Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-07-07
WHY SHOULD WOMEN ENGAGE IN
TEMPERANCE WORK?

LIST. Because they suffer so much
from intemperance. Although wo-
men are not so prone to strong drink
as men, still they are not exempt from
temptation. In countries where in
temperance is common, women are
addicted to the use of liquor, though
of course to much less extent than
men. When men degrade themselves
they drag down with them their wives:
sisters and daughters.
But even where women are free
from the drink habit, they suffer from
the sins of others. Many man has
thanked God that his children were
all girls, and has afterward married
his daughters to men who became
sots, and has lived to see them die of
a broken heart through the cruelty of
their drunken husbands and sons.
When n drunkard destroys himself
he blights the hopes of every member
of his family. If the wife does not
elevate the husband to higher plane,
she too often descends to his low level.
There are millions of women to-day
whose lives have been wrecked by the
intemperance of their sons and hus-
bands, and whose only hope of happl-
piness is in their rescue; while even
those women who escape themselves.
must look on and behold the agony OF
their neighbors as they go down in
SORROW to the grave, through the bru-
tality of their drunken sons, fathers,
husbands or brothers.
End. Women should work because
they can do more than men. "ThC
hand that rocks the cradle rules tho
world" A boy may sink lower than
his mother, but he will seldom rise
higher in the scale of morality.
The heartless soothing of Byron's
mother ON account of his club foot,
made him a misanthrope and de-
baucher. John a. Murrell's mother
taught him to steal, and he ended by
becoming the terror of the Southwest.
Jesse James mother was coarse,
heartless woman. Like mother like
son may be written of nearly every
family.
Mothers cannot control the present
generation, but they can give .charac-
ter to the next. And in this country
generation will be pushed aside by the
next.
We have never had Lord John
Russell, Palmerston, or Gladstone,
who controlled the nation after he
reached his eightieth year; but if the
mothers can educate whole genera
ton of boys in the principles of tenn
perance within ten years those boys
will control the nation.
Christian woman whatever impress
sion you wish to make upon boys, YOU
must make when they are very young,
or it will be too late.
Those who are drunkards to-day
show the neglect of their mothers
thirty years ago.
Again women should work in the
Temperance cause, for the reason they
have already accomplished so much
1t is q common remark that temper
ance agitation has done more harm
than good, and the proof adduced is
that drunkenness is more prevalent
than ever before. When We heaI
that remark we know that "tlIe wish
is father to the thought" 1t makes
my blood boil to hear the friends OF
the saloon boast that they have
thwarted every effort of the temper
ance workers to elevate mankind, and
to snatch our boys out of their grasp.
The overwhelming majority of the
boys with whom | was raised filled
druDkards graves. When was a
child every wealthy family kept their
side boards filed with decanters and
wine glasses. Every Christmas morn
ing was opened with eggnog. Drunk
enness was no disgrace, and no bar
rier to obtaining a situation on the
part of young man.
Because Temperance workers have
not driven intemperance out of the
world the enemies of Temperance say
they have accomplished nothing. Is
it nothing to Danish drinking out of
SOClcty, 10 u StcdO oAtthb tO ludke
drunkenness q term of reproach in
stead of honor? Is it nothing to make
it a barrier toward procuring a situa-
ton in business 7 Is it nothing to
array all Railroads against it, so that
being drunk once causes man to1ose
his place on all the roads, and enter
ing a saloon discharges him on most
roads, while some roads do not allow
their employees to taste the aecursed
stuff Is it nothing to pass the pro-
hibiti0n law in four States, and so to
modify the law in Mississippi, Georgia,
and many other states that drinking is
greatly decreased
But we are told that Prohibition
once ruled in Massachusetts, Indiana,
and other states and that it will soon
be repealed in Iowa.
When child is standing on the
beach, as the ocean tide comes In. he
sees a wave approach him, and then
suddenly recede. He says, Oh, the