The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1884-03-13

and disgraceful IN the extreme. Be-
tween the class of occasional tipplers
and habitual users there is one that Is
not, after all, so peculiar when UNDER
stood. Women there are who, being In
condition of ''neurasthenia," crave
some form of stimulation, aud crafty
it on preparations containing q certain
percentage of alcohol. 1t is q fact not
generally known, but nevertheless true,
| that thousands OF bottles of essence of
e niger are consumed by individuals of
this class. Others use some form OF
popular "bitters;" while still others,
under various pretenses, consume
quantities of various 'tinctures" and
the like on physicians prescriptions.
Women who are perfectly healthy, or
as near so as it is possible to be in this
age, certainly do not need and should
not use stimulants at any time. LET
we'll enough alone applies to such very
aptly. And, indeed. In many of US, APP
parentiy healthy and robust, there are
inherited tendencies and latent cravings
that only need for their development
who is at all conversant with the sad
histories of so many of her fellow
women now swelling the ranks OF
criminals, paupers and insane, or, what
is even worse, of those poor wretches
who haunt the by-ways and dark
streets, and form the scum and Off
securing of every large city, will GER
tainly hesitate before she either takes it
herself or allows her children to do so.
1t has often been said that the father
who takes wine before his sons, or visits
his spirit closet in their presence, sets
them, although unintentionally, a per-
nicious example that may possibly bear
bitter fruit in the years to come. How
much worse, then, the example of tip
pling mother, even though the beverage
be the harmless and popular" one OF
beer! The result can not be other
than unfortunate. Children form their
characters on the models of their elders,
and are very quick to observe and
ready to initiate. Parents being the
family arb:ters of right and wrong, chill
! dren naturally expect practice as well
as preaching, and are moro prone to
follow the former than the latter.
Both the use and abuse OF stimulants
by women are largely upon the increase
in this country. The police returns of
this city are alone sufficient evidence of
this. No reasoning individual but must
see and appreciate the fact that if, un-
! der the strict ''old-fash;oned' ideas re-
garding the use of liquors by women, a
! thousand women, gathered promis-
cuously from all classes, yielded ten
inebriates, now, with the doing away
of those ideas largely. and the more
popular introduction of stimulants as
| beverages. the same number of women
will yield fDice as many hard drinkers
as the first Thousand. And the free
use of stimulants is on the increase.
| Beer has been and still is the entering
wedge that is opening frightful gap in
the happiness of our homes and the
purity and modesty of our women.
The prison, the almshouse, the police
court-ay, even the scaffold-bear tes-
timony to the dangers of this deadly
stmulant. Wrecked homes, broken
hearts, blasted lives and hopes, grow
rank upon this soil. The CHASTITY rel
les of once pure and modest woman
! hood leer at us from the dark streets;
stagger, tattered and bedraggled
wrecks, into the grog shop; gaze, pale
L,
large, hungry, mournful eyes; stare
stonily at us from the marble slab of
the morgue, or float aimlessly out to
sea with the changing tide.
1t is sad subject from any and every
point of view, and the freer use of stim-
ulants and narcotics by all classes is be-
coming problem of serious propor-
tions. The question meets us in every
walk of life, whether as private citizens
or public officials, and demands careful
consideration and painstaking investi-
CATION. Woman herself. however, holds
the key to the whole matter. and de-
cides for or against according as she in
dulges in or countenances the free use
of stimulants, of late become so popular.
Her duty to herself, her children and
her sex bid her use every effort to dis
countenance and check by every means
in her power this growing eyiL-Har
per'S BdzGr.