The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-02-08

coming members OF the children's temper
ance society--the Loyal Temperance Le-
giOn. Still more than this. it ought TO con-
vince You as parents, teachers and friends,
that there In need of your hearty cO-opera-
ton with us In this work.
A little boy, when asked what 1t meant for
him to be Loyal League boy, replied, 1T
means can never drink; / can never use
tobacco; / can never swear" This il Just
what the pledge means. Let me read it to
you: Trusting in Gods help, | solemnly
promise to abstain from all alcoholic drinks,
including wine, beer and cider, from to
bacco in any form, and from profanity"
These pledge cards hanging here mean that
twenty of the children have signed this
pledge. Whether they are true to it or not
will depend largely upon you as parents.
do not think there Is a parent but would re-.
jolce, yea would feel great load of anxiety
lifted, II they only knew that their boys and
their girls would grow up true to this
pledge. Yet we ask one and another of
your children to sign 1t. They answer,
" No, cannot" Why not?" Because
can not give up cider" Some say, We
have cider at home and | cannot see the
rest drink 1t and not do so myself" Others
say, "Such and such person drinks it;
they are temperance people. III they can,
can"
1t is az have received such answers as
these, and heard your children plead for CT
der that said, " For myself have touched
my last drop of cider" No chid shall here
after have reason to excuse themselves be.
cause of my example.
What means the cry OF these children for
cider? What means it when several Of your
boys, from fourteen to eighteen years of age.
get together for what they call "a good
Time" and their "good time" consists in
drinking the cider they have brought-cids or
which could not come under the term of
sweet cider, even AZ broad as that term is?
| ask you IA Parents, friends aud citizens,
who have the welfare of the coming genera
ton at heart-what means ii2 We often
hear the cry of the drunkard: 81 cannot
give up my drink. know ought for my
own good, for the good of my friends" 1t
may he the cry Is, " l ought for my famil y,
my dear wife and innocent children. will
give up anything else, make any other sac
ritce in the wide world, but cannot give
up my drink" We turn away with sad
dened hearts saying, Poor man." and yet
have never heard such cry as this when
felt more saddened than have to hear the
cries Of your children for cider. Is not the
cry of your boy of eight and ten years of age
saying, L cannot give up sweet cider" the
cry of your boy of eighteen and twenty
years of age saying, 81 cannot give up hard
cider" and the cry OF the drunkard of
up whiskey," one aud the same cry? L
leave it with you. A father said only to-day,
There can BIZ no harm in cider, think
you go to an extreme when you put cider
into the pledge" How can any father, TAX
ing these facts into consideration, feel that
their children do not need pledge against
cider? man right here in your commu-
nifty said to me less than two weeks ago, "
truly believe IL 1t had not been for the cider
barrel In my fathers cellar, should never
have had desire for anything stronger"
As terrible az this is to think OF, how many,
think you, ~ the men OF your township who
have the desire for something stronger, "
but what would have the same testimony to
give? Ifnot the cider barrel in their fathers
cellar, IL might have been the cider barrel
in some ones else cellar.
Many are the parents who teach their
children at their knees to utter in prayer
these words of our Savior, "Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil, ="
and then they themselves deliberately lead
them into the temptation and leave them
there. While trying to lead a boy to realize
that his love for cider would lead to love
for something stronger, he looked up into
my face with all the confidence child has
in a parent, and said Oh no, it will not,
for my papa has always drank it from boy
like me, and he has never drank anything
stronger" l admit it, but also claim that
1t is most dangerous path. II you have
followed it with comparative safety to the
age of thirty-fve or forty, do you dare lead
your boy in the same path, feeling sure that
he will reach the age of manhood as safely
az you have done?
If you come to see your son in shame and
disgrace through drink, because of his love
for cider as boy, can you then excuse your.
self by saying cider never hurt his fatheri
Never were truer words spoken than when
one said, Colder is the DEVILS kindline
wood" Will you in your homes which are
sacred to you, furnish this kindling wood
for the DEVILS use for your children or youI
neighbours children?
One mother said, 81 would rather put nv
boy in the dram shop, with all of its terrible
influences, than put him where he could
have full access to the cider barrel" On
the one hand he would have his eyes opened
10 the danger; on the other hand be led or
blindly until he had gone so far that he
would not care for the danger.
What can we, az temperance workers, dc
toward winning your children over on the
side of temperance when we have these in
fluences to contend with? We may be able
to do little, but a very little, compared
with what we ought and might accomplish
if we had your interest ami cooperation
You may saw there is no danger for your
girls; there may not be the danger for then
personally that there is for their brothers
but there is as much need of their taking til,
pledge and being true to IL, for the sake O
their influence, if nothing more,
1t Ia only a elass OF cider
From The hands of a fair young girl
How could he decline the kindness2
She would think him a nAnuerle chuIl
1t is only glass of cider,
But 1t klndled anew the fame
Which had burned up his noble manhood,
And left MIN i'll grief and shame.
He had broken away from the tempter,
lie stood GU the rock again.
Mol Onger the penniless druukard,
tie stood man among men.
When only glass OF cider"
Threw open the gates again
To a pathway of pain and sorrow,
To death OF hopeless paiu
This is no imagination There are hun
dre1s, yes thousands, OF sons, brothers
husbands, drifting rapidly toward tn
drunkard's grave because of the youn,
ladies who were not rs girls, brought up L
say No " on the cider question. The ple
/ bring Is this,-that We TO whom thos,
children are looking for example-we VIII,
before our Maker stand and will stand, &C
countable for this influence aud example
see TO il that from heuceforth it shall be OF
the side of God, on the side of right. An,
you who are parents, see to 1t speedily an,
prayerfuliy that your children do not grow
| up to say in after years, "If it had not beef
for the cider barrel in my fathers cellar"
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