The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-04-30

Aor tuo tlulc, OHly serNo W mdko LILO
darkness more visible when the arti.
fetal coruscations are withdrawn.
When l see our school boys stunting
their growth and drying up their brains
with smoke; when discover that their
very cigars are soaked in alcohol and
liquors, and that the boys are baited
with beer and enticed into saloons by
music, games and evil company: when
l am told OF their degeneracy in
scholarship, so that the percentage Of
girls who graduate and who take /
honors is steadily gaining on that Of
the boys, 1t seems to me that l can not
wait until tho schools of my country
focus their splendid light upon the
problem of prevention. 1t is glorious
thing to go to the rescue of wicked and
ruined manhood with the life-boat OF
reform, but far better to build light.
house on the sunken reef, warning the
unskilled voyager OF his danger.
In the light of ten years work as
teacher of total abstinence from alco-
holic poison, solemnly aver that had l
the power our system OF education
should be so changed that the course OF
study for every pupil from the kinder.
gaten toddler to the high school gradu'
ate, should be grounded where God
grounds our very being-on natural
law. They should know the laws OF
health first OF all, since their physical
being is the firm base of the whole pyr.
amid of character. According to law
is the method as it is the philosophic ex.
PLANTATION of the universe so far as we can
spell it out The blessed word health"
once literally meant holiness" and
that means simply Wilderness" This
body of ours was meant to be the tenn.
ple of the Holy Spirit, but enemies have
taken possession of it and dimmed or
we'll nigh extinguished the Shekinah.
The alcohol and nicotine poisons leagued
with bad food, unnatural dress, bad ven.
tilation and ill-proportioned exercise,
are the demons that hold the sacred
citadel Yet we call ourselves a science.
loving people and think We care
to know Gods reason why! His
laws written in our members"
we pass lightly over that we may
learn mans formula for parsing verb
or constituting foreign quotation. Even
the Saxons knew that ''every man has
lain on his own trencher;" that what We
eat, more than all other contingencies,
determines what we are; but we pass
over these weightiest matters OF tho
changeless laws Of hygiene that we may
1.-THE the mint and cummin of gram.
NAUTICAL punctilio and mathematical
accomplishment. Even when we study
the natural sciences we soar amid the
stars and hammer the rocks or dissect
flowers; but place the study of our own
more splendid organism at the foot Of
the list, instead of building the whole
edifice of education upon this solid
rock, against which the gates of hell
shall not prevail. Our obliquity of Wis
ion at this point is fatal to the logical
sequence of our entire scheme, and
will be the amazement of wiser and
happier generations. In the school Of
the future carefully trained hygienists
!. will be steadily at work studying the
habits OF the children and teaching
them, on scientific grounds, how they
may form those upon which physical
: sanity is conditioned. As be.
ginning of this vital education l would
teach on scientific grounds the uDrea.
sonableness of using alcoholic drinks
By every practical method of illus ira
ton and experiment would set before
my pupils that the tendency Of ye'ter
day is likely to become the habit a to-
day and the bondage of tomorrow.
They should be drilled into the fact that
the alcoholic habit is cumulative, 8. billy
strengthening by what it feeds upon
so that the ignorant claim that diinks
like cider, beer and wine are prevcnt
ives of drunkenness should be an iksult
to their intelligence.
In my geography should be laid fowr
the maelstrom of moderate drinking
and the Niagara Of drunkenness; in my
!. grammar, the conjugation of tho verbs
"to be" and ito do" as related to boys
life proceedings, should be no more ir
regular, and in my arithmetic tho knotty
problem of life should be the ons OF
: whose solution most Of study was eX
:. pended. y n
believe this systematic instruction
' which both forewarns and forcarm
: them, to be the road out of bondage To-
the children of America. No other in
stitution OF the Republic reaches then
;. all. Powerful as are the forces Of tn,
!, pulpit and press, the former does rot at
;. tract all ears, and the latter is lergel,
' influenced by the saloon in finance an(
, the saloon in politics. But to tn,
!, school-housc door come white and black
, native and foreign-born; inside it
: walls are invested their formative
:, years, and the laws of their being, as Sc
forth by science, must appeal to thei
:. self-love, an attribute upon which W,
J. may always confidently base our cal
culations. The German. who learn
= that the laws of nature take side
with local abstinence, will gradual,
), cease the cry of 'fanaticism." Hi
- boy comes home from school AMI tell
!, him that in time of pestilence and sun
: stroke the beer-drinkers pay forfeit ant
= the total abstaincrs get off scot free
that these last are at premium, will
:, the life insurance companies: that the,
:. win in the athletic games: that they arr
= the successful explorers and victorious
y soldiers, and that chemistry, physiolog,
and hygiene prove that this must Away
;. be so. Mein Herr scoffed at the cru
: sading women, but the dignity Of sci
=. ence will do much to silence him. ant