Politics, military organizations, etc.—­Many a man has been made a drunkard by the war, or by becoming an active politician.  Associations of men leading to excitement of any kind stimulate them to invite each other to drink as a social custom.  Former inebriates should avoid all forms of excitement.  Said a former politician, who has not drank for five years:  “If I was to go back to politics, and allow matters to take their natural course, I should soon drift again into drunkenness.”

“Idleness,” says the French proverb, “is the mother of all vices;” hence the advantage and importance of being actively employed.

Working in communities.—­There are no men more inclined to drunkenness than shoemakers, hatters and those in machine shops.  Shoemakers are especially difficult to reform, as they incite each other to drink, and club together and send out for beer or whisky.

Use of excessive quantities of pepper, mustard and horse-radish.—­No person can use biting condiments to the same degree as drunkards; and reformed men must largely moderate their allowance, if they expect to keep their appetite under for something stronger.  Tavern-keepers understand that salt and peppery articles, furnished gratis for lunch, will pay back principal and profit in the amount they induce men to drink.

Loss of money or death in the family.—­These are among the most severe of all the trials to be encountered by the reformed drunkard.  Hazardous ventures in stocks or business are dangerous in the extreme.  Without the grace of God in the heart, and the strength that it gives in times of depression of spirits under severe trial, there are few reformed men who can bear, with any safety, the loss of a wife or very dear child.  Thousands who have, for the time, abandoned the habit have returned to it to drown, in unconsciousness, their feeling of loss; hence the great and vital importance of an entire change of heart to enable a man to go to his faith for consolation, and to look to God for help in times of trial and temptation.

[Illustration:  BOYHOOD.

The first Step.]

[Illustration:  YOUTH.

The Second Step.]

[Illustration:  MANHOOD.

A Confirmed Drunkard.]

[Illustration:  OLD AGE.

A Total Wreck.]

CHAPTER X.

TOBACCO AS AN INCITANT TO THE USE OF ALCOHOLIC STIMULANTS, AND AN
OBSTACLE IN THE WAY OF A PERMANENT REFORMATION.

BY DR. R.P.  HARRIS, PHYSICIAN OF THE “FRANKLIN REFORMATORY HOME.”