The Earthquake Cure

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 11, 14 March 1907, Page 10

The Earthquake Cure

An earthquake is a rather heroic remedy for the ills that flesh is heir to. The big ' quake ' at Cheviot a few years ago is said to have shaken the rheumatism out of a sufferer ; and it is claimed that a particular^ energetic shock at Manila once restored feeling an>! movement to the shrivelled limibs of a paralytic. In last year's great ' shake ' the people of San Francisco passed through sufficiently lurid experiences — ' per varios casus, per tot discrimina return '. One of the few of their experiences that were of a satisfactory nature was told /by an army surgeon in a recent issue of the Boston ' S.H. Review '. Briefly, £t appears that the great cataclysm brciught about the cure of a number of rumsoaked topers who were gifted with what' the elder Weller terms ' werry good powers of suction '. This was the manner of the cure :—: —

1 After the earthquake the sale of rum was shut off tight. The hard drinkers who were caught in the rumless trap by the shut-down went through a black time of it. There were thousands whom the sudden deprivation 1 of liq-uor hit hard. The'd been drinking inordinately for years, most of them, and when the hour came which gave them no. possible chance to get even a sip of liquor, how they did curl up and beat the air ! 1 They couldn't . eat or sleep,, but just tossed around and (groianed. Bromides and g-jieting drams were served out to the worst cases. But the open air * and the positive necessities of the situation began to bring them around after the first three or four days. • They began to, eat bit. The coffee and the rough fare of the campshelped them. They got their share of the tobacco served out to all hands, and that put a bit of spirit into them. c Just as soon as, it was perceived that they were fit to work, they were put at it at the point of the bayonet. They worked, and the work was the great thing for them. The la-bor drove the liquor out of their systems and made them hungry— and hundreds of 'em hadn't been hungry for food or for anything but rum, for years and years. *It made them sleep. The chill air, full of ozone, helped, too, when they had been. hanging around the foul back rooms of groggeries most of their time. It was

positively bully to see the" way those ohaps came around once the first misery of their condition wore off and they got to leading the normal life.' According to Ovid, a'~ careful study of the liberal arts refines manners and prevents their becoming rude*— • emdlit mores, nee' sinit esse feros '. It now appears that an earthquake of sufficient horse-power may do better still — it may mend' not merely manners, but morals, too. But it seems that, in the case of inordinate drinkers, such as those of whom the, American army surgeon writes, we may, after all, have the benefit • the earthquake treatment without the earthquake. The chief thing seems to be : ' isolation of ' les miserables ' ; stoppage ' of alcoholic supplies ; medical treatment (where needed) [ wholesome cfietary and surroundings ; and compulsory work — if necessary ' at the point of the bayonet '. The inebriate retreats recently provided for by Act of Parliament in New Zealand will, we believe, run en these general, lines. We hope they will do for many of our habitual drunkards what it took an eatfttoqniake to do for the sodden topers., of San Francisco.