ALCOHOLISM

~Bryan Toasts Admiral With Water

      The story is told that during the days of William Jennings Bryan, a state dinner was held to honor an admiral who had won a great naval victory. Those present raised their champagned glasses in a toast. Bryan, an outstanding Christian, raised a glass of water. He said: “The admiral won his victory on water. I toast him with water. When he wins a victory on liquor, I’ll toast him with liquor.”

—Ministers’ Research Service

~Even Social Drinking

      Although it’s long been known that excessive drinking damages the brain, a new report contends that even “social drinking” destroys brain cells. At the 28th International Congress on Alcohol and Alcoholism, Dr. Melvin H. Knisely, professor of anatomy at the Medical College of South Carolina, offered evidence to show that when a drinker begins to feel the least bit giddy, a few of his brain cells are being killed. A heavy drinking bout can damage or destroy as many as 10,000 such cells.

—Lloyd Shearer

~If Alcoholism Is A Disease.

      Said Peter L. Ream in Home Life, “If alcoholism is a disease, it is the only disease that is contracted by an act of the will; the only disease that requires a license to propagate it; the only disease that is bottled and sold; the only disease that promotes crime; the only disease that is habit-forming; the only disease that is spread by the advertising; and the only disease that is given as a Christmas present.”

~Two Costliest Drinks For Lincoln

      On the last day of Lincoln’s life, the great emancipator said: “We have cleared up a colossal job. Slavery is abolished. After reconstruction the next great question will be the overthrow and suppression of the legalized liquor traffic.”

            That evening, the assassin Mr. Booth stopped in a saloon, filled himself with liquor to nerve himself for his planned tragedy. That night Lincoln’s bodyguard left the theater for a drink of liquor at the same saloon. While he was away Booth shot Lincoln. Those two drinks might be the most costly drinks in American history.

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