The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-10-04
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
The I'M ,UENCE OF WOMAN.
! A Patent Factor In the Cause of Temper


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-
walton 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 10
the encouragement of women who con-
troll society. Let women ON all occa-
siOnS seek to foster a 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 a responsibility that
every woman must recognize-a re-
sponsibility from which no woman can
shrink With impunity. There is
great burden of vice and crime, the re-
suit of social drinking, lying at the
doors of the women of American So
ciety; and well 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 a little thing to a
woman to offer a glass of wine or beer
or cider to a gentleman at 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 a tiny link
forged by woman's hand, but it may
be one in chain which may yet bind
a mans soul in a 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 pleasant sight to witness
the downfall of 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 furnished,
his soul darlened, and his manhood
lost. that we are content to sit care
lesslY by and raise no voice against that
which has done it all? Is there such
anr1,fnr| IN, 11-jror OF roifr1,t n 10
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 jewellers
come to our ears lest we recognize the
tones of one who is dear to us? Is it so
fair thing to see the boy whose lips
hung on ours in innocence and purity,
treading 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 hoodgates of passion and vice
| to run riot into his soul, does fouler
| murder than he would take your boy
| 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 bcer-drinking 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 dc
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
| cicty are in may ways fostering it.
Early in the morning in any large city
| Won 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 oul
police reports; maddened by the misery
and degradation of their own lost
womanhood they lRve sought brie1
| forgetfulness in intoxication. For such
there is nothing left but Gods pity.
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 folG
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. Ian
guage is powerlcss 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 tC
ruin and shame from the height upor
which her pride gloried to behold him
| than ,goil iS baard 9