The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-08-05
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
INTeMPeRANce IN COLLEGES
Dangers Which Menace Oar Institutions
of Learning.

lNTEMPERANCE IN COLLEGES.
Dangers Which Menace Our Institutions
of Learning.
1t 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 convic-
ton that the colleges of the country
rs whole are not exerting the intiu-
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 thasthe
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 a 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. 10 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 a
little, but monstrous thing that the
president of great and honorable uni
versity, leader and counselor OF
American youth, should publicly and
ostentatiously set the seal of his ap-
proval upon the custom Of social drink
ing. 1t is surely not an example OF
strained reasoning which finds some
connection betweenSthis act of the col
lege president and the disgraceful dis.
closures which have recently beer
made concerning the drinking habit!
and drunken escapades of number o,
students in the institution over which
he presides. A man who does specia
honor to the wine-cup at public ban
quet is hardly in position to admins
ter an effective rebuke to the youns
men under his charge who sustain pri
vate drinking clubs and occasionally en-
gage in drunken pranks in publioplaces
We are far from disposition to holt
college authorities accountable for al
the improper habits and indulgence
to be found among the young men un
der their charge. Neither are we max
ing any plea at present for q specific
line of teaching in the matter of tn,
use and abuse of alcoholic stimulants
All that we ask is that by example q
ali times and by precept at every sea
sonable opportunity, the practice o
drinking intoxicants 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 drink
ing club or to engage in an occasiona
bachanalian revel without the certain
ty of disgrace and punishment. Il
such an atmosphere we would not fin,
students singing in one of their elias
songs, as they did at commencement
not long ago in college not a hundred
miles from New York, that "We won
get drunk any more" In respectful,
society outside of the colleges younl
men do not even sing about getting
drunk.
Drunkenness and drunken orgie
should be regarded in precisely tn
same light in the classic shades o
Princeton or under the elms of Yale, a
they would be if they occurred in
country barroom or city dive. II
these momentous and critical days o
the conflict with the liquor powe
the Christian public has right t,
expect that our great institutions o
learning, gathering within their walls
as they do, the flower Of our American
youth, shall not throw part but tn,
whole of their influence on the side O
truth and righteousness; that the,
shall not assume a passive or indi1
ferent attitude on the Temperance
question, but place themselves square
ly and strongly in antagonism to tn
liquor curse in all its forms. The
cannot do less than this and be n
garded as wise and safe leaders i
molding thought and character fo
the coming Observation-Disclosures a
Work.
AN ANTl.SAlOON TOWN.