, 1885-05-31
A NOTABLE DISCUSSION


p~icriucntf 70 hef. IT. CrObDy
on the question Of total abstinence. Mis-
Cleveland commences By quoting the fol
lowing from DR.. Crosby:
81 do not wonder that excellent women
whose husbands or SOM have bccom,
sots, should advocate total abstinence foI
everyone. We have heard a good woman
whose boy bad cut his finger nearly of
with a knife, wish that there were M
knives in the world; and il she should
have her own way she would have then
all destroyed forthwith. II is natural
and a woman's cry on such an occasion
excites our tenderest sympathy. But who
will count that an argument
Miss Cleveland then says: The above
paragraph from "A Calm View of DR..
Nelson, by Rev. Howard Crosby, ID,
D., in the Erangelst of March II, has
most %pertinaciously haunted me ever
since the perusal Of the article last even
ing. That this, above any other para.
graph. should most impress itself upon
the impressiblle mind of one emotionaI
woman in particular, or Of woman as an
emotional creature in general, will sur,
prise no man. II is, as the doctor says,
natural; and am certain that multitude.
of women beside myself are to-day smart
ing under those calm words, against
the imputation of which every fibre ol
the woman nature rises up in revolt.
The male animal is very fierce; the fc.
male of all genera is very, comparatively
and in general. uncombative. Bat the
same science which tells us this tells MS
also chat the mother, among all beasts, in
defense Of her young, is the ~ierccst of all
living creatures. The l%ioness, under or
binary circumstances is quito easy of CON
quest, but the lioness robbed of her
whelps. no man or beast cares to en-
counter. Both these phases of the fe.
male nature are undoubtedly natural. "
They belong, as Bishop Butler said OF
certain 80. called supernatural phenomena,
to the natural, Of which there are 1.-TWO
courses the one ordinary, the other not
supernatural, still less superhuman, but
extraordinary. You see, Mrs. Foster,
that this mad dog" you talk about is to
be put, by a calm view of the thing as il
is, into the same category with cutlery.
you have no more real right to cry
about this Embossed beast, because il may
meet your children on their way to school
and may bite one or two Of them, than
you have TO cry out against the manufac-
ture and sale Of knives because your boy
cut himself once. The perfectly clear
thing is-if yoi only had head enough to
TO see it-that the manufacture (by fer
%mentation, not d~istillation) of the mad
dog mot very mad, only some mad)
ought to go on, and that one mad dog
lof this good kind) for every 1000
people, oughtto be protected by law from
the bullets of h~ydrophobia haters.
This calm view of the evil which-bc
cause ofsome, in fact several, cases Of n.y.
drophobia among us-has some to be call.
ed by upthinking people a mad dog, is
proved By concurrent testimony Of expert.
ence, science. scholarship, sound philoso-
ply, and above all, rightly read scripture,
to be a good creature Of God. The calmly
Christian thing for you to do ION 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 a little
mad dogs bite is good for them, but a biz
mad dogs bite is very bad for them. You
ought-ifyo you would only do the thingyou
ought, instead ofthe thing you like-to mix
up a little wine and water for your little
boys at dinner, so that they may early
learn the difference between true
temperance and this miserable parody on
true temperance called total abstinence, :
and may be prepared to make a manly pro
test against drunkenness when they shall be
grown MP. 1t is simply silly-yes, while
we ieel the tenderest sympathy for youi
sorrow, We must say it is silly for you
to refuse to sec that knives and mad
dogs are equally dangerous. Il Is a,
ridiculous for you to demand that al
alcohol shall be banished from the
beverages Of mankind, because the fer,
liquor is burning out the manhood liz
more ways than by its ~coruptiou) of tn,
world. as it would be Tor you to demanc
that all the wells should be dried up be
cause men lose their lives by drowning
Alcohol and water are exactly analogous
if you could but see it, you fool
ish woman Your cry is no argument
it were better you should stop your cry
ing. DR.. Crosby. we connot, try We neve
50 hard we canaot defy or deny nature
God has made us a crying genius. W
cannot understand how knives and ma
dogs are alike; we not understand VIII.
a mad dog should not be killed. We cal
not help crying if only one to every on
thousand human beings is let loose il
u streets. These things are to,
high for us; we cannot find them out
lt is not blame. It is our nature
and We dare to say that through the pur,
and unsophisticated nature of the human
mother, Gods arguments against any US
of alcohol, except as Il medicine, is giver
to the world to-day.
Whether my idea Of this be fanciful 0
not whether il be calm or logical. wheth