reland,
says: "Ireland has been a poor nation from want of capital, and has
wanted capital chiefly because the people have preferred swallowing it
to saving it." The Rev. G. Holt, chaplain of the Birmingham Workhouse,
says: "From my own experience, I am convinced of the accuracy of a
statement made by the late governor, that of every one hundred persons
admitted, ninety-nine were reduced to this state of humiliation and
dependence, either directly or indirectly, through the prevalent and
ruinous drinking usages."

[Illustration: HEAPING BURDENS UPON POVERTY.]

Mr. Charles Buxton, M.P., in his pamphlet, "How to Stop Drunkenness,"
says: "It would not be too much to say that if all drinking of fermented
liquors could be done away, crime of every kind would fall to a fourth
of its present amount, and the whole tone of moral feeling in the lower
order might be indefinitely raised. Not only does this vice produce all
kinds of wanton mischief, but it has also a negative effect of great
importance. It is the mightiest of all the forces that clog the progress
of good. * * * The struggle of the school, the library and the church,
all united against the beer-shop and the gin-palace, is but one
development of the war between Heaven and hell. It is, in short,
intoxication that fills our jails; it is intoxication that fills our
lunatic asylums; it is intoxication that fills our work-houses with
poor. Were it not for this one cause, pauperism would be nearly
extinguished in England."

THE BLIGHT EVERYWHERE.

We could go on and fill pages with corroborative facts and figures,
drawn from the most reliable sources. But these are amply sufficient to
show the extent and magnitude of the curse which the liquor traffic has
laid upon our people. Its blight is everywhere--on our industries, on
our social life; on our politics, and even on our religion.

And, now, let us take the individual man himself, and see in what manner
this treacherous enemy deals with him when he gets him into his power.

CHAPTER II.

IT CURSES THE BODY.

First as to the body. One would suppose, from the marred and scarred,
and sometimes awfully disfigured forms and faces of men who have
indulged in intoxicating drinks, which are to be seen everywhere and
among all classes of society, that there would be no need of other
testimony to show that alcohol is an enemy to the body. And yet, strange
to say, men of good sense, clear judgment and quick percep