An ill-starred woman, whose well-to-do husband is
engaged in business all day, finds that a dull life-weariness overtakes
her. If she has many children, her enforced activity preserves her from
danger; but, if she is childless, the subtle temptation is apt to
overcome her. She seeks unnatural exaltation, and the very secrecy which
is necessary lends a strange zest to the pursuit of a numbing vice. Then
we have such busy men as auctioneers, ship-brokers, water-clerks,
ship-captains, buyers for great firms--all of whom are more or less a
prey to the custom of "standing liquors."
The soaker goes on without meeting any startling check for a good while;
but, by slow degrees, the main organs of the body suffer, and a chronic
state of alcoholic irritation is set up. A man becomes suspected by his
employers and slighted by his abstemious friends; he loses health,
character, prospects; and yet he is invariably ready to declare that no
one ever saw him the worse for drink. The tippling goes on till the
resultant irritation reaches an acute stage, and the faintest disturbing
cause brings on _delirium tremens_. There is only one way with people
thus afflicted. They must be made to loathe alcohol, and their nerves
must at the same time be artificially stimulated.
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