Mother: The man becomes “dead drunk.” He is not quite dead, but he is next door to it. He can not feel, hear, or see. His body is cold, much like a corpse. If it were not for his heavy breathing, we would say he is dead. Every part of the man he himself can control, has been handed over to the murderer, alcohol. But his faithful heart stands by him still. It suffers, too, but with painful effort it slowly beats, and the air comes and goes in gasps.
Amy: And does he gets well?
Mother: Sometimes, and at other times he really dies. It is an awful sight when a man by his own act brings himself so near to death. Not long ago I read of a young man in this town who drank until he became dead drunk. His friends who were with him put him in an old shed, and in the morning he was found dead. This murderer alcohol had gained one more victim. But there are other things this murderer brings to men. A doctor was talking not long ago to a crowd of school-children, and he asked them what would finally come to a man if he kept on drinking.
“He will have the D. T.’s,” shouted one boy.
Percy: What did he mean by “D. T.’s,” mother?
Mother: He meant de-lir´i-um tre´mens.
Helen: What is that?
Mother: It is a sickness caused by alcohol. You have sometimes had bad dreams when asleep; but in this disease the man has dreadful dreams when he is awake. He thinks snakes and other creatures are crawling over him. I once saw a little boy, not over ten years old, the son of a drunkard, who had had de-lir´i-um tre´mens. He had his father’s craving for strong drink; for a boy’s head inside is often like the father’s, just as his hair, eyes, and features are like his.
Elmer: What a dreadful thing alcohol must be!
Mother: But it is guilty of other wrongs than these. Nearly all the people who go to the insane asylums are sent there by it. It fills the prisons with men and women, because it makes them unsafe to go free. It sends people to the poor-house, and brings poverty, sickness, distress, and broken hearts to thousands of people. No tongue can tell the misery, sorrow, suffering, and agony it brings.