The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-03-27
SAVING THE YOUTH.
Intoxicating Drinks and Smoking Among
the Worst Foes of the Yourg-Alarmlng
Facts and Statistics.

Intoxicating Drinks and Smoking Among
the Worst Foes of the Yourg-Alarming
Facts and Statistics.
Among the children's s,ora foes are
Intoxicating drinks and sn,okisgf Tens.
o. thousands of them are in imminent
peril-are already on the road to ruin,
temporal and eternal! And yet parents
fail to take the alarm-remain in SEEM
ing ignorance of the appalling fact
and in multitude of instances hold
out the temptation to them!
The fact that the peril exists, that in
toxication among children and youth is
feariully on the increase, and that the
use of tobacco, especially cigarettes, is!
fast poisoning the rising generation. is
common matter of observation. The
latter habit is becoming fearfully preva-'
lent among us. And yet see what one
of the highest medical authorities of
London, DIR. Pope, Professor of Hygiene
of.the Health Society, says:
mo boy ought to be suffered to touch to-
bacco. The oil which is dist lied from the to-
bacco leaf in smoking is of an acrid and most
poisonous nature, producing a sensation OF
burulHS i'll Tue InOubu, ana DArdlyZl14R DfrE1Cu-
larly the spinal chord and motor nerves while
the Neutrality-suspicious. Oil, but volatle-affectSl
moro directly the heart through the brain 1T
self. There is this undoubted fact also-noth-
Ing can be more pernicious for boys and!
growing youths tlan the use of tobacco in any
of its forms. There can be no hesitation about
this matter; it points to physical degenera-
ton, and is probably the greatest source OF
physical evil that the next generation viii
have to lament. Boys. it is. indeed, a deadly
! poison to you'll 1t stunts your growth; it de-
izing your food into flesh and blood; it bunts
your brains, which should be brilliant and
active; and II threatens your very manhood"
Facts aud statistics are coming to
light and being gathered up in refer
ence to the early formation of drinking
habits that are sufficient to astound and
startle the whole community and sound
an alarm in every household. We have
space only for the following statistics,
| which are kindly furnished by Miss
Lucy M. Hall, Superintendent of 'The
Reformatory Prison for Women" at
Sherburne, Mass:
:" OF 204 in briate women examined for an
especial group of statistics. 1872 were commit
TED to the prison Tor diunkennessi Average
age when last committed (some had been conn.,
mitted several times), was S01s years. OF the
204 cases q began to drink intoxicants before
they were 10 years old; ii between 8 aud Is:
"a between IA and IL 81 between 20 ard rs; 80
between 25 and 81; 10 between 80 and Al; and
3 between ~ and 81 years. Average age 49,
years More than one half of the whole num-
Der had formed habits of intemperrnce before
they were 81 years of age; and more than one
third at the giddy age of from 10 10 20l''
And these, remember, were girls.
Our boys are in far greater peril. More
and greater temptations assail them.
And the fatal habit, both as to drinking
and smoking, prevails far more extern
sively among them. BOYS are being
constantly arrested in our streets for in
toxication. They frequent our drinking
saloons in large numbers. Liquor is
one of the great demoralizing influences
at work amcng our boys. especially in
our cites, and one of the greatest ex-
citives to precocious crime. The Citi-
zens' League of Chicago, which is do
ing grand work in that city to restrain
this great evil, states that when the So
ciety was formed seven years ago there
were $4,000 boys and giris-many of
them of tender age-who frequented
the saloons, which then numbered
5000, in the city which at that time
numbered only about 100000 inhabit-
ants. Six thousand of the children
figured in the police courts, many of
whom went from there to Bridewell.
If parents do not awake from their
lethargy; if the bottle in every form be
not banished from our homes; if the
saloons, where drunkards are made,
into which the young are enticed by
thousand devices, be not legally sup
pressed or rightly restrained; if the
press and the pulpit and the platform.
do not speak out and lead on speedy
reform, the next generation will be a
generation of drunkards!-H omiletic
RevieW.