The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-08-28
FUTURE sTANoARD.eeAReRs.


where the hope o. inc IempcrencS
Movement May be Found.
The children OF to-day are the hope
sf the future. The best Temperance
work Of the present Is being done by
men and women who as boys and
girls were early pledged to total abb
stinence and thoroughly indoc-
trinated in fundamental Temperance
truth. These are the men and
women who may be depended upon to
uphold everywhere the total-absti-
hence standard because Of the evil
involved in the use Of intoxicating
beverages, and to lead in the crusade,
through good and through evil re-
port, for the total suppression Of the
drink traffic. These educated total
abstainers, whose education began,
perhaps. in some juvenile Temper
ance organization in their early child
hood, are thoroughly equipped SOL
diers. ready in the great conflict with
the drink oligarchy to do full duty in
every emergency. Responsibility
equally great for the maintenance
and advancement Of the Temperance
reform will. in the near future, de-
volve upon the children Of to-day.
Much very useful juvenile Tenn
perance work is being done, but very
much more ought to be done Null
titudes of the children of temperate,
reputable parents, who themselves
pay little heed to the Temperance re-
form, and know little Of it, are being
brought up without any intelligent
Temperance instruction.
On the night preceding our recent
Fourth Of July holiday, fond OF ad-
venture, three boys or young men IN
their teens were cut late to have a
"good time" After midnight, one Of
them, the son of widowed mother,
member Of a popular church and
Sunday -school, was led home stagger-
ing, screaming drunk by another of the
three, himself also much under the in
huence OF intoxicants. The third Of the
trio returned to his home sober but in
sorrow and disgust He fortunately
Il had signed the total-abstinence pledge,
pledging himself to abstain even from
cider, when he was eight years old.
1t is still his safeguard, and withoutita
restraining influence it is not unlikely
that he, too, would have gone home
drunk. The holiday over, the other
two were heartily ashamed Of their
escapade But they have yielded and
fallen once, some measure Of self-re'
spect is gone, and no one can tell how
, soon they may be confronted with ant
surrender to some new, unexpected
temptation. Without the total-ab
,, stinence pledge they are as the shil
at sea without q rudder. Nor wer'
: they of the poor. specially exposes
class Of young people; they belong
? to what is called "good society" ant
the church Of which one is membe
10 popular and fashionable, but doe
= little relatively for the cause Of Tenn
perance. nor does the subject Of Ten
perance, receive any considerable q
9 tention In its Sabbath-schooL
When young people 60 forth with
:, out adequate instruction, either in tn
home, the church or the Sunday
q school, concerning the danger II
a volved in alcoholic beverages, 1t
|: not surprising that many stumble an
II fall. 1t is perhaps surprising tbs
9 more do not.
Temperance teaching for the chi
: dren should begin in the home. Tbs
k parental instruction is deplorably d.
r fcient which does not include it. Blu
alas! how many parents there al
Il who are themselves drinkers
moderation" it may be-of beef
'r wine, cider, or OF the stronger intox
J. cants! With such the lesson Of Q,
}, ample to children, the most potent I
1t teachers. is in the wrong directio
d and full Of peril
l. An eleven-year-old Brooklyn be
ID died recently in the City Hospit'
T. from alcoholism. The child
n drinking parents, he had also bee
t. employed to carry cans Of beer
ID workmen, and on his frequent retul
:, trips from the saloon drank some I
Or the beer himself. Finally he drar
N to insensibility, and the empty bee
g can was found beside him.
le What the home so often fails
Of provide for the children In the way
IN Temperance instruction. schools
o, Sunday and secular-may and shou
measurably supply. Every churt
tod should have Temperance organic
EN- ton of some kind for its young pc
I'd pie, and every Sunday-school shou
h. fgive Temperance instruction in son
60 Form TO the children.
y BIZ, Great expectations have be-
IL awakened, greater than as yet ha
lie been realized, by the action Of mai
IN States to provide for scientific Tel
~ perance instruction in the pub
he schools. 1t would seem that what
he now left so largely to voluntary {
or ton on the part of public-school
,ir fcials and teachers must needs
he made more mandatory before a
ot thing like the full measure of possit
he usefulness will be attained in I
se sphere of public-school Temperan
SO instruction.
lot The readiest and, perhaps, mi
lid influential way to reach and impr'
re- the children Of the Nation with TIE
~. perance truth is through juven