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. HELEN: And isn’t more money spent for alcohol than for tobacco? MOTHER: Yes; the flames rise higher from the money thrown into this fire than from the other. Nine hundred million dollars, or about one hundred and eighty-six million pounds, are spent each year for this murderer. Twice as much money is spent for alcohol as is used to buy bread. Just think of it! But we can not even imagine this great waste in money alone. Then add to that the sickness, tears, broken hearts, ruined homes, the many deaths caused by it, and we can only wonder that alcohol has not been banished from the world, never to return. It is such a monster of evil that we can not understand it. PERCY: But, mother, if people only knew how much it costs, and how much harm it does, would they not let it alone? MOTHER: Many would, and we must do all that we can to help and teach them. Every one who suffers from alcohol should have our pity. You have learned in our past talks how it does harm to the stomach, the liver, the muscles, and the lungs, and, most of all, to the brain and nerves. Just as this alcohol hardened the meat and egg, so alcohol works in our bodies to hurt and destroy the wonderful living rooms of which the body-house is made.