The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-04-21

SOCIAL CUSTOM.
How 1t Serves ~ = Bulwark to the Rum
Power-How 1t Might BE Made Potent
for Good.
People follow the dictates of fashion
as if she were veritable goddess. No
matter what may be the prevailing
mode of dress, they observe it slavishly.
The question as to whether it is becom-
ing to the individual has no weight;
''it is the fashion," and that settles the
matter. Crinoline or clinging draperies;
high-necked dresses or low corsages;
smooth bands of hair, or frowsy name
OF bangs shading the brow; ''peg-top"
pantaloons, or skin-tight ones; high
hats or low-whichever may be the
fashion, that men and women wear.
1t is Oftentimes unbecoming, some
times ridiculous, but all the same. it is
followed. -
This servile obedience to the whims
of those leaders of society whose ex-
ample sets the fashion is seen in many
other things than in mere matters of
dress or personal adornment. 1t pre-
scribes the style of furniture in our
homes, the patterns of our carpets and
wallpaper, even the architecture of our
houses. 1t decides the manner of serv-
ing our meals, our hours of receiving
Company, our mode of entertaining
] friends. And in the fact that fashion, in
| the higher circles of society. declares that
wines and other drinks are de rtgeur at
dinner, the rum power finds one of its
strongest bulwarks. A host may be
convinced that to do so is morally
wrong, and yet lack the courage to set
the fashion at defiance. 1t cost more
than most people know for Mrs. Hayes
to Danish liquors from the White House.
And in the fact that she did thus defy
an unwritten social law. may be found
the reason for much of the cheap wit
and boOrish ridicule that was cast up
on her and General Hayes while the
latter was President, and which even
yet crops out in many newspapers from
time to time.
What can BE- more potent for evil
than the example set in this way fol
boys and girls-the men of the next
generation, their wives and the moth
ers of the next in successionp Can any
parent talk sobcrly to his child Of the
danger Of tampering with rum in any
shape or form--warn him of the terrible
drink habit which conquers the will,
bCnumbs the conscience and makes its
devotees the veriest slaves who crawl
Gods footstOOl-and at the same time
allow wines at his table? Example il
stronger than precept. The child will
follow the first and scorn the second
The great evil of the fashionable toler
ance of strong drink is that it perpetu
atcs the vice of intemperance, anC
braces up the rum power. 1t furnishes
a fresh crop of drunkards among thu
men--ay, and sometimes the women
of to-day, and prepares the way for {
second among the children, by famil
iarizing them with the internal stuff
Touch not, taste not, handle not" j
. precept that can not be too slrongl,
impressed, a law that can not be to-
closely observed.
The evil of which we speak reache
much further than to the circles of SO
ciety wherein this abominable fashion
is set. A new style of dress is followe
throughout all social grades down +
the very poorest. The same is true Q
this. Though the vast mass of the pee
pie may never follow the mode of hay
: ing rum in some form upon the table
yet they fellow those who set and OF
, serve that fashion by tolerating thos
| who drink. To drink rum is counte
| nanced in "our best society" henc
the practice is tolerated by very larg
! majority of the people of the country
, So long as man may get intoxicate
: and vet retain his social standin
J among the class which claims to be on
.'aristocracy." so long will the mass {
our people socially tolerate drinkin
, man.
: No more telling blow could be dea
at the rum power, no deeper woun
could be given to the Minotaur VIII
> devours the Nations strong men an
( youth, than for "society" to put i
, stigma on the drink habit. If win
were banished, not only from tn
5 tables but from the homes of societ
r people, if the men who drink wei
rigidly excluded from all social gathe
ings in his circle. if drinking wei
made Questionable, what a nigh,
revolution would be worked! The p,
tent influence of fashion would be e,
erted against rum and its devotee
thousands and tens of thousan,
of young men, not yet under Il
domination Of rum, would be save
the children of to-day would
free from the terrible DANCE
Let a man who is slave
the habit be as rigidly ostracis'