Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-06-20
WOMENS' CHRISTIAN
Temperance Union Column
EDITED BY THE W. 7. UNION
MISS CLEVELANn,S VIEWS.
The Presidents Sister Enters che Field
Against King Alcohol.

4 Tile Presidents sister Enters the Fielf
Against King Alcohol.
The New York Sun publishes Il com
/ munication from Miss Elizabeth Cleve,
land, sister OF President Cleveland. In
reply To the Rev. DIR. Howard Crosby
on the question Of total abstinence
Miss Cleveland commences by quoting
the following from DIR. Crosby: II dc
not wonder that excellent women
whose husbands or SONS have become
sots, should advocate total abstinence
for every one. We have heard good
woman, whose boy had cut his finger
nearly off with knife, wish that there
were no knives. in the world, and If
she could have her way she would have
them all destroyed forthwith. Ii is
natural, and woman's cry on such an
occasion excites our tenderest sympa-
thy. But who will count that us argu-
mentY0 Miss Clevelend then said
4The above, from "a Calm View of
DIR. Nelson by the Rev. Howard Cros-
by, in the Evangelist, of March IL, has
most pertinaciously haunted me ever
since the perusal of the article last
evening. That this, above any other
paragraph, should most impress itself
upon the impossible mind of one
emotional woman in particular, or of
woman as an emotional creature in
general, will surprise no man. 1t is,
as the Doctor says, natural, and / am
certain that muititudes of women be-
sides myself are to-day smarting under
these calm words, against the inpu-
tatiOn of which every fibre of the wo-
man nature rises up in revolt The
male animal is very fierce; the female
OF all genera is very, comparatively
and in general, uncombative. But the
same science which tells us this, tells
us also that the mother among all
beasts, in defense of her young, is the
tiercest of all living creatures. The
honess under ordinary circumstances
is quite easy of conquest; but the lion
ess robbed of her whelps no man or
beast cares to encounter. Both these
phases of the female nature are I'M
doubtedly natural. They belong, AS
Bishop Butler said of certain so-called
supernatural phenomena, to the nat
ural, OF which there are two COURSES
the one ordinary, the other not super
natural, still less superhuman, but eX
traOrdinary. You see, Mrs. Foster,
that this mad dog you talk about is to
be put, by Al calm view of the thing as
II IL, into the same category with cru
city. You have no more real right to
cry about this Embossed beast because
it may meet your children on their
way To school and may bite one or two
OF them than you have to cry out
knives, because your boy cut himself
once. The perfectly clear thing is-if
you only had head enough to see it
that the manufacture (by fermentation,
not distillation) of the mad dog mot
very mad, but only some mad) ought
to 90 ON, and that one mad dog (of
tbs igood kind) for every one thousand
people ought 70 be protected by law
from the bullets OF Observation-Disclosures.
This calm view of the evil which, be
cause of some, in fact several, cases of
hydrophobla among us, has come to be
called by unthinklng people mad
dog, Is proven by concurrent testimo-
ny of experience, science, scholarship,
sound philosophy, and, above all, right
ly read scripture, TO be good creature
of God. The calmly Christian thing
for you to do 'On such an occasion is
not to go up and down crying but to
stay at home and teach your little boys
and big boys-how little mad dogs
bite is good for them, but big mad
dogs bite is very bad for them. You
ought, if you would only do the thing
you like, to mix up little wine and
water for your little boys at dinner, so
that they may early learn the differ
ence between true temperance and
this miserable parody of true temper
ance called total abstinence, and may
be prepared to make a more manly
protest against drunkenness when he
shall be grown up. 1t is simply silly.
1t is-while we feel the tenderest sym
pathy for your sorrow we must say 1t
silly for you to refuse to see that
knives and mad dogs are equally dan
gerous. 1t is as ridiculous for you to
demand that all alcohols shall be BAN
ished from the beverages OF mankind,
because this fiery liquor Is burning
ont the manhood lin more ways than
by its consumption) OF the world, as {
would be Tor you TO demand that all
the wells be dried up because men
lose their lives by drowning. Alcohol
and water are exactly analogous, if you
cOuld but see 1t, you foolish woman.
Your cry is no argument; it were bet
ter you should stop your crying.
"Dr. Crosby, we can not, try we ever
so hard, we can not DEFY or deny na-
5ure. God has made us crying ge-
nus. We can not understand how
knives and mad dogs are just alike;
we can not understand why a mad dog
should not be killed; we can not help
crying, if only one to every one thous-
md human beings is let loose in our
streets. Such things are too high for
Us; we cannot find them out. 1t Is
not our blame, it is our nature, and we |
lare to say that through the pure and |
lnsOphistlcated nature of the human |
mother, Gods argument against any |
Use of alcohol, except as Il medicine, is |
given to the world to-day. When the |
young Queen of Austria, pressed on
Every side by the ruthless oppression
Of the great Puritan King, fled tremb-
ing into Hungary, and with her in
ant in her arms and her royal crown
Ipon her head, appealed for the pro
ection of her kingdom to her loyal
subjects there, those stalwart Hungari- |
IN mobiles rose in mass, and, laying /
heir right hands upon the swords at
heir sides, swOre in shout whose he
'oic ring echoes down the years No
lamar pro rege GsOstrO, Maria Theresa
And how they did die all the world
Knows. 1t is not for the rhetorical eff
ect, still less for the eXcitation of the
enderest sympathy, that l revert to
his well known historical incident.
It is that | may call attention to the
Irgument in the cry o. those men, for
suppose mans cry may he counted
is an argument | wish to beg YOU
o notice these words 'rege aostr0.' That
expression of those Hungarion mobiles,
,ur King Maria Theresa, instead of
,ur Queen Maria Theresa, has been
to represent an idea in
heir minds to suit the mind of the
Woman's rights speakers
lave made them an acknowledgment
N the part of those most masculine
men that here was woman who was
more man than any one of them, or
II together; more able to command
hem by having more that was kingly
n her. Hence, pro rege nOStrO rather
han pro regina nOStrO. Chivalrous
might Grants of our day make this
oppression to indicate the most re-
med and splendid chivalry in those
> ~ L.