CHAPTER IV.

T E M P E R A N C E

98

"Strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." The intoxicating cup is destroying the happiness of the marriage relation in nearly sixty thousand families every year in the United States. It is surprising, with all the intelligence extant, that we should have such a record!

The beauties of Total Abstinence are so plain to be seen, and they are so evident to the most casual observer, that it is really surprising that there should be any necessity, for ever having another chapter written upon the subject. The theme itself has been worn threadbare, and yet great armies are constantly committing suicide, instead of nobly fighting the battles of life, without laying the armor down, until the frosts of years shall invite a slumber beneath the sods, that must sometime be the counterpane on a bed, that Deity shall alternately make white with snow, and perfume with roses.

99 The most charming of all things earthly, is the thought of dying a beautiful death, and seeing just how the sol leaves the casket that has identified it with mortality, and how it shall catch the first grand , aye sublime scenery of Eternity! But, if delirium tremens, or apoplexy, or softening of the brain, or death of any kind, in an unnatural condition of the God-mind within, takes the soul out of the shackles of Time into the freedom of Eternity, the exquisite pleasure of witnessing that but once transition, is lost forever, and the pangs of one of the "broken pair, " when such a death is remembered, must assuredly detract from many an hour of happiness.

Think how many families have suffered by deaths from Intemperance --how many marriages been severed! In 1826, when the United States had but twelve millions of people, fifty six million gallons of intoxicating beverages were consumed annually; the announcement of which, startled the people so much, that at the close of 1929 a thousand Temperance organizations were formed, having one hundred thousand names who had signed the pledge.

But not until the great work commenced, had but few formed anything like a correct idea 100 of the want, misery, agony, of the drunkards' wives and children.

Temperance societies have increased since then, until they are vast in numbers, and thousands of sorrows assuaged and prevented, in the marriage relation. But thousands more have existed all this time, and the effects on soul and body, and mind, are to be seen every day, whichever way we turn.

At this hour wives and children are drinking cups of agony , to their very dregs, just as deep and bitter, as wife or child ever sipped! We in our enlightenment, right in the face of these facts, have stepped away back of even the people of Burmah , for one of their "five moral codes," says, "Thou shalt use no intoxicating liquors." And Christians at every County Fair, and State Fair, appoint a committee to test domestic wines, made out of currants, gooseberries, elderberries, raspberries, and cherries. And because they are made of fruits that we have always been accustomed to eating freely, they reason that it "must of necessity be harmless, when they are only the juices of fruits?"

They seem to forget that imported wine is only the juice of grapes , and all other liquors, only the juice of grains ; and on this truthfully-false basis, premiums are awarded to those who 101 succeed in making the most deliciously fine poisons. Temperate men expatiate upon the economy, and purity of the same, in comparison with foreign wines, and thus the whole country is encouraged to make and use that which will assuredly undermine both the mental and physical foundations.

It is not necessary to use liquors of any kind to the extent that will produce entire, or even partial intoxication, to make a great amount of wretchedness, for the little that causes irritability, often makes more real and continuous unhappiness in the marriage relation, than when used to that excess which results in entire unconsciousness . The happiness-exterminator produces its effects in so many ways, and shades of varieties of ways, that "every heart knows its own sorrows," better than can ever be portrayed by another individual.

The various temperaments, and their thousand different combinations--the various grades of intelligence, natural or acquired--the various ideas of just the amount of abuse men can with impunity heap upon women, and escape punishment from law or from public sentiment, are such that no writer or speaker can do justice in attempting to portray them. The unending sorrows that are of such a nature that common 102 delicacy forbids to mention, seem almost beyond the reach of a remedy, from the fact, that such cannot be heralded to the world . When an allusion is made to them, those not victims, cannot believe in so great a depravity of sober men!

The great reason why these wrongs are not trumpeted, is because those who make them, are constantly crying down what they term "very unfit stuff for the public," and endeavoring to keep up a sentiment that will not allow the dissemination of unvarnished facts, in relation to such wrongs, not only, but to create a still greater intolerance, if possible. The surface, and some of the very depths, of the sorrows to tipplers' wives, have been panoramically placed before the public, but were the scenes "behind the curtain" only unrolled, others would see them as they are in reality.

Could all the smiles that are from other causes than to cover sorrows, be measured, one would be but poorly supported who was paid for measuring, while the one who weighed the sorrow-covering-ones would almost need some fortified tower to deposit the gains. Undefined wrongs are always the worst to fight, and it is only by agitation, that their heinousness 103 is seen sufficiently clear to call forth efforts necessary in the case.

