The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-09-12
WOMEN AND WINE.
The Harm that Woman Does Society,
the Cure She Brings on Herself,
and the Good She Might Do for the
Cause of Temperance.

Inc khArnn tnHt " Ohudu DOcS bOClcty
the Cure She Brings on Herself,
and the Good She Might Do for the
Cause OF Temperance.
DIR. Holland in scribners Monthly.
OF the worst Toes that women has ever
had to encounter, wine stands at the
head. The appetite for strong drink i'll
man has spoiled the lives of more women
ruined more hopes tor them, scattered
more fortunes for them, brought them
more sorrow, shame, and tardship-than
any other evil that lives. The country
numbers tens of thousands, nay, hun
dreds of thousands of women, who are
widows to-day, and sit in hopeless weeds,
because their husbands have been slam
by strong drink. There are hundreds OF
thousands of homes, scattered all over the
land, In which women live lives of tor
lures, going through all the changes OF
suffering that lie between 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 once
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 in
aicted by husbands made mad by drink
There can be 20 exaggeration in any
statement made in regard to this matter,
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 drunken husband, of mother
with drunken son, are as near the reall-
cation of hell us can be reached in this
world at least The shame, the indigna-
ton, the sorrow, the sense of disgrace for
herself and her children, the povertyiand
not unfrequently the beggary.) the fear
and the fact OF violence, the lingering,
lifelong struggling and despair OF count
less women with drunken husbands, are
enough to make all women curse wine,
and engage unitedly to oppose it every
where as the worst enemy of their sex.
And now what do we see on Il New
Years Day? Women all over the city
women here and there all over the coun-
try, where like social customs prevail
setting out upon their tables the we'll
filled decanters which before night shall
close down will be emptied into the brains
of young men and old men, who will 60
reeling TO darker orgies, or toe homes
that will feel ashamed ofthem. Womans
lips will give the invitation; womans
hand will Gil and present the glass; wo-
mans careless voice will laugh at the eff
feet of the mischievous draught upon
their friends; and, having done all this,
woman will retire to balmy rest previous.
ly having reckoned the number Of those
TO whom she has during the day presented
dangerous temptation, and rtjoiced over
it IN the degree OF its magnitude.
On, woman woman. Is it not about
time that this thing were stopped? Are
they stronger than their neighbors who
have, one after another, dropped into the
grave of drunkards? Look around you
and see the desolation that drinking has
wrought among your acquaintances, and
then decide whether you have u right to
place temptation in airy mans way, or
do ought to make social custom respect
able which lesds hundreds of thousands
If men into bondage and death.
Women, there are some things you
c,n do, and this Is one; you may make
d. mixing unpopular and disgracctul
~ ,ong the young. You can utterly dis
countcnance AL drinking in your own
house, and you can hold in suspicion
every young man that touches the cup.
You know that no young man who drinks
can safely be trusted with the happiness
Of any woman. and that he is unit rs n
man can he for womans society. Have
it W derstood that every young nan who
drinks is socially prescribed. Bring up
your children in regard to drinking as
not only dangerous bat disgraceful. Pace
temptation in no mans way. If men
will make beasts of themselves, let them
do it in other society than yours. IT
your mercenary husbands treat their Gus
toners from private stores kept III their
counting rooms shame them into deCency
bv 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 1t steals
the hearts Of men away from you; that
it dries up your prosperity; that 1t endan-
gers your safety; that il can only bring
YOU evil. If social custom compels you
to present wine at your teasts, rebel
against it, and make special custom in
the interest of virtue and purity. the
matter is very much in your own hands.
The women Of the country, in what is
called polite society, can do more to make
the nation temperate than all the legls
lators and tumultuous reformers that are
struggling and laundering in their efforts
to this end