Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1891-08-13
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
INrEMPERANoE in COLLEGES.
Dangers Which Menace Our institutions
of Learning.


of Learning.
II is time that some plain and strong
words were spoken concerning the
drinking customs prevalent among col
lege students and the sentiment which
prevails concerning these customs in
many college circles. 1t is our conyie-
ton that the colleges of the country
as a whole are not exerting the infiu-
ence which they should exert in the
matter of intemperance. In their atti-
tude on the drink question they are
not abreast of the best and most en-
lightened public sentiment of the day.
We have observed with regret that the
wine cup and the punch bowl still fig
ure quite as conspicuously as ever at
class dinners. alumni meetings and
other convivial gatherings of college
men. In these gatherings are cher
ished and perpetuated in song and Gus
tom much of the false sentiment of
those romantic associations. clustering
around the wine cup, which have done
more than anything else to lure i'm
questionable and enthusiastic Young
men into the terrible folds of the drink
habit, 1t was only year ago, accord
ing to our recollection, that the presi-
dent of one of our oldest and most
famous colleges stood up in his
place at college banquet
and dedicated Glowing cup"
by drinking it full of wine. To some,
such an act as this might seem trivial
thing to call up for censure, but in
this critical day of the temperance
struggle. when so many thousands of
our noblest men and women are giving
up their lives to the warfare against
the liquor traffic, and when every word
and deed that may count on this side
or that in the contest is eagerly caught
up and treasured, we count it not
little, but monstrous thing that the
president of a great and honorable uni
yersity, a leader and counselor OF
American youth, should publicly and
ostentatiously set the seal of his APP
prova upon the custom of social drink
ing 1t is surely not an example of
strained reasoning which finds some
connection between,this act of the col
lege president and the disgraceful dis
closures which have recently been
made concerning the drinking habits
and drunken escapadessof number OF
Students in the institution over which
he presides A man who does special
honor to the wine-cup at public ban
quet is hardly in position to admins
ter an effective rebuke TO the young
men under his charge who sustain pri-
yate drinking clubs and occasionally en-
gage in drunken pranks in public places.
We are far from disposition to hold
college authorities accountable for all
the improper habits and indulgenees
to be found among the young men un-
der their charge. Neither are we MAX
ing any plea at present for a specific
line Of teaching in the matter of the
use and abuse of alcoholic stimulants.
All that we ask is that by example at
all times and by precept at every sea-
sonable opportunity, the practice of
drinking intoxieants shall be discour-
aged and condemned, and an atmos-
phere of thought and feeling finally
created that shall make it impossible
for any college student TO join a drink
ing club or to engage in an occasional
bachanalian revel without the certain
ty Of disgrace and punishment. In
such an atmosphere we would not find
students singing in one of their class
songs, as they did at commencement
not long ago in a college not hundred
miles from New York. that 'We won't
get drunk any more. In respectable
society outside of the colleges young
men do not even sing about getting
drunk
Drunkenness and drunken orgies
should be regarded in precisely the
same light in the classic shades OF
Princeton or under the elms of Yale, as
they would be if they occurred in a
country barroom or city dive. In
these momentous and critical days of
the conflict with the liquor power
the Christian public has a right to
expect that our great institutions OF
learning, gathering within their walls,
as they do the flower of our American
youth, shall not throw part but the
whole of their influence on the side OF
truth and righteousness; that they
shall not assume a passive or indll-
ferent attitude on the temperance
question, but place themselves square
" and strongly in antagonism to the
liquor curse in all its forms. They
cannot do less than this and be re-
garded as wise and safe leaders IN
holding thought and character for
the coming generations. -Christlan at