The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-17
WOMEN AND WINE.

Woman has never been associated with wine
without disgrace and disaster. The toast and
the bacchanal that, with musical ALTERATION,
couple these two words, spring from the hot
lips of sensuality, and are burdened with
shame. man who can sing of wine and
women in the same breath is one whose pre-
sence is disgrace and whose touch is pollu-
tion. man who can forget mother and sis
ter, or wife and daughter, and wantonly en-
gage in a revel in which the name of woman
is invoked to heighten the pleasures of the
intoxicating cup, is, beyond controversy and
without mitigation, beast. 'Dost thon
think, because thou art virtuous, there shall
be no more cakes and ale ?" Ay, cakes and
ale, if you will, but let it be cakes and ale.
Let not the name by which we call
the pure and precious ones at home be
brought in to illuminate degrading feast.
OF the worst foes that woman has ever had
to encounter, wine stands at the head. The
appetite for strong drink in man has spoiled
the lives of more women-ruined more hopes
for them, scattered more fortunes for them,
brought to them more shame, sorrow, and
hardship-than any other evil that lives. The
country numbers tens of thousands-nay,
hundreds of thcusands-of women who are
widows to-day, and sit in hopeless weeds, be-
cause their husbands have been slain by
strong drinks. There are hundreds of thou
sands Of homes, scattered all over the land,
in which women live lives Of torture, going
through all the changes of suffering that lie
between the extremes Of fear aud despair,
because those Thom they love, love wine
better than they do the women they have
sworn to love. There are women by thou
sands who dread to hear at the door the
! step that CAGE thrilled them with pleasure,
because that step has learned to reel under
the influence of the seductive poison. There
are women groaning with pain, while We
write these words, from bruises and brutali-
ties inflicted by husbands made mad by
! drink. There can be no exaggeration in any
statement made in regard to this matter, be-
cause no human imagination can create any
thing worse than the truth, and no pen is
capable of portraying the truth. The sor-
rows and the horrors of a wife with a adrunken
husband or neither with drunken son, are
as near the realization of hell as can be
reached in this world, at least. The shame,
the Indignation, the sorrow, the sense of dis
grace for herself and her children, the poverty
and not unfrequently the beggary-the
fear and the fact of violence, the lingering,
lifelong struggle and despair of countless
women with drunken husbands, are enough
to make all women curse wine, and engage
unitedly to oppose it everywhere as the worst
enemy Of their sex.
And now what shall we see on the New
Years Day, 1871? Women all over the city
Of New York-women here and there, al
over ihe country, where like social customs
preysil-ssiti"g out upon their tables thu
we'll hlled decanters which, before night shat
close down. will be empied into the brain
of Young inen aud old ,hen, who will go reel
ing to darker orgies, or TO homes that viii
feel ashamed of them. Woman's lips vii
give the invitation, wOman's hand will ill an
present the glass, womRns careless voice vii
laugh at the effects of the mischievoa
draught upon their friends, aud, having don
al sLls, u vn4a4 MI Tli;ra to bsiny rcs', p.l
| yiously having reckoned the number of thos