LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

IN THE MONSTER’S CLUTCHES

GOD’S BEST BEVERAGE, PURE WATER

HEAPING BURDENS UPON POVERTY

AN UTTER WRECK

“Take warning by my career”

CRAZED BY DRINK

Alcohol and gambling (12 sequence pictures)

FOUR STAGES OF THE DOWNWARD COURSE

A VICTIM OF THE DRINKING CLUB

FINANCIAL VIEW OF THE LICENSE SYSTEM

     "Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy
     bottle to him, and makest him drunken also.”—­HABAKKUK ii, 15.

CHAPTER I.

The monster, strong drink.

There are two remarkable passages in a very old book, known as the Proverbs of Solomon, which cannot be read too often, nor pondered too deeply.  Let us quote them here: 

1.  “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”

2.  “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babblings? who hath wounds without cause? who hath, redness of eyes?  They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.  Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.  At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.”

It is many thousands of years since this record was made, and to-day, as in that far distant age of the world, wine is a mocker, and strong drink raging; and still, as then, they who tarry long at the wine; who go to seek mixed wine, discover that, “at the last,” it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.

This mocking and raging!  These bitings and stingings!  These woes and woundings!  Alas, for the exceeding bitter cry of their pain, which is heard above every other cry of sorrow and suffering.

ALCOHOL AN ENEMY.

The curse of strong drink!  Where shall we begin, where end, or how, in the clear and truthful sentences that wrest conviction from doubt, make plain the allegations we shall bring against an enemy that is sowing disease, poverty, crime and sorrow throughout the land?

Among our most intelligent, respectable and influential people, this enemy finds a welcome and a place of honor.  Indeed, with many he is regarded as a friend and treated as such.  Every possible opportunity is given him to gain favor in the household and with intimate and valued friends.  He is given the amplest confidence and the largest freedom; and he always repays this confidence with treachery and spoliation; too often blinding and deceiving his victims while his work of robbery goes on.  He is not only a robber, but a cruel master; and his bondsmen and abject slaves are to be found in hundreds and thousands, and even tens of thousands, of our homes, from the poor dwelling of the day-laborer, up to the palace of the merchant-prince.