Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1874-03-21
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.


self. far and near, and having for its
origin, a universal conviction that
something must be done to cure the !
evil of intemperance. or besotted ig-
norance and moral degradation must
become cur Characteristic as people.
Intemperance is the monster evil of
the age-greater even than the disgust
ing and leprous faction at Washington
because drunkenness has much TO do
in the creation fthe unparalleled cor
ruption which pervades every depart
ment of the government The purest
are often its victims -lured into the vor-
tex by tEesyren song of social pleasure,
whist those prone to vice, are brutal
lied at once, and prepared for the COM
mission of any crime. The eonvicts
of the penitentiary, and murderers
under the gallows, with few excep-
tions, ascribe their deeds of guilt to the
demoralizing and maddening effects of
habitual intemperance Many of them,
probably, were once sober and COM
paratively discreet, but yielding to the
temptation of the social glass, the
pleasurable excitement of the occa-
sional drink, soon became a passion
and habit, and as reason became i'm
perceptibly dethroned, brute passion
usurped its place and crimes of various
grades, are the results.
Were man an isolated being, bound
to the gentler sex by no motives of
kindred. interest, sympathy, or love,
his fate, as drunkard, or criminal, or
both, might be viewed, simply, as the
righteous decree of retributive justice;
but, unfortunately for the sex, moth
ers and daughters, wives and sisters
are the greatest sufferers, because the
innocent victims of mans brutality.
In loneliness and desertion, she en-
dures the pangs of misplaced love and
confidence always aggravated by shame
and humiliation. and too often by the
evils of an absolute restitution of
even the necessaries of life The prop
upon which she leaned, in confidence
and love, is undermined by alcohol,
and left alone, to her resources, she
either sinks prematurely into the
grave, or struggles heroically, for her
own, and the maintenance of those
cOnfded to her care, whilst he who
should have been both provider and
protector, spends his days and nights
In continuous debauch, until the pen
itentiary, the gallows, or drunkard's
grave claims his degraded and bloated
carcass.
Having endured so long, in patience
and hope, these terrible wrongs, and
seeing no signs that the blackened tide
of intemperance is abating, woman rs
aroused to the necessity of demanding
her rights-not the demoralizing rights
of suffrage and Office holding, as claim
ed by the fast women of the North
but the simple rightto the support, the
comfort and happiness which her crea-
tor taught her to expect and demand
as the natural protege of man strong
er arm and greater powers of endu-
rance. She has waited, from genera
ton to generation, for the manifesto
ton of the higher attributes of true
manhood, under which to find shelter
from the storms of adversely, and the
more blighting effects of social and do
mestic wrongs. And all that patient
waiting has taught her, is, that neither
mans chivalry nor any law, human or
divine, has availed aught to shield her
against the evils she endures from the
curse of brutal intemperance.
And now, when driven, as a last re-
sort, to visit the hot beds of the evil,
there to invoke the intervention of Di-
vine Providence in her behalf, she is
followed by the maledictiOns of the
wicked, aud the hootings of an ignor-
ant and vicious mob. The means
adopted may not be the best, and the
good effected may be local and tempo
rary, yet the motive and object have
the cordial sympathy of the few wise
and good men yet to be found, who
heartily join in her prayer for the sue
cess of the effort. To woman's infu-
ence we shall owe it, if drunkenness
ever ceases to be foul blot upon our
character as a people, the bitter curse
of our social and domestic relations.
Its upon these relations that this in
fuence should be steadily brought to
bear in order that the cure may be
permanent Bright homes and cheer
full faces are powerful attractions, and
often, no doubt, counterpoise the temp
tations which lure men from homes
less bright, and faces that wear a
frown. Soft words, too. not only turn
away wrath, but when judiciOusly ut
tered, possess a power for good, in the
social and domestic circle, never yet
properly estimated as means of cul-
tivatinga love for the pure and beautiful
inhearts susceptible of nobler impulses
than those which prompt men TO seek
excitement in companionship with
vice in the dangerous guise of social
enjoyment.
Whilst we have no word of censure
for the means of propelling forward
the great Temperance movement, still
we insist that women shall learn to APP
preciate their influence in shaping the
destiny of man, and how far more eff
fective that influence may become
when they understand their true rela-
tions to society and their duties under
those relations. The girls of the
present day, are not educated to assume,
understandingly, the responsibilities
of wives and mothers, but undertake
them 10 total ignorance of the simplest
lessons, in househould affairs, that
should have been learned under the