The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-04-26
TEMPERANCE EDUCATION.

Extracts from a Tract by Frances f. Will
lard. President of tho National w. C. T. U. ::
Given so much clear thought, and you
will get so much clear action. Given SO
much crazed thought and you will get
so much crazed action. There is not an
axiom of mathematics more fixed than
this physical law. The man who can't
think his own thoughts, though no.
body binders him; can't speak his own
words though everybody wishes that
he could; can't use his own five senses,
though they were given him for that
specific purpose; and whose cruelty is
greatest toward those he loves the best,
presents natures supreme illustration
of the law that alcoholic stimulants
have no business in the economies of
well-ordered physical life, and that the
time to teach this law is just as soon as
the child's brain can take it in. But
the same truth is illustrated from
another point of view. The geography
of character is branch sure to be
taught some day in the public schools.
But character is bounded on the north
by sobriety, on the east by integrity, on
the west by industry, and on the south
by gentleness. But these cardinal
points are all determined by the first,
sobriety. Clearly note first that this
virtue must prccede that of integrity.
AS George Eliot has said, with her
almost preternatural discrimination:
1--WE can not command veracity at will;
the power of seeing and reporting truth
is form of health that has to be deli
cately guarded"
DR.. benjamin Ward Richa rdson, the
leading specialist of England, has spent
twenty-five years studying the effects
of alcoholic StimulantS. During series
of experiments he associated three hun
dred chief physicians with him in this
study, and they met in London semi
annually to give results. In one con-
clusion all agreed, and it was this: No
form of dcgeneracy produced by alco-
holic beverages is more invariable than
the drinkers untruthfulness in word
and deed. The person who drinks will
use all his ingenuity to conceal, first.
the fact itself, next its consequences,
and soon the fine edge of perception and
conscience are worn away, so that he is
Enthusiastically in every thing. There
fore sobriety outranks integrity as an
essential of genuine character. Next
comes industry. But the muscles are
only "middlemen" 'twixt mind and mat
ter: their masters are the nerves or
message-bearers, and alcohol strikes
for the brain as panther leaps upon a
deer. So that the muscles, receiving
wrong orders from the great nerve
center, move in unwieldy fashion; the
hand can not grasp tools, the foot reports
distance inaccurately; the man is trans
formed from toiler to reeler, and proof
most painful and humiliating is given
that sobriety out-ranks industry upon
the map of character. But gentleness
remains to be considered. 1t is tho per-
feet flower of strength, the ornament Of
industry, tho fragrance of integrity.
But gentleness can not live without
sobriety. That is its vital breath. its
native air. For gentlcness is ''gov-
ernor" of characters great engine, the
plumb-line of its perfectness. the binna-
Gle that holds its compass true, so that
when you have "boXed the compass"
you shall fld sobriety the virtue that
dominates all others, since the clear,
calm, normal brain turns the pointer of
all human hope. Why should it not DO
SO? This body that we live in is in a
sense the universe to us. We get no
light save that which comes in through
this strange sky-light of the brain. The
man wonderful lives in house beauti-
full, and it is all in all to him. 1t was
meant to be his perfect instrument and
not his prison. Perfect obedience to its
laws would make him the true micro
cosm-the mirror of tho universe-nay
of its Creator. In his ignorance he be-
gan to use strong drinks, and honestly
called them "a good creature of God. "
But the attractive ingredient in all these
beverages is alcohol a poison that has
this changeless law, that it acts in ex-
act proportion to the quantity imbibed
upon the brain and nervous system pre-
cisely as fire acts upon water, tapping
it up with fierce and Unsuitable thirst.
This affinity of alcohol for moisture is
like feverish and consuming passion,
. and the blistered nose, burnt brain, and
parboiled stomach of the drinking man
are natures perpetual object lessons to
illustrate the fact that alcohol must be
the rodoubtable enemy of an organiza-
ton made up as the human being is, OF
seven in every eight parts OF water.
, Put with this fact one other, viz: That
alcoholic beverages are tho only ones
on earth that have no power Of self
limitation. One glass says two, and
. two say three, until, as a general rule,
from the power of self-perpetuation in
, this appetite, the life of drinker OF
alcoholics has but two periods, in the
, first of which he could leave of it lie
would, and in the last, he would leave
off if he could. But how shall the young
! and thoughtless avoid this supreme
! peril of their youth unless they know
} about it. and how shall they learn
: without teacher, and how shall they
3 teach except they be sent? This, then,
= is the rationale of scientific Temperance
t instruction in tne public schools.
Natures way of bringing order out O.
D.. chaos is to steadily food darkness with
light. and we shall noyer get beyond