a time, to say:
Man, being reasonable, must get drunk;
The best of life is but intoxication.
The lines are not of universal application, however.
To those not born with a silver spoon in their mouths, it cannot apply.
The best of life with them is not intoxication — it is the steady pursuit of the beaten path of honest industry; that industry which makes one feel himself a man; which buys food, clothing, respectability; which ensures ‘"aid and comfort"’ from sympathizing or interested friends when sickness overtakes us and the ‘"spondulicks"’ melt away.
We never had any objection to good liquor, that which cheers and does not inebriate, and can jump outside of a glass of it with as much unanimity as ‘"any other man."’ but such stuff is hard to find.
We are sorry to see men neglect their families and work, lose their time, (which is their capital,) and acquire a bad reputation, as some are doing that were made ‘"for better things."’ As our temperance friends say, ‘"wine is a mocker,"’ for it makes fools of those who are good and capable fellows in their sober moments.
