DID YOU KNOW?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 75, 25 May 1943, Page 3

DID YOU KNOW?

CURSE OF ALCOHOL LESSONS FROM HISTORY That all history abounds with evidence of naval and military disasters, yes, and the fall of. vast Empires, through alcohol? That Benhadad, king of Syria, was defeated in battle with Ahab, Icing of Israel, because lie and the thirtytwo kings, who were, helping him were all drunk? Read Ist Kings, chapter 20, verses I' 6 to 21. That Babylon, perhaps the most strongly fortified city in the world, with a Avail 350 feet high and 75 feet thick surrounding it, was taken by Cyrus, the Persian, because Belshazzar and thousands of his Lords were engaged in a drunken feast? Read the whole story in the fifth chapter of Daniel. That Alexander the. Great of ancient Greece, wept, because there were no more , Avorlds to conquer, but died a drunkard's death at the age of 33? That Alexander had conquered the known world, but could not control himself; he died in shame and his empire crumbled in the dust? That the Roman Empire became masters of the world under such leadership as that of Julius and Augustus Caesar? That both these leaders led comparatively simple lives? That their banquets and tables were never the scene of boisterous revelry and drunkenness? That most, of the succeeding Roman, emperors Avere giA-en to gluttony and drunkeness? That the last three hundred years of the Roman Empire Avere devoted to frivolity, pleasure and dissipation, and that the empire, became an easy prey to the , barbarians of the north? (from Ridpath's "History of the WorM") That alcohol has the same effect and the same results in modern times? That the historic American victory for freedom was avoii by General Washington at Trenton in 1770 because Colonel Pahl and his Hessian arni3 r Avere drunk? That one reason why Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo (1815) Avas because of dilatory action bj r Marshal Ney? It is recorded that' he drank too much Burgundy the night before. That in the Franco-Prussian Avar in 1870, France Avas defeated in 44 days, and records say that alcohol; was no small factor? That after the fall of France, in this present Avar, Marshal Petairx said: "Our soldiers were drunk and could not fight. Since the A'ictory of the World War, the. spirit of pleasure, of riotous liAdng and drinking has prevailed OA r er the spirit of sacrifice."? ("The Signs of the Times" Aust.)