Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1876-10-21

OF the worst foes that woman ha
ever had to encounter wine stands q
tho head. The appetite for strong drinl
In man has spoiled the lives OF more
women-ruined more hopes for them
scattered more fortunes for them
brought them more sorrow, shame and
hardship-than any other evil that lives
The country numbers tens OF thousands
nay, hundreds OF thousands OF womer
who are widows to-day and at in hope
less weeds because their husbands have
been slain by strong drink. There are
hundreds OF thousands OF homes scat
tered all over the land in which women
live lives of torture, going through MI
the changes OF suffering TINT lie be-
tween the extremes OF fear and despair,
because those whom they love like 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 oncs thrilled them
with pleasure, for that step has learned
to reel under the influence Of seductive
poison. There are women grooming
with pain, while we write these words,
from bruises and brutalities inflicted by
husbands made mad by strong drink.
There can be no exaggerntion OF any
statement made in regard to this mat
ter, because no human imagination can
create anything worse than the truth,
and no pen is capable OF portraying the
truth. The sorrows and the horrors Of
wife with O drunken husband, OF a
mother with O drunken son, are as near
tho rao lsuok;nr oe hall a oo,, In oLnJ
in this world at least. The shame. the
indignation, the sorrow, the sense of
disgrace for herself and her children,
the poverty {and not infrequently the
beggary), the fear and the violence, the
lingering, life long struggle and despair
of countless women with drunken hus-
ban Is are enough to make all women
curse wine, and engage unitedly to OPP
pose it everywhere as the worst enemy
of their sex.
Women, there are some things you
can do, and this is one You may make
drinking unpopular and disgraoeful
among the young. You can utterly dis.
countenance all drinking in your own
house, and you can hold in suspicion
every young man who touches the cup.
You know that no young man who
drinks can safely be trusted with the
happiness of any woman. and he is as
unfit as man can be for woman's So
ciety. Have it understood that every
young man who drinks is socially pro-
scribed. Bring up your children to re-
gard drinking as not only dangerous
but disgraceful. Place temptation in
no mans way. If men will make beasts
of themselves, let them do it in other
society than yours. If your mercenary
husbands treat their customers from pri-
vate stores kept in their counting
rooms shame them into decency by your
regard for the honor of your home.
Recognize the living, terrible fact that
wine has always been, and is to-day, the
curse of your sex; that it dries up your
prosperity; that it endangers your safe
ty; that it can only bring you evil. If
social customs compel you to present
wine at your feasts. rebel against it, and
make social custom in the interest of
virtue and purity. The matter is very
much in your hands. The women Of
The country, in what is called polite So
,iety, can do more to make the nation
temperate than all the Legislators and
;umultuous reformers that are strug-
Cling and laundering in their efforts to
This end.