NO DRINKING MAN IS SAFE.
By John Ellis, M. D.
No man living can enter upon the use of intoxicating drinks with the slightest reasonable assurance that he will not become a drunkard, and the one who feels the most assurance is most likely to fall. The writer well remembers, more than half a century ago, standing upon his native New England hills, working upon the highway, conversing with a young neighbor in regard to the danger of using intoxicating drinks, the strong assurance with which the young man exclaimed, "The man is a fool who cannot control his appetite! If you ever hear of my getting drunk, tell me and I will quit drinking." Alas! alas! not many years passed before that young man became a drunkard; the kindly warning voices of friends and neighbors were unheeded; he spent the fine farm left him by his father; his wife was said to have died broken-hearted, and his children were scattered among friends and strangers.—John Ellis, M. D.