The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-01-16
woman's Worst Foe.

woman's Worst Foe.
TT has been well said that of the worst
Il foes that woman has ever had TO en-
counter, wine stands ut the head. The
appetite for strong drink In man has
spoiled the lives of more women-ruined
more hopes for them, brought them
more sorrow, shame and hardship
than any other evil that lives. The
country numbers tens of thousands, may,
hundreds of thousands of women who
are widows to-day and sit In hopeless
weeds because their husbands have been
slain by strong drinking. There are
hundreds of thousands Of homes scat
tered all over the land In which women
live lives of torture, undergoing all the
changes of suffering that lie between the
extremes of fear and despair, because
these whom they love, like wine better
than the woman 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 groaning with pain while we
write these words, from bruises and bru-
talities inflicted by husbands made mad
by drink.
There can be no 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 ofa
wife with drunken husband, of q
mother with drunken son, are as near
the realization of hell as can be reached
in this world at least. The shame, the
indignation, the sorrow, the sense of dis
| grace for herself and her children, the
poverty land not unfrequently the beg
garly,) the fear of violence, the lingering
lifelong struggle and despair of count
less woman 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
Women, there are some things you
can do, and this Is one: You may make
drinking unpopular and disgraceful
among the young. You can utterly dis.
countenance all drinking in your own
house, and 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 unfit as O man
can be for her society. Have it under
stood that every drinking young man il
socially prescribed. Bring up your chill.
dren to regard drinking not only dan.
gerous 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 mer.
cenary husbands treat their customers
from private stores kept in their count.
ing 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 this day
the curse Of you sex; that it dries up
your prosperity! that it endangers your
safety; that it can only bring you evil
If social customs propel you to present
wine at your feasts, rebel against it, and
make a 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
ciety, can do more to make the nation
temperate than all the legislatures and
tumultuous reformers thatare struggling
and blundering in their efforts to this
end.