Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-07-02
Feminine Tntemperance.

Mrs. Zina Fay Pierce, lady 10
Cambridge, Mass, has suggested
some very valuable ideas, in letter
to the Woman's Temperance Associ-
alton of st. Albans, VT, which have
met with considerable favor in that
section of New England. Mrs.
Pierce depiored the spirit of fanatic
ism which persistently refused to re-
gard nature as it il, and to deal with
it accordingly. Following out this
fact to its logical conclusion, she
boldly warns American women OF
| their excuses in tea-drinking, which
is gradually undermining the Amer
| lean constitution.
Mrs. Pierce says: "Tea-drinking
is one reason, ! believe, of the crav-
ing of American men for distilled
liquors. Their mothers, by the en-
tire neglect of fermented drinks OF
any kind which sooth and invigorate
the system, have SO used up with
tea and coffee the nervous system
the vital foree--that they have
given debilitated constitutions to
their sons to begin with. If tea and
coffee are drank twice daily, | do
not hesitate to say that TO balance
their effects malt liquor or pure wine
ought to be drank once"
A prominent Washington physic-
ian says that "since iced tea came
into fashion the digestion and the
nerves ares disappearing more rapid
ly than ever" There is undoubted-
ly a great deal of truth in Mrs.
Pierce's position. American wo-
men, as rule, are great toa-drink-
ers, and American men are getting
into the same habit. Even farm
hands ard other iaborers now have
their tea three times day, especial
ly in New England, in place Of beer,
as in old times. The women, how
ever, are the principal consumers,
and, as rule, there is no country
on the face OF tne earth in which the
women are so weak, so dispeptic and
nervous as they are IN America.
Young women arc brought up TO
suppose that weak tea will not harm
any one but weak tea in youth
means strong tea in maturity, and
strong tea in matlriEy means shat
tered nerves, hysterical tempera-
ment, dyspeptie stomachs and gen
eraI debiliLation.
The habitual tea drinker becomes
just as confirmed in the habit as the
habituaI beer drinker Even after
the nervous system is shattered, she
still Graves tea, and, since she can
no longer drink it strong, she has it
diluted. She cannot endure water
or any other liquid. The plump, rosy
women now and then met with are
not habitual tea drinkers The pcle,
thin, fragile, nervous women who
may be met by thousands are habitu-
al tea drinkers, and can no more do
without their TWO cups Of tea at
night than the whlskey drinkor can
do without his cocktail in the morn
| ing. 1t stands to reason that Wo-
men Of this class must give birth TO
offspring in kind, and that such off
spring must have an inherited crav-
ing for stimuIants. In view of such
facts as these, Mrs. Pierce says in
her letter: dis Bavaria, whore is
made the best beer in the world, it
IS said that there are no nervous
| persons and there is little doubt
that, if American women, instead of
indulging in the destructive habit OF
drinking tea three times . day,
would drink it but once and 1T din
ner take q pint of mild beer, in
twenty-five years their present pal
lor, sallowness, thinness and nervous
ness would be changed TO compara-
tive bloom, beauty and h,alth. In
temperate tea drinking is running
American women quite as much as
incorporate whiskey drinking is
running American men, and one
needs praying for quite as much as
| the other"