The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-01-04
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
REFORMING DRUNKARDS.
What Should be Done With Persons Ad-
dictad IN the Alcohol Habit.

dicted to the Alcohol haDlC'
The youth of our country of all ma
tionalities should be made to feel that
the cultivation of taste for liquor is
dangerous habit; that alcohol in all It's
formp is drug to be dreaded and avoid
ed al strychnine or aconite, and that
opium should only be given when i'm
peratively demanded. Let parents in
all conditions of life be made to feel,
and educated to believe, that it is dan
gerous practice to allow, and fearful
responsibility to encourage, their chill
dren to drink the mild wines, beer or
cider.
While was writing this section OF
my paper gentleman tifty-two years OF
age and one who has experienced all the
degradation possible from drink, has
lost his fortune, ruined his health, and
is separated from his family, said to me:
"Forty years ago 1 attended church three
times each Sunday, and listened to SER
mons one hour in length each time, and
in addition attended Sabbath-school, and
during all these religious exercises for
years l have never heard word in re.
gard to the baleful effects of narcotics.
1 commenced gradually and knew moth
ing of its dangers" This is true of
hundreds of thousands.
But, thanks to our educational Tenn
perance organization, this is being
overcome, and l trust that the time is
not far distant when every parent will
realize that it is not only smart thing,
but fearful crime, to send their chill
dren to saloon for liquors, and much
greater one to tempt them by Offering
the sugar that is in the bottom of the
glass.
What shall be done with our third
class, those who have already acquired
the habit?
Probably about twenty per cent. can
be reformed the first time their atten-
ton can be arrested long enough to
keep them perfectly sober. This can
be done by rest, seclusion and educa-
tion--any way by which the alcohol and
opium can be eliminated from the sys-
tenn and few days rest for the body
be taken, and then, followed by en-
couraging words, a definite plan of
work and a resolution never to asso-
ciate with former companions. If the
question be asked: "Why have homes
and asylums for inebriates been estab-
lished and maintained at cost of money
and labor, if the habit of inebriation is
not a disease, and only twenty per
cent. saved?" l would reply that, after
Temperance organizations and societies,
the church and clubs have done all that
is possible, some of the most promising
of those reformed will relapse from
causes which l have just enumerated.
These men need a place where they
can acquire strength; where, separated
from their companions, their moral
sense can be cultivated and strength
ened. Some men change habit in mo-
ment; with others it takes months, per-
haps years. Many men use alcohol for
years without impairment of any func-
ton of the body; others are injured in
nearly every organ. For those who need
considerable time to perfect a reforma-
ton, and that class, too, whose consti-
buttons have been injured by the volun-
tary use of alcoholics, and who, from
al sense to say No to an invitation to
drink, to such, homes and asylums are
houses of refuge. Reformation is mat
ter of deyelopment-not a ''presto-
change" affair, not done in twinkling
of an eye, but matter of growth, a
matter of development. A man who has
been addicted to the inordinate use OF
n iG 70 JIo
must be on his guard. A reformed man
must be taught, and the lesson must be
well learned, that let come what will
sickness, trouble, death, reverses, singly
or all combined-that he can not with
any safety touch drop or he will fall.
No class or profession of men see so
many of these unfortunates as our pro-
fession. We should be able to tell
these men that it is their duty to
fight this appetite, if they have been
SO unfortunate as to form it, and that
there is no drug that can take it en-
tirely from them.
What is to become of the remaining
per cent? l stated, it must be re-
membered, that | thought about twenty
in each hundred could be quickly re-
formed if we could get access to them.
What about the remaining eighty?
Quite a number will reform after re-
peated trials and failures; few, after
education upon the subject, will drink
less-are improved, but not reformed.
A considerable number go to form the
fourth class, the description and treat
ment of which l will now speak.
These can not be reformed either
through influence of rest, seclusion or
by the moral strength acquired in re-
formatory institution. These are the
uncomfortable, incorrigible, disquieted
men, who have not only discouraged
but rendered miserable their relatives
and all their acquaintance. They have
never learned to obey; they are undis-
ciplined and generally lack all feeling
of responsibility. They are the men
who beat their wives and starve their
children; the men who steal the hard
earned money from their wives purse
and the knives and napkins from their
tables to buy alcohol or opium, and
when perfectly sober or free from the
drug you eXpostulate with them they
will laugh and assure you that they
know their own business. The State
should assume the guardianship of this
class, and should put them in an insti-
tuition whose management should be
remarkable for its kind administration