The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-02-09
Temperance Reading
POISON POIS0NI

fOlSON RUlSON
was going along the street one day
last spring when | met three little chill
dren coming out of a 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
rying 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 became in
moment. They sprang at him and
pulled the flowers away, crying out
little shrieks, both together: 30 Benny!
it s poison! it's poison! Spit it out!
spit it out!'' And then how frightened
Benny was! He threw every stalk away,
and tried to clean off his tongue with
his dirty little hand, and / passed him
still splitting and suffering most reso-
lutely.
was interested to see how quickly
the warning cry ''Poison! poisonr' was
understood and needed. These little
midgets had been told probably at 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 touch itp' we saw. win Won
mind? Do you feel afraid 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 poison!
it's poison! Spit it out!rP
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 a 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 arsenic to kill the rats with,
some Paris-gre for the potato bugs,
or some oxaIic acid to clean the boiler
with, the druggist would say: mo;
we don't sell poison to children" Even
if l should go for it myself, he would
still refuse unless he knew me very well,
or | carried note from my doctor tell
ing him | would use it Just as l 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 liquor-saloon, and
l see children going in there every day
with their pitchers and pals, and the
men never refuse to sell them all the
beer they can pay for, and whisky, too,
in the little green bottles "What' S
that in your pocket" l asked little
fellow not more than seven years old,
as met him one day on the avenue.
He laughed. That's my fathers whis-
ky BOTTLE" said he. '.I'm going to
Looran' $ to get it filed" And Looran
wouldn't raise the cry: cts poison,
don't touch it!'' I'll warrant you.
Now don't you think there's some
0bOUO OllloS NnilOIC
That at one store they should be so
afraid to sell you poison, and at the very
next door they would sell you just as
much as you want? 1t must be that
these liquor sellers don't believe their
| 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,
whether people believe it or not; and oh!
how many men, women and children
are killed by it.
But little children don't know about
the poison until we tell them. So we
must keep on the watch all the time,
we who know, and when we see a boy
or girl going to buy, OF putting the
glass to their lips, we must cry aloud:
''Po son! poisonr' All! we muslin t
wait for that We must be before
hand with our warning. We must tell
the children everywhere, explain it to
them and then get them to help us re-
peat the cry till 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 b. Br0oO7a, IN Temperance Ban
1le1