Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1871-09-02
Woman and Wine.

saddle.
Woman and Wine.
Woman has never been associated
with wine without disgrace and disaster
The toast and the bacchanal that, with
musical ALTERATION, couple these words,
spring from the hot lips of sensuallty
and are burdencd with shame. a man
who can sing of wine and woman i'll the
same breath is one whose presence Is dis
grace and whose touch is pollution a
man who can forget mother and sister,
or wife and daughter, and wantonly en-
gage in revel in which the name OF
woman is invoked to heighten the plea
sure of the intoxicating cup, is, beyond
controversy and without mitigation,
beast 'Dost thou think, because thou
art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes
and ale 2" 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 wo-
men, ruined more hopes for them, scat
tered more fortunes for them, brought
them more shame, sorrow, and hardship
than any other evil that lives. The
country numbers tens of thousands,nay,
hundreds of thousands, Of women who:
are widows to-day, and sit in hopeless
weeds. because their husbands have been
slain bv strong drink. There are hun
dreds of thousands 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 and despair, be-
cause those whom they love love wine
better than they do the women they
have sworn to love. There are women
by thousands who dread to hear at the
door the step that once thrilled them
with pleasure, because that step has
learned to reel under the influence Ofthe
seductive poison. These are women
groaning with pain while we write these
words. from bruises and brutalitics IN
ficted by husbands made mad by drink.
There can be 10 exaggeratlon III any
statement made in regard to this mat
ter. because no human imagination can
create any thing worse than the truth,
and no pen is capable of portraylng the
truth. The sorrows and horrors OF
wife with drunken husband, or mo
ther with a drunken son, are as near the
realization of hell as can be reached in
thu world at least The shame, the in
dipnation, the sorrow, the sense OF dis
grace for herself and her children, the
poyerty-and not unfrequently the beg
pary-the fear and fact Of violence, the
lingering, lifelong struggle and despair
of countless women with drunken hus-
bands, are enough to make all women
curse wine, and engage unitedly to op-
pose it everywhere as the worst enemy
of their sex.
And now what shall we see on New
Years day Women all over the city
ofNew York-wOmen here and there
all over the country where like social
customs preyail-setting out upon their
table the well-flled decanters which be
fore night shall close down, will be EN-
tied into the brains Of young men and
old men, who will 20 reeliDg to darker
orgies, or to homes that will be ashamed
of them. Woman's lips will give the
invitation, woman's hand will I'LL and
present the glass, woman searches voice
will laugh at the effects OF the mis-
chievous draught upon her friends, and,
having done all this, woman will retire
to balmy rest, previously having reckon
ed the number of those to whom she has
during the day presented a dangerous
temptation, and rejoice over it in the de-
gree of its magnitude.
o woman woman is it not about
time that this thing were stopped !
Have you husband, brother, a son !
Are they stronger than their neighbors
who have one after another dropped
into the graves Of drunkards Look
around you and see the desolation that
drink has wrought among your ac-
quaintances, and then decide whether
you have 8 right to place temptation