The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-06-28
TEMPERANCE COLUMN.
The Effect of Exam pie.
). G.. ARMSTRONG, EDITOR.

The Effect of Example.
Example has wonderful power in controll-
ing the actions of most men. There is scarcely
a person so constituted AS not to be affected by
it, for good or evil In community where the
leading citizens make public or even private
drinking the rule and not the exception, every
one initiates this custom to Il greater or less de
gree Where drinking prevails among the
more responsible men, laws and town ordi
nances are made to suit their convenience and
the saloons not only flourish without let or
hindrance, but are protected by legal enact
ments, and are privileged to make drunkards
out of men and boys, to continue and confirm
drinkers into sots and wreck and destroy the
best business men. Where sobriety is the rule
and active temperance workers in the field, the
saloons are prohibited or hedged IN with strict
laws according to the strength of popular
opinion.
Popular opinion alone is the strong arm Of
power, which holds saloons down or extermn.
ates them or torbids them to exist. 1t makes
drunkenness not only Questionable but des-
picable as 1t should be, and Is every where
where healthy public and just moral senti-
ment prevails The occasional drnkcr, feeling
that the community has distrust Of him and
his wretched personal habits, and desiring the
respect of his neighbors and friends and dread
ing the tongues of his enemies, will at once
reform
If public sentiment tolerates public drink
ing, he will very eagerly avail himself of the
privilege Of making a confirmed sot of him
self
| The force Of example has fearful power
over every one, especially the young men and
boys. IF that example be bad one young
boys soon learn to smoke, chew and drink Ii.
quor as they see their elders do What can
be wrong in following the example Of ones
father or uncies, or the so-called respectable
men of the community who all do these things ?
How can the parent who forbids his son to
smoke or chew or drink, chastise his boy for
doing what the father does himself?
Start out in life by setting your children a
good example, not only IN these but every otn-
err good thing in your conduct
If you chew tobacco your son will surely
learn If you drink he will as certainly fol-
low your example, notwithstanding the watch
fulness of yourself, or the tender solicitude OF
his mother and sisters
Bad habits are so easily acquired and often
so fearfully hard to get rid of, and in this re.
spect have an advantage over poor weak human
nature the very reverse of good ones. Boys IN
the towns and cities, often at very tender age,
may be seen smoking, chewing, and go stag.
gerlng drunk about the streets, their haggard
faces bearing the hard lives of early suffering,
and forced age far beyond their years. by these
most baneful habits. They also, from the evil
associations, become foul,mouthed little black.
guards and naturally drift into the lives of
criminals
Boys raised in the country have no such op.
portunities nor temptations, They grow up
under kind and watchful care and good exam
pie into gentlemen, pure in mind and untaint-
ed by evil companionship. Under bad exam
Piles, they, like their city cousins, form bad
habits, in proportion to their familiarity with
city vices, or the evil example set them by
their fathers and his neighbors.