Mother: By the results which come from using it. Its first effect is to make the body feel warm, and the extra blood sent to a man’s brain makes him sing, talk, and feel very gay. He says things he would be ashamed to say if sober. He thinks he is rich when he is poor, and that he is very strong when he is really weaker than before. If he drinks still more, his feet begin to go wrong; but I need not tell you how a drunken man walks.
Amy: He staggers.
Mother: Now let us see why he staggers. The poison in the drink he has taken has put his small brain and the cord in his spinal column to sleep. As they control the legs and the feet, he stumbles along, and wonders why the sidewalk is so narrow and crooked, and why he can not go where he wishes to. This is the second effect.
If you should hold a little alcohol in your mouth a few minutes, it would feel numb. That is because the nerves in the mouth and tongue are put to sleep so they can not taste or feel. If the man takes still more drink, all his brain goes to sleep. When men are drunk, the nerves all over the body are asleep, so they do not know when they are in danger. A man may fall down on a railroad track, and he will not hear the train coming which will crush him to death. He may walk off into a river from a bridge; but he sees no danger in taking the step. He does terrible things that he would never think of doing if he had not taken this poison. He will beat his wife, kill his children, or he may commit other crimes that will cause him to be taken to prison. When the effect of the poison has passed, sometimes he remembers nothing that he has done, and knows not when he came or why he is there.
Elmer: I should think men would know better than to take so much drink.
Mother: There is no safety in even tasting it. When once this murderer has them in its grasp, they have no power to help themselves. One glass calls for two; two must be followed by four. The awful craving can not be satisfied till the man can drink no more.
Helen: But proper food and drink do not make us feel that way. If I eat two potatoes to-day, I don’t want six to-morrow; or if I take two glasses of milk or water, it does not make me thirsty so I want four more.
Mother: That is true; and it shows that alcohol is neither food nor drink. It is only such poisons as alcohol, tobacco, opium, and those related to them, that create such an appetite. Alcohol finally brings its victim to the last stage.
Amy: What is that?