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Brisbane, Arthur, 1864-1936

"Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers"

It has lost its
balance and its function. It works rapidly and aimlessly. It
moves with wonderful swiftness, but it accomplishes nothing.
Let men who drink too much, believing that the action of their
minds is improved by drinking, think over this proposition about
the machinery and see if there is not something in it to
interest them.
How much actual work does this alcoholized brain turn out? What
do they actually DO "next day"?

TRY WHISKEY ON YOUR FRIEND'S EYEBALL
Your friend drinks too much, or drinks temperately but unwisely.
You may entreat, or argue, or abuse, or threaten.
You may show your friend the happy home where rum never enters.
You may lead him through the alcoholic ward at Bellevue.
Such sights may produce an impression. But usually they do not.
The man who possesses, indulges and keenly enjoys an overwhelming
passion--for drink or any other vice--is rarely moved by your
fine talk, for the reason that he believes in his wily soul that
you do not know what you are talking about.
Mr. Lecky, in his history of European morals, page 135, volume
I., observes:
"That which makes it so difficult for a man of strong, vicious
passions to unbosom himself to a naturally virtuous man is not so
much the virtue as THE IGNORANCE OF THE LATTER.


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