The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-02-17
Temperance Reading.
POISON ! POISON /,

.IO1OON IO1OUN
was going along the street,one day
last spring when | met three little chill
dren coming out of lot with their
hands full of dandelions. They were
little bits of children two little girls
] not more than five years old, and boy
still younger. The little girls were car
rylng their flowers in their hands, but
the little boy was putting his into his
| mouth. The little girls turned around
and saw him doing this, and YOU should
have seen how excited they be anne in
a moment. They sprang at him and
pulled the flowers away, CRYING out
little shrieks, both together: 80 Benny!
it poison! it's. poison! Spit it out!
spit it OUT" And then how frightened
Benny was! He threw every stalk away,
and tried to lean off his tongue with
his dirty tile hand, and 1 passed him
still splitting and sputtering most reso-
lutely.
l was interested to see how quickly
the warning cry Poison poisonr' was
understood and needed. These little
midgets had been told probablyat home
not to put anything they might find in
the fields in their mouths, as many
plants are poisonous And they under
stood and remembered, and how earn
est they were in repeating the lesson to
their little playmate; and mite. as he
was, he knew what it meant.
Now we tell you, children, the same
thing about wine, beer. and all the
strong drinks. ITS poison, poison;
don't torch itn' we say. viii you
mind? Do you eel raid to take drop
inside your lips? And when you see
any one else drinking it do YOU try to
stop them with the cry: "Its poisoni
it, poison! Spit it outr'?
That very day little boy five years
old was picked up in the street
drunk drunk" you say. "Oh!
that's different. Oh! no, it is not.
When person drinks liquor until he
reels and staggers and falls down, we
say he is intoxicated, and that means
poisoned. Somebody had given this
little boy some kind of liquor, and he
was intoXicated-poisoned. Poor child
If / were TO send you to the drugstore
to get me some laudanum for the tooth-
ache, or some belladonna for the head
ache, some arse tic to kill the rats with,
some Paris green for the potato bugs,
or some oXa ic acid to clean the boiler
with, the druggist would say: mo;
we don't sell poison to children" Even
if SHOULD go for it myself, he would
still re use Mess he knew me very well,
or carried note rom my doctor tell
ing him would use it Just as I said.
Druggists are very CAREFUL They would
, cry as earnestly as those little girls did
cts poison! it's poison! We can't
sell it to your
But next door is a liquor-saloon, and
| see children going in there every day
with their pitchers and pals, and the
men never refuse to sell them all the
bee they can pay for, and whisky, too,
in the little green bottles. "What' S
that in your pocket?' | asked little
fellow not more than seven years old,
as l met him one day on the avenue.
He laughed That's my fathers whis.
ky BOTTLE" said he. ppm gong to
Looran' to get it filed" And Looran
wouldn't raise the cry: "It's poison,
don't touch it,! I'll warrant you.
Now don't you think there's some.
thing strange about tbs, children
That at one store they should be Sc
! ! afraid to sell you poison, and at the very
! ueAt uouT tuey WOuIu SCH you JuSG a.
much as you want? 1t must be thai
thesediquor sellers don't believe theil
liquor is poison. T ey won't believe
: it; that S the trouble. But that doesn't
) alter the fact one bit. 1t is poison.
whethe people believe it orno :; and OH
how any men, women and children
! are killed by it.
But little children don't know about
the poison until we ell them. SO we
must keep on the watch all the time,
we who know, and when we see boy
or girl going to buy, or putting the
glass to their lips, we must cry aloud
, ''Po son! poison!' All! we mustn' I
wait for that We must be- before
, hand with our warning. We must ell
, the oh ldren everywhere, explain it to
them, and then get them to help us re.
, peat the cry t II everybody has heard,
men and women, boys and girls, old
and young, and until they are all per.
suaded to believe that alcohol is poison.
!, Helen e. Broom, in Temperance Ban
neT.