The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-10-27
COMMUNICATIONS.
To Temperance men OF all Orders--Concl,
ded.

0eOs
BRETHREN In former article | endeav-
ored to show you that our former efforts to
suppress ntemperance have heretofore been
like those of a man who has very fine gar
den and endeavors to destroy the weeds that
spring up in 1t by cutting off their tops while
the roots still remain in the earth and are con-
tinually throwing out new shoots. / also said
that to render our work efiectual we must
strike at the roots of the evil and destroy it
entirely root and branch.
Every temperance man is fully aware that
the effect of alcoholic liquor upon the system
is to excite and stimulate the baser and most
degraded passions of human nature. But ii
is seldom If ever the case that a person be
comes a drunkard at once. 1t is by little and
little that the mind is trained into a condition
that rum becomes a necessary ingredient of
its degradation and destruction. The lower
and baser passions have to be excited by mild
er and more gentle means than that OF alcohol
before 1t reaches the gutter or can be induced
10 make regular visits to the dram shop A
child that las been properly trained could not
be induced to take strong drink unless it was
mixed with sugar and other ingredients to
render it palatable and agreeable to the taste,
until he had learned to love its stimulation.
That the love Of exciting the degraded pas
sions of human nature exists in the mind, and
in no degree depends on the bodily organiza-
tiou VI aStiuu HtcuS uO HluslratlOn. Hence
the Intellectual food with which the mind is
supplied and nourished in its early training
gives tone and character to its after existence.
The fantastic and grotesque pictures that are
often published in books for the nursery, and
the unseemly import of nursery rhymes are
frequently of an exciting character and leave
an impression on the uniformed intellect that
years of correct instruction may not be able
TO efface. The strange fairy tales and excl
ting stories told to children to keep them
quiet frequently lay the foundation for strong
er and more thrilling incidents in ripper years
These things once commenced never 90 back
ward. The soil is prolific, once plant the seed
and 1t Is sure to grow and produce fruit. As
the mind approaches maturity the desire for
the same kind of stimulus is increased Then
comes Robinson Crusoe," Baron Munchau-
sen" Arabian Knights, and other like sto-
ries fill the brain with wonder aud excite the
Imagination and increase the desire for more
marvellous and stimulating nutriment and
then in due time following the New York
Ledger and its kindred co-worlers in the de-
struction of everything intellectually, morally
or socially good in the world, and open the
door Of the minds of their readers to let in the
base, vile and filthy influence of what is
known as yellow covered literature. This
having been fairly inaugurated in the mind
and taken possession of the citadel of every
=.
moral and eleyating aspiration that charac-
terises the true and useful man is extermiuated
and destroyed; and in their place We have
moral and physical degeneracy; crime of ev-
cry kind and description; RIGHTEOUSNESS and
debauchery; dissipation and drunkenness.
These things, however, follow in q regular
and gradual series. After the mind becomes
vitiated and depraved, it frequently seeks in
dulgence in the use of tobacco and opium:
sl.nx. = L..
it is often the case that not until these fail to
afford the desired amount of stimulus that in
diyiduals resort to the use of rum, gin and
brandy. But each one of these things in the
course of the passage from the cradle TO the
gutter, do their part of the work of degenera-
cy aud final destruction.
have not the least shadow of sympathy
Tor the man who uses tobacco and will at the
same time go iuto a temperance meeting and
denounce another man for selling or drinking
rum. regard him as acting hypocritically,
for his precept and practice do not agree. To-
bacco performs similar use TO the human
system that rum does, and no higher use can
be claimed for 1t by its warmest admirers than
Is claimed for rum by the inebriate 1t blunts
the sensibilities, destroys the faculties, aud to
acertain extent excites and stimulates the vii
est passions of human nature. Its action up
on the brain is not so direct and destructive TO
portant link in the chain of degeneracy. and
performs conspicuous part in demorazing
the condition of the human race.
Thus have endeavored to give you as brief
ly as possible my views of what constitutes
the root and foundation of this great evil Ii
you wish to enter into crusade against it..
the trst thing to be done is to purge your own
societies. Let every man, woman and child
VINO is engaged In the promotion of temper
"a ttsf fnl fFArs he n
unnutrltous substances that stimulate and ex-
cite the passions and propensities, that their
precept and example may agree. so that their
teachings may have heart and soul i'm them.
and go forth with power and effect Let the
test of all our literary reading be, whether IL
will store the mind with any of those princi-
pies which will better enable us to discharge
the duties Of life. Then let us enter the PLAY
room and the nursery and cast out from thence
everything that is deformed, unseemly and vile
IN aspect or sentiment. Exhibit TO the ex-
pandln2 minds of our children only such
tnihgs as are true, lovely and beautiful. Teach
thein 10 love these and these only. Endeayor
on all occasions during the term of their pa
rental and school education TO keep the moral
ana reiigious sentiment elevated above the
sensual, natural and literary. Keep it con-
stanty before their eyes that their Is higher
life than the mere ratification of the sensual
appetite. This is the way, and the only ,roy
in which we can rear up generation of tenn,
perance men and women.
In the early days Of the first temperance
reformation it was said that we could hardly
expect to reform old and confirmed drunk
ards, but our mission was to raise up a GEN.
Grafton OF temperance men who should M
their places. Having failed in our first at
tempt to do this, let us profit by the expert
ence of the past, and once more enter upon
the work with determined zeal and firm
and fixed trust in the blessing of Divine Prov