The Press., 1892-03-24
w. C. T. U. DEPARTMENT.
Annie A. Preston, in The Union Signal.)
 Cider Sfnrv

J wife. "You will buy neither tea nor cof- fee, and we shall have to drink cider at table,"
 "HG0e to. You like it as we'll as do" "
 "I didn't until you got me broken in. I wasn't brought up to drink cider, and I don't believe in giving children cider in- stead of milk, or in their eating bread and cider instead of bread and milk" V
 ''The pigs will fatten on the milk, and there is where gain is made"
 But the children grow black, and thin and scrawny on the cider diet. don't believe in it, and I wish the brook would rise and carry off the old cider mill, or that whirlwlnd would come along and blow it away. Ihave no desire to popu- late the town with cider drunkards. have made up my mind that this year l will not taste of cider, and put my foot down here and now to that effect, and shall do my best to keep the children from drinking it.''
 ''The cider is good for all of us, and I
  the farmer
 "It makes us as cross as hornets, chil- dren and all. It is a regular pow-wow all through the district from the time the cider mill starts until the miserable stuff is gone the next having time. The quar- rels that you and have are cider quar- rels. The neighborhood fights are cider | fights; the musses in school are cider musses. When there is 8 year that the apple trees fail to bear, this is as peacea- ble 8 neighborhood as can be found. I've 1 thought It all out, and I declare war here and now on cider making and cider drink ing."
 "You're an obstinate woman, that's what you are," said the farmer. Ever since you went off to Boston visitin' i11 the spring, you've been all for readin' the Bible an goin' to meetin' an havin' a l Sunday school at the school house, an singin' hymns, but hadn't no idee that you'd come out ag'in cider an the cider mill that brings us in more income every apple year than everything else on the farm put together. Now, if you know what is for your interest, you'll shut up an mind your business about cider.''
 II soiU mind my own business about l cider" said the woman, "and I believe with all my heart that my business is to cultivate spirit against it's manufacture and usen ,l...W hat is your object in going on in this way, should like to know?"
 ~~''It is partly selfish object. don't want to be cider drunkard when I am old, like Mrs. Tom Wiggin."
 "Oh, how foolish woman will talk when she gets started! Old Mother Wig gin drinks something stronger than cider. '
 "Yes, now, if she can get it. But she told me herself the last time she was here begging for cider that she kept braced up on cider when she was young until she couldn't live without stimulant.'' "There is no alcohol in cider" "You know any one can get drunk on it. have seen goa drunk on it, and you know our oldest boy was dead drunk on sweet cider that he sucked through a straw at the press before he was five years old"
 Well, you are plain spoken, must admit" and the farmer rushed out, slam ming the door in anger. His wife pro- ceeded to draw up a pledge which prohib. tied the making or using of cider, and this she signed, herself, and started out to 1 circulate. >. ..
 She had to have the courage of her con- victions and strength given her; in answer to prayer, to stand up against the opposi- tion that she met. Not single farmer would promise not to make cider, but she said she was surprised to find out how many there were who only made it for vinegar. .a .,u-.. 1 Several women pledged themselves not to drink the stuff, and they were all, with. out exception, anxious to have their chil- dren sign the pledge. .> ..-.....~...-.. .,..s-
 The excuses given the good woman were amusing:
 1T have to drink red pepper and cider to keep me warmed up,osaid one.e q should have cold the hull durin' time all winter if didnt''
 '.I should ,wanter drink it with billed yictuals,' said another II never care nothing about corn beef and cabbage without eider..''; < .>l>. ''
 II shall have ter give up eatin' popcorn if sign that," said another 'popcorr never hurts nobody when it's washed down with cider"
 q shouldn't know, what to do when folks come in in the evening without cider to pass around" A good many said this, but Mrs. Sloan went home from her first days work satisfied that she had set he1 neighbors to thinking and to talking upon the important subject, even if she had not secured many names.
 It was an excitement that ;didnt die out. The mother of the very first boy that got tipsy at the cider mill came rush. ing in to put her name on that paper.
 'I mean to fight it right through" she said. 'I'll stand by you in everything you say or do."
 l II shall send every boy home that see standing about that cider tub, ol hanging about the mill"
 All right; hope you will"
 Other mothers said the same thing Some of the boys were angry, and left the bars down into the yard of the mill, ane it happened very strangely that nearly al the cows iRs the neighborhood got loose that night, and going to tKe cider mill at, so heartily of an old pressed cheese tha they lay all about the yard and roadsid, helpless in the morning.
 "The boys turned them in here, 2 sait some one. s