Fremont weekly freeman. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1850-1853, 1853-01-13
For the Freeman
REFORM.
Mr.. EDITOR:

6HcOk&M'
Mr.. EDITOR:
A candid observer of men and things, who
will carefully watch the progress and incidents
of the grand drama of life, as enacted by the
present generation, cannot fail to be forcibly
impressed with the idea, that Reform is the
ruling passion of the age. Prof Buchanan, in
a lecture ON MAN, delivered at the Cincinnati
Eclectic Medical College, stated that man ap-
peared to exhibit in his actions, the predomi-
nance of single faculty of the mindin each
different age, and that the whole history Of
the human family might be divided into three
epochs or ages, each age being characterized
by the excessive action of distinct faculty, and
that there would be as many divisions or
epochs, as there are distinct sentiments, feel
ings or faculties. Although the correctness
of this doctrine may well be doubted yet, ac-
cording to it, the present age may properly be
termed, at least with regard to the universal
Yankee nation the age in which there is an
excessive exercise of the desire for change,
combined with the mechanical ideas of power
and velocity,-or, in other words, the age of
reform steam and lightning And this might
be done with the same propriety that the Prof
applied the term, Architectural age to the
time of the existance of Babylon, Palmyra,
and those mighty cities whose memory is only
preserved upon the pages of grey tradition,
and whose localities are now only marked by
heaps of rubbish, broken obelisks and columns
PROSTATE in the dust Whether there be any
truth in the observations of the Prof. or not
every one will agree, that this is substantially
the age of reform
The records of the. last half century show a
union of individuals into societies for purposes
of reform, to an extent never before witness
sed
The first evil that engaged the attention OF
the philanthropic- minded, was intemperance.
Temperance societies sprung up, mush-
room-like, in every neighborhood, and union
of these several societies formed grand or
ganization under the name and title of the
National, and Washingtonian temperance So
cieties, and thus organized, the relormers sal
the strong Some were saved and many
were not. The more strenuous the efforts Of
the reformers to destroy King Alcohol the
more deadly did his subjects love him, resolV-
wing to stand by him to the last, and thus
prove their loyalty to their liege lord in his
misfortune. But the object aimed at by tenn
perance reformers was not sufficiently extern
sive to occupy the worldembracing views Of
some Radical He saw his aged grand moth
er preparing that well known evening bever-
age-tea. An idea struck him; he pondered
and calculated the cost of the bev-
erage; he studied anatomy. physiology, phar-
macy, and consulted medical men, and finally
the result to the world, that they
must abstain from the use of tea, or be pre-
pared to pay their debt to mother earth with
in few years. The temperance reformers
caught the enthusiasm. and incorporated with
their temperance pledge that of total absti-
nence. Thus the society became tetosalers
and commenced a new dispensation.
Boarding School Misses were frightened
with the idea, that the poisonous stuff would
drive the color from their dear cheeks. Chill
dren were wisely told that tea would ruin
their constitutions, For said the sage and en-
thusiastic parent, gravely, if had never
drank tea, 1 should be healthier than am
Thus the tetotal dispensation continued till
superseded by grander idea.
A discarded quid of tobacco lying in the
gutter, found companioDship in the proximity
Of yet reeking cigar stub.
Sin their lives they were united
And in death they were not divided i
The spectacle caught the attention of
former and train of ideas-ori"'
for once, crept slowly through !
scratched his progressive
excluded himself fro,
much-made midnigh'
istry, and finally p
all important fac
form of cigars
carrying its
whence no
listened
was az.
The