The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-07-27
destructive work, and the hardened

destructive work, and the hardened
drinker will sacrifice every thing to
his master pass IN without scruple or
hesitation; but the women who are
doomed to bear the heavy burden of
relationship to drunkards are indeed
to be pitied The domesticity from
which few of them can escape forces
upon them perpetual experiences so.
Misunderstanding, so revolving, that their,
existence is prolonged tragedy. All
the caprice, petulance, unreason,.
tyranny, brutality engendered by
drink is expended upon them. ALI the
social degradation and modification on
the position falls upon their heads.
The living man chained to corpse is
not more terribly situated than the
wives and daughters of the saloons
victims. Liquor eliminates all the
drunkard's good qualities, reinforces
all his worst vices, and, having thus
transformed him, sends him home to-
torture and abuse those whom it is his
first duty to cherish and protect. At
the sacrifice of her future happiness.
the wife may sometimes obtain d..
vorce; very often, however, her in
ability to support herself compels her
to endure her torment, or the reluctance
to expose her children to reproach
constralns her to bear every thing. 1t
Is seldom that women are so situated
as to be able to resume a celibate life
without submitting to serious hard
ships. and perhaps in majority of in
stances they can secure a separation
only by facing restitution.
There is no evil which operates so,
directly, and with such disastrous
potency, against the family as the
saloon. In fact, it is the direct enemy
of domestic happiness, purity, and
peace. Even in its mildest manifesto
lions it alienates men from their homes;
creates in them habits of selfish indul-
gence; gives them sensual interests
apart; brings into competition with the
innocent recreations of the home circle,
coarse, vulgar and extravaganza amuse-
l'ments. In its more pronounced opera
tions, it stops at no such trihes as the
production of mere discomfort, but.
proceeding without disguise, turns men
into wild beasts and then lets them
loose upon their families. What makes
this especially shocking is that we are
| all acquainted with it's truth, YET that
we have hitherto tolerated it passively.
| The horrors to which drink ex.
poses women are worse than those
of slavery. The sufferings of the wives
and daughters of drinking men are
more acute and constant than most
men are probably capable of expe.
riencing. We all know this, yet We
go on calmly in the old way, as if We
either thought women ought to be thus
abused, or believed that, though the
matter was pitiful, no help could be
found for it. Much has been written
of late years about the alleged quick
ening of sensibility, the enlargement
of humanitarian tendencies, the revolt
against cruelty in all its manifestations.
Is there not danger of the moral atrophy
engendered by self-conceit, where IL
lusions so fiattering can co-exist with
the natural life we are livingp Famil-
iarity with evil must have blinded us
alarmingly when we can seriously be-
lieve that we have reached a real height
of reform; that we have attained a
stage of civilization pure enough to be
proud of; that there is no special need
for concern because of the sins that do
most easily beset us.-Atlanttc