The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-05-01
TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTIONS.

4 OtCtbO OtUQC.
TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTIONS.
The Success Which Has Already Attended
the Efforts in This Direction.
Much has already been accomplished
in this direction. Every one of the adj
mirable Normal schools of the State of
New York is obliged to make specially
of drilling the teachers in hygienic
physiology with special reference to the
effects of alcoholic stimulants and mar
cotics. The same is true of Mic igan,
Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode
Island. Every child in those States
must be equally instructed in this branch
of study. This area comprises one
seventh of all the school children in the
Nation, and these laws Lave been Sc
cured IN two years of effort By the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Since l began this article Missouris
Legislature has adopted the same law,
and Massa cilusetts and Pennsylvania
are almost sure to follow before their
sessions close. Nor is there State or
Territory in the Nation wherein we
are not making strenuous efforts to Sc
cure similar law. Mrs. Mary Fl.
Hunt, of Boston, is at the ad of this
department.. and has genius worthy
of Major-General for strategic points
! aud skillful combinations. In each
/ State and Territory she has an official
coadjutor, who in turn has one in each
| local w. G. L. IT,, so that ten thousand
lines radiate from the headquarters Of
our National society to as many towns
| where our local members are at
work. But we do not ty any means
wait for law to lie adopted. We
constantly petition local educational
boards and individual teachers to
use their influence for hygienic teach
ing. There are thousands Of schools to-
day where our new and complete series
OF textbooks has been regularly intro
duced, and thousands more in which
earnest teachers find opportunity, by
oral and reading lessons, subjects for
essay, defamation and debate, to Law
the foundation for more systematic
work. We induce persons of wealth to
offer prizes for the best essay on the
evil effects of intoXicantS twenty-five
thousand children having been thus
reached in San Francisco. Cal, and tens
of thousands in other States. Prizes
are also gwen TO teachers in Normal
schools for similar essays, and reference
libraries are furnished to such schools.
We have devised textbook covers on
which total abstinence arguments are
printed, and which many of our unions
furnish free to the schools of their own
towns. The Teachers Conventions in
many States AMI counties have adopted
resolutions declaring their adhesion to
this movement, and last summer tho
National Educational Association at
Madison, Wis, gave an emphatic utter
ance to the same purpose. President
| Bicknell in his address said; 1.-TWO per-
sons stand at the threshold TO protect
the incoming generation from becoming
an easy prey TO the devourer of health,
happiness and Heaven The natural
protectors of our youth are the parents
and the teacher, as home and school
are the citadels for their defense
Formation, not reformation, is now tho
educational watchword which woman
has proclaimed as the signal to be sent
to all of her allies in the world. and the
two words, Woman and temperance,
! each the symbol of the good and the
true, shall be for ever united"
| Talking with teachers on this subject
of Scientific Temperance Teaching, I
have found their sympathy almost uni
versal, but they have often said: 1--WE
are already so overcrowded with duties
that the practical difficulty is. how can
we add this 10 our cares or find time
for the children to take up another
| branch?" 1t seems to me that the Su-
perintendent of Schools in aleading city
of Massachusetts made conclusive re-
ply to this objection when he said re-
Gently, in reply to the President of the
w. G. T. u: 'sThis subject ought TO
be taught. If the schedu is too much
| crowded already we will take some
thing out and make room for this, be-
cause it is entitled to the right of way"
believe this systematic instruction,
which both forewarns and forearms
them. to be the road out OF bondage for
the children of America. No other in
stitution of the Republic reaches them
all. Powerful as are the forces of pull
pit and press, the former does not at
tract all ears. and the latter is largely
influenced by the saloon in finance and
| the saloon in politics. But to the school
house door come white and black, ma
tive and foreigp-born; inside its walls
are invested Their formative years, and
the laws of their being, as set
forth by science, must appeal to
their self-love, an attr butte upon
which we may always confidently base
our calculations. The German, who
learns that the laws of nature take sides
with, total abstinence, will gradually
cease the cry of "fanaticism. His boy
comes home from school and tells him
that in times of pestilence and sun
stroke the beer-drinkers, pay forfeit and
the total abstainerS get off scott free;
that these last are at a premium with
the life insurance companies; that they
win in the athletic games; that they are
the successful explorers and victorious
soldiers. and that chemistry, physiology
and hygiene prove that they must al
ways be so. Mein Herr scoffed at the
crusading women, but the dignity OF
science will do much TO silence him.
and it will convince his children. be-
! seech you, then, rs the truest guardians
, of the State and the most intelligent
and helpful friends of the child in our
midst, who is also in the marketplace,
and who is sure to be auctioned off to
the forces that bid highest for them,
stand by the mothers of the Nation in
their brave and tender, loving labors to
save
The little soldiers, newly mustered in
To the army of temptation and of sin.
From Timely Talks By Mss
Frances g. Willard.
TEMpEPANNE ITEMS