No one can be found who cannot see the great wrongs resulting from excessive drinking, for they are so defined, that there is no mistaking them. Families of such have a sympathy, which helps them to endure their sorrows, but they feel notwithstanding, that "somebody is to blame" for allowing even the sale of intoxicating beverages, if not their manufacture or distillation.

It is the opinion of some of those learned in the Medical Profession that eating stimulating food creates such a thirst for stimulating drinks, that the one will never be permanently abandoned until the other is also, at least among the masses of the people. This may be true if only moral suasion shall be used. The Royal Family of Prussia seem to have some correct and advanced ideas on this subject, for sugar plums, rich food, wines and beer are never allowed their children.

It is surprising that all intelligent people do not see that what is not good for a child--what will not help to make the mature individual--cannot be essential to life. Poverty, and ten thousand sorrows that make life a wretched state of existence, result to families, because the 104 husband and father will indulge in that which can intoxicate.

A drink, has in many cases changed the position of a lifetime; but of the cases recorded there is not one perhaps, so very striking as the consequences of one drink. The Duke of Orleans, the eldest son of Louis Philippe, King of the French, was the inheritor of whatever rights the royal family could transmit. On one occasion he invited a few companions to take breakfast with him, as he was about to leave Paris to join his regiment. In the conviviality of the hour he drank too much wine. He did not become intoxicated; he was not in any respect a dissipated man; but he drank a glass too much, and lost the balance of his body and mind. Bidding adieu to his companions he entered the carriage. But for that extra glass he would have kept his seat; he leaped from the carriage; his head struck the pavement; he was taken into a beer shop and died. That glass of wine overthrew the Orleans dynasty, confiscated their property of $100,000,000 and sent the whole family into exile.

The hundreds of thousands of bushels of grains and fruits that are worse than wasted every year, to make the soul and body destroying beverages, would, if given to the poor, or 105 sold to them at a small price, prevent the half famished from stealing or of dying of want. It is not because there is not an enormous and all sufficient quantity of the most nutritious food raised every year, that it is so hard to keep soul and body together respectable, but because of the wicked destruction of such food, by converting the same into poisonous beverages.

Government allows the poison to be made; and it licenses men to sell it to the people, and then it licenses Lawyers to defend those who commit crimes while under the effects of such poison, and it pays Policemen to watch them, and builds jails and prisons to confine the unruly, and pays Doctors to give opiates to those on the verge of delirium tremens. It gives them food because it does not dare to starve them to death. It takes them to Courts and tries them, and pays Jurors and Judges, and is at all sorts of expenses for its first folly of allowing the poison to be manufactured.

But what of the families of these men, all this time? Need the picture be painted on this page, when it is seen in all the vivid colors of naturalness in thousands of tenements, from brown-stone fronts to the poorest hovels! Government is altogether too dignified an institution, to look farther into the matter than 106 to build poor-houses for the wives and children. And so the world moves on, and it must needs be through individual benevolence, that insane asylums are spoken into existence, to treat those who have lost their reason in consequence of trouble that has been caused by the effects of Intemperance.

Husbands may outrage every sense of decency while in a partial state of intoxication, and Lawyers will take a little wine just before they make a plea for or against them. Judges must leave their benches to drink a glass of old Bourbon, and the Jury cannot decide upon grave cases, without being stimulated, and no one seems to think that a degraded criminal needs any of the stuff to sustain him; O no, he has had a little-- just a trifle too much ; and so the dignitaries are showing him just how much it is proper to take!

Everybody sees man who make and execute laws "taking a little," and so if they ever expect to be great, they must follow in the steps of the illustrious.

A number of years since, a man, while in a partially intoxicated condition, hired a dentist for $80, to extract all of his wife's teeth; but he had sufficient reason left, so that he gave the ether, and told the wife, Frances B. Norris, 107 that he would kill her if she told of it. Every tooth was not only sound, but double.

Every few weeks we read an account of a man killing his wife, or butchering his children, while under the effects of the poison that our great Government derives such a large internal revenue from. But all women cannot resist the temptations to taste as well as look upon the sparkling wine, and so they degrade themselves, and sink lower and lower into haunts of vice, with the cup to encourage and strengthen them in their dens of iniquity. It is rare indeed to find a woman who is lost to all moral sense, that does not tip the bottle.

Hundreds of families who mourn the loss of a charming daughter, " that is worse than dead, " well know that the cup has dealt a double draught of poison, to them and her . Neither pen nor brush can ever do justice to the subject in portraying the real condition of families, where the intoxicating cup has found an honored place.