The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1889-03-27
Costly Habit.

The laborer who pays the saloonist twenty
cents per day, for four glasses OF beer, OF
two glasses OF whiskey, spends seventy three
dollars annually for the beverage. With this
money, as prices now are, he couid purchase
six barrels of flour, two hundred pounds OF
sugar, twenty five bushels OF potatoes, ten
pounds Of tea, and twenty-five pounds OF
coffee. So far as these several articles are
concerned the above amount would be an
ample annual supply for a family of six
persons, perhaps family of eight, parents
and SIX children. Now, which had he BETTER
use. the beer and whisky, or the groceries
Which would be economical and proof OF real
paternal afrectonl Suppose he belongs TO
the knights of Labor, can he plead for
a strike consistently SO long as he worse
than wastes seventy-three dollarsl Must he
not strike against the saloon before he
can strike for higher wages, If he would
challenge the sympathes of thoughtful meni
lt was this thought that completely changed
the life and purpoSo of bootmaker in Nor
folk County, Mass, a few years ago. lie
was very moderate drinker-stepped from
his shop into saloon near by only twice q
day, and paid five cents each for two glasses
of beer. "Over thirty dollars a year, he
said within himself. IL could buy three bar
rels Of flour, five pounds of tea, ten pounds OF
coffee and fifteen bushels of potatoes with
that money! He took his pencil and cast
the figures on a piece OF leather. MY
family need it, to- he thought; and the out
spend another cent for beer as long as live:
and he never has.
Was he not wise? Is there any discount e
made on his Judgments None at all, cs
pecially when the reader learns that his deci-
sion became an era to his family. From that
day, n laudable ambition, desire for better
education. love of books and journals, aspi-
ration for higher social life, grew in thai
family; and at the end of ten years, tn
members of it moved in the most intelli
nd in ununntial pirnlpS There iS nOtliMt
like a good, commanding idea TO lit
father and his family into a nobler life. And
this is what is needed, and all that is needed
in thousands of families in our land to-day
The total abstinence idea is but one idea, ano
it may seem a small one to many men; but
it is big enough and strong enough to save
multitude of laborers whom nothing else car
.save.-Ndtional Record.
In a Demons Power.
The physiological secret of that progress
siveneSs of all stimulant passions, says DR..
Oswald, in the Oice, is the gradual increase
of the depressing reaction, which infallibly
follows every abnormal irritation OF the ner-
yous system. The iaded nerves fail to re-
spond to the spur of the wonted stimulus,
while a more and more irksome depression of
the vital spirit prompts the patient to relieve
his torpor at any price-too often the price
of lifelong bondage, clinched by more COM
plete surrender to the power of the demon
whose caressing embrace only secures
firmer hold upon the throat of his victim.
Mild stimulants soon become insipid, and by
degrees positively distasteful, to the moro
and more decided appetite for stronger stimu-
lants. The increasing eXorbltance of that
appetite thus not only constitutes constant
temptation TO worse eXcesses, but also pre-
vents the topper from retracing his steps on
the road to ruin.
There is, in that respect, curious analogy
between the influence of moral and physical
stimuants The chief objection to mind
enslaving passions is, perhaps, not their di-
rect temptation to acts of reckleSsneSs, but
the circumstance that their influence tends to
annul the attractiveness of less exciting en-
joyments. The historian Lecky, in his re-
flections upon the moral alterations of pagan
Rome, traces the decline of art and harmless
pleasures to the indirect influence of the
gadiatorial games. ITO men who were ac-
customed to witness the fierce vicissitudes Of
deadly comlat,n he says, any spectacle
that did not elicit the strongest excitement
was insipid. The idealized suffering of the
stage became unimpressive to those who
were habituated TO the intense realism of the
amphithC atre. All the genius Of a Siddons
or a RIstori would fail to move an audience
who had continually seen living men fall
bleeding and mangled at their feet"