The herald., 1896-06-09
SOCIAL EVILS OF THE DAY
Vegetarianism Is One Of Countess
Wachtmelster's Prescriptions
Woman Must Take Up the cudgsis In the
Defence Of Her Unfortunate Sisters
Man and Beast

Countess Wachtmeister lectured last
evening at the Friday Morning club
rooms on the Social Evils of the Day.
The lecturer began by explaining that
there is unity running through the
whole of creation. by the same law
that controls the affairs of men. animals
form themselves into social communi-
ties, all working for a common good. III
is only when reason begins to develop
at the man stage of evolution, that the
sense of Il am L." the sense of separate
ness, in which one sees that he is not ms
neighbor, but himself, and that 1t is 10
his interest to do for himself in spite
of what his fellow needs is developed
Then commences the struggle for ex-
istence. each trying to snatch from any
and all others the good things OF life
The countess spoke briefly on educa-
ton, and showed that SeltishneSS Is en-
gendered from the very earliest age by
fostering ambition in the youth and the
desire to become self-made man.
Drunkenness was then taken up in fore
ible language and its horrors put forward
in the light of glowing colors. The Ro-
man debaucherS in their drunkenness
never showed the maddening influences
produced in our own time by strong
drink. In the seventeenth century the
dangerous and deadly art of distilla-
tion came into use. By'this process the
alcohol became separated from the prod
uct in which nature had involved 1t; thus
strong drink, containing fuSel Oil, was
rendered a dangerous poison. 1t was
first used as specific for the plague.
1t then came into use as a medicine.
and lastly as a beverage. Then when
the chemical effects began to declare
themselves paralysis took place in the
brain and spinal chord, and it is said
that the brain once SO affected never
regains its proper activity.
The countess declared that the best
remedy against it was vegetarianism;
for its is a well-known fact that no veg
etarian has ever been a drunkard.
For in eating meat we take in the ply
sical nature of the animal, thus increas-
ing the lower passions within us. Then
she dwelt on the cruelties of the slaugh-
ter house, saying that if every man We're
his own butcher there would be fewer
who would eat meat. The Countess
then turned to the position of women of
the day. She said that man and woman
were not separate beings. but were each
halves of one whole. Neither was high
or low. Right is his who can recognize
it. A perception of right. by any living
sentient being, carries with it the idea
of the exercise and enjoyment of that
right. There is a false woman and true
woman. She then told an amusing
story of woman's club in London,
where the women wore coats and billy
cock hats, strobe around with little
canes, cigarettes in their mouths. They
strobe about like men and made her
think that they are re-incarnations of
those men who made the laws that op-
press women and now they have had to
come into woman's form and rebel
against it.
The Countess then denounced in Sc
we're language the immortality of the
present day and said that if woman
would only take up the cudgel in the de-
fense of their unfortunate sisters, the
founding hospitals in our cities would
be less crowded. But while the girl is
ruined and punished by desertion, dis
honor and remorse, the man is allowed
to go scot free, and even to associate
with pure minded women and to marry
pure young girl with black stain on
his soul. If women would only de-
nounce publicly and cover with oppro-
brium the man who ruins young girl
there would be more exempt from such
crimes