National Baptist world., 1894-10-19
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
THE INFLUENCE or WOMAN.
Patent actor in the Cause of Temper


ance.
Woman is the autocrat of society. 1t
is she who says what shall be done and
what shall not be done in social circles;
who shall come and who shall go.
1t is within the power of women to
shape social laws. 1t is the voice of
woman that controls social sentiment.
With this power in her possession to
WELD for good or for evil, woman is in
a great degree responsible for the ele-
vation and purity of the social circle in
which she moves. In regard to social
drinking, it is a lamentable fact that
much of its popularity has been due to
the encouragement of women who con-
troll society. Let women on all occa-
sions seek to foster social sentiment
against drinking and there will be
fewer of our young men treading the
downward road to ruin, and fewer OF
our old men sinking under the accumu-
lated miseries of drunken life.
Herein lies responsibility that
every woman must recognize-a re-
sponsibility from which no woman can
shrink with impunity. There is a
great burden of vice and crime, the re-
suit of social drinking, lying at the
doors of the women of American So
ciety; and we'll may we dread to see
that burden enlarged, lest it roll in up
on us and crush all peace and happl-
ness from our homes and from our lives.
1t may seem but little thing to a
woman to offer glass of wine or beer
or cider to a gentleman at Z social en-
tertainment, and to her that may seem
to be the end of the matter; but alas!
too often it is not SO. He goes out with
an awakened craving for stimulantS.
The means to satisfy that craving are
presented on all sides in the most
tempting shapes. His little indulgence
at the hands of his friends may have
weakened his will-power, and further
indulgence ensues. 1t was tiny link
forged by woman's hand, but it may
be one in chain which may yet bind
a mans soul in hopeless and eternal
bondage. Let women carefully con-
slider the results of social drinking, and
beware how they tamper with such
dangerous weapons.
Is it so plea SAINT sight to witness
the downfall of a husband or brother
that we should in any way encourage
the evils of drunkenness? Is there so
great charm in the picture of a mans
intellect clouded, his honor tarnished,
his soul darkened, and his manhood
lost, that we are content to sit care
lesslv by and raise no voice against that
,olx 1<a- i -11 T. l.
comfort in lying awake at night while
imagination pictures scenes of debauch
in which our loved ones may be par
takers, or delight in shivering with
dread as the voices of drunken revelers
come to our ears lest we recognize the
tones of one who is dear to us? Is it so
fair a thing to see the boy whose lips
hung on ours in innocence and purity
treading a path where his innocence
will be destroyed, his purity stained,
his clear, white soul filled with black
ness and foulness, all pride in him
turned to shame, and the pit of hell
yawning at his feet, that mothers
should make no effort to close up the
path so that he tread therein no longer?
Mothers, If one should point deadly
weapon at your boy and threaten to
take his life, you would not hesitate
a moment to thrust the weapon aside,
and you would not rest until you felt
that the danger was surely averted.
He who, deliberately and for the sake
of gain, sells that to your boy which
he knows will dethrone reason and
open the floodgates of passion and vice
to run riot into his soul, does fouler
murder than he would take your boys
life. 1t is the murder of his manhood.
One feature of intemperance for
which women are wholly responsible
is their social drinking together and
woman's drunkenness. During the
past few years beer-drinlzing has in
creased to such an extent among the
women of respectable circles in our
large cities that the question of doing
away with the habit has become a
very serious one. In many cities sa-
looms have a side entrance for women;
and while the women of America do
not drink so universally as the women
of the old world, the habit of
drink is frightfully on the in
crease, and the social customs of So
ciety are in many ways fostering it.
Early in the morning in any large city
you may see creatures dragged along
by the policeman's hand, or hauled on
a dray to the police statiOn-creatures
who once rejoiced in the innocence of
childhood and the purity Of girlhood.
These are the women who figure in our
police reports; maddened by the misery
and degradation of their own lost
womanhood they have sought brief
forgetfulness in intoxicatiOn. For such
there is nothing left but Gods pity. A
drunken man is a degraded sight, one
that no sober man nor woman can look
upon without repugnance and horror;
but at sight of drunken woman me-
thinks the angels of mercy would fold
their wings before their faces to shut
out so pitiable and revolving specta-
Gle.
Woman is also the greatest sufferer
from the evils of intemperance. Lam
guape is powerless to describe, nay,
the imagination can hardly conceive,
the agony of a sensitive, high-spirited,
loving woman at seeing one whom she
has loved and revered dragged down to
ruin and shame from the height upon
which her pride gloried to behold him.
Now and then a wall is heard, or
moan that can no longer be repressed;
but that which comes to our knowl-
a1,a o1d iS made visible tO O1lr ewes is