The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-04-19

/ if this were done in some cases, it would not
often be resorted to, still more rarely taken to
excess.
As to the objection that, by restricting the
use of spirituous liquors, you increase the use
of other stimulants we do not think it has
much weight. The Ecening Post thus pre-
sents this point
IF the Maine Law can be executed here
and the sale of Intoxicating drinks prevented,
which with this general appetite for stimulants
alive and active everywhere around us, will be,
to say the least, exceedingly difficult there are
several consequences which we may be certain
will follow. The use of other stimuants will
be very greatly increased; strong narcotics
| will supply the place of spirits and wine; more
strong tea and coffee will be consumed; there
will be more tobacco chewing and smoking ;
| and the use Of opium, one of the worst and
| most dreadful forms of intemperance, and one,
| the practice of which may be INDUCED with
most secresy, will become more prevalent"
Of course this can have no application to
the most numerous class of persons, in which
no such craving for stsmulants exists, and who
by the policy of prohibition will be saved, to
great extent, from the danger of contracting
it. Nor is it so generally applicable to other
cases as the Post supposes. The habitual use
of spirituous liquors quickens the sensibility,
renders it irritable, and leads to the consump-
ton of other stimulants. The man who drinks,
will be more apt to smoke and chew, or use
narcotics in powerful form, than he who never
his aggravated irritability. Abstinence from
them, where the system has not undergone a
radical morbid change, may for short time
induce the desire for something to supply their
place, but Nature will soon resume its sway,
restore the equilibrium of the nervous system,
ton of the craving for stimulants; in other
words, the correction of the slight functional
arrangement, occasioned by a bad habit. The
man who has become radically diseased by
rum-drinking, if deprived of his customary
stimulus, may resort in desperation to opium,
or any other deadly narcotic but he is rather
a subject for the physician than legislator. The
policy of the State must not be regulated to-
suit his abnormal condition, but to prevent it.
After all, let us not forget that there are
causes of intenperance that no legislation can
reach-causes that can be reached only by
studying the laws of mans physical and moral
nature, and by training both in obedience to
true and comprehensive system of hygiene.
"The friends of the law" says the Post,
" even if they succeed by its means in putting
an end to the general use of alcoholic bever-
ages, may find at last that the real work of tenn
perance is yet to be begun, and that something
more than a statute making certain trade con-
traband, is required TO recover people from
sickly habits of excess, dangerous to morals
and destructive of the physical perfection of
the race, and to form it to habits of a healthful
moderation in the enjoyments Of life."
Begin at the beginning. Take the infant at
the start, and regulate its food, clothing, ablu-
tons, according to the laws Of health. Battle
it every day in cold water, and pay as much
attention to its skin as the groom does to the
coat Of his horse. Leave its vital organs am
pie room for vigorous motion. Do not super.
sede the healthful action of the skin by too
much clothing, substituting artificial for natu-
raj heat. Give the child plenty of fresh air,
and outdoor exercise. Do not stimulate its
intellect by hotbed processes of instruction.
Addict it to the use of tea and coffee no sooner
than to the use of opium. Do not generate an
inhammatory diathesis, by giving it much meat,
and that, two or three times a day. Avoid a
great quantity of concentrated nutriment, such :
as the bolted flour bread, but deal literally
with well-made corn bread and good vegeta
bles Regulate its hours of sleeping and wa
king, so as to secure it ample time for renewing
the forces Of its nature, and for a full, health
full development of the physical system. Train
it to habits of self.control and regularity. and
as it begins to feel the tastes of maturity, suf
fer no social reasons to prevail on you to allow
the boy or girl to launch out into the gayeties
of adult age before they have adult energy to
protect them. Make home more attractive, for
its social life and enjoyments, than the coffee
house or ballroom. Set an example of mode
ration: do not magnify mammon as the chief
good: repress the haste to grow rich, the curse
Of American life. Finally, from first to last,
foster and strengthen the Religious Sentiment,
the highest, most ennobling, most command
ing, element in human nature. Would fam
lily of children thus educated need Fictitious
means to preserve them temperate in adult
years?
Education is not everything, cannot accom-
plish everything but nearly all our one-sided,
fragmentary projects Of reform for men, are
necessitated by the criminal, illjudged, or reck,
less training of children.