The Hydraulic Press

PURE LIQUORS,-A sensible writer in the Nevada National scoffs at the idea that any kind of alcoholic beverage is good for man.
He says:
Nothing is more common among people than to talk about pure liquors. They prate about them, and commend them, as if they were not only harmless, but the very elixir of life. Pure wine, pure brandy, pure whiskey. "Oh, drink as much as you please, it won't hurt you,"--how often do you hear it said.
"The truth of it is, there is no sort of alcoholic drink, whether wine, brandy, or whiskey, but that deranges the system, disorders the vital action to a greater or less degree, induces disease, abridges happiness, and shortens life. "Pure liquors!" Why, you had just as well talk about pure arsenic, or pure hydrocyanic acid. Liquors, pure as they can be made of their different varieties, drank daily in quantities sufficient to make a decided stimulant impression on the animal economy, and even in quantities much less, we might venture to say is just as sure to derange the physical powers, sap the energies of the intellect, weaken the body, shorten the life, and degenerate man and his species, as a stone thrown in the air is to fall to the earth again.
"There is too much tippling in this country among all classes, and unless stopped, the species must suffer degradation from it, to a greater or less degree.
Good, plain, wholesome diet, active exercise, a noble purpose, an honest heart, a humane disposition, and a clear conscience, are the principal conditions of health and happiness on earth, and go a great way towards preparing a man for Heaven. The purest liquors are unnecessary. They are but an apology for "gentlemanly" tippling. Let them alone. Save your money, your body uncorrupted, and discharge your duty, like a man and a philosopher, to yourself, your species, your country and your God."