The morning times., 1895-12-29
ABSTINENCE Is WRITTEN
How New York Children Study
AIeOh0rS Effects.
TIME FROM OTHER WORK
Teachers Say They Could Save Many
Hours by Giving Same Instruct ion
OraIly-S55,O 200 Expende ed for Text
Books for the Study of Temperance
IN One Year.
New York Telegra NJ !.

Superintendent Jasper has received sample
copies of the books for which the city OF New
York must pay S5 3 900 this year in order TO
teach school children the effects of alcohol.
The law, which was passed last year, re-
quirinC such instruction, like that which
compels the enumeration of school children
every second year, carries with IL tile pen
atty of forfeiture OF the State appropriation
for schools If it is not enforced. This ap
preparation amounts to 100000 year,
about one-third of the State fund, although
1t supplies more than that amount by tax.
The law provides that the nature of alco-
holic drinks and their effects on the human
system shall be taught for notices. than four
lessons per week for ten or more weeks in
the year in all grades below the second year
of the high school. Also THAT ali pupils
who can read shall study this subject from
suitable text books
The series of text books offered for tue
teaching of this special subject comprises
five boUks-"Health for Little Folks,''
Lessons Hygiene, ''"A Prim er of HEALTH"
"A Healthy Body" and How to Keep
Well" In compliance with tue law, not
less than one-fifth of each is devoted to
the teaching of the effects of alcohol and
other narcotics.
In the primer the first lesson is headed
with stillllfe object lesson, in which pears,
cherries, bananas and oranges are made to
"adoTn Il tale,' which says that "a HARM
ful drink called wine is made from grapes"
The process of wine making Is explained,
including the stage where the gas passes
into the air, but the poison remains i'll the
wineand makes the wine poison. The name
of this poison is alcohol. No one should
drink wine, for there is alcohol in it. Al
cohol may make father cruel to his chill
dreD. 1t sometimes makes a man tell false
hoods and do other bad deeds.'
The next chapter sets forth in letters and
language which the smallest child can
comprehend that cider is not as safe drink,
because it contains alcohol" and the next
lesson impresses upon the youEg idea that
no one should ever drink beer, for it is
poisoned with alcohol"
Beer drinking" it says, too, 'Spoils
boys chances of being a strong. wise or good
man. The alcohol in the beer dulls his
mind. He cannot learn his lessons as
well: he cannot even play as well, because
he is not as strong as he would he with
out the beer
I'VE should not drink home made beer,
for it contains alcohol is strongly empha
sized in bold faced type.
The child who has reached the second
grade has its marring effect upon beauty
explained to him. Ibid you ever see man
who had used great deal of strong drink
for number of years?' is asked 'If
red cheeks and a red nose.'
The next book of the series tells him that
1.-THE narcotic power of alcohol. ev ven in cider,
is capable of so GeadeniDg right feelings
and taking away the sense that cider drink
ers are likely to be cross and ugly tempered.
Cider in any quantity is q dangerous drink
and should not be drunk. As alcohol is q
poison, it makes cider poisonous drink.
at was once thought that if people would
use light wines'-that is, wines ike claret
which contains only small quantity of
alcohol-they would not want the stronger
liquors, and there ewouldbeless intemperance.
But that does not prove to be true"
Another lesson teaches that beer like
other alcoholic liquors, tends 10 debase the
morals and make the drinker brutal"
In the higher grades, where children are
able to look at the question better from q
psychic standpoint, one lesson is devoted
to Beer Drinking from Moral Point of
View," in which it is asserted that
Facts gained from wide observation
show that beer, more than any other liquor,
tends to make the drinker brutal. 1t seems
TO deaden conscience, and blunt the finer
sensibiliues, and thus prepare man for
committing crime. Tfue TO its nature,
the alcohol in the beer makes the drinker
crave more beer to get more alcohol. In
Germany. Belgium and other countries where
beer is almost universal beverage, drunk
ssis becoming more and more a curse to
the land"
But wine is also menace. "In Persia
France, Switzerland, California. and ether
countries, where wine is made" the rext
says, drunkenness is a great scourge."
For these older children, too, a chapter is
devoted TO The Evils of Cider Drinking"
"The greatest difficulty presents ITSELF"
Superintendent Jasper said. in teaching