The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-01-26

y
mind with an intelligence that will yet
either make her the chief attraction of
good mans home or give her an inde-
pendence of that character that will
qualify her to build her own home and
maintain it in happiness that re-
quires no augmentation from any of
our rougher sex. That young man or
young woman can, by the right literary
and moral improvement of the spare
ten minutes here or there every day,
rise head and shoulders in prosperity,
and character, and influence and above
the loungers who read nothing, or
read that which bedwarfs. See all the
forests of good American literature
dripping with honey. Why pick up the
honeycombs that have in them the
fiery bees which will sting you with an
eternal poison while you taste it? One
book may for you or me decide every
thing for this world and the next.
Stimulating liquids also come into the
category of temptation delicious but
deathful. You say, II cannot bear the
taste of Intoxicating liquor, and how
any man can like it is to me an amaze
ment." Well, then, it is no credit to
you that you do not take it. Do not
brag about your total abstinence, be-
cause it is not from any principle that
you reject alcoholism, but for the rea-
son that you reject certain styles of
food-you simply don't like the taste of
them. But multitudes of people have a
natural fondness for all kinds of intox-
icants. They like it so much that it
makes them smack their lips to look at
it. They are dyspeptic and they like
to aid Digestion; or they are annoyed
by insomnia, and they take it to pro-
duce sleep; or they are troubled, and
they take it to make them oblivious; or
they feel happy, and they must cele-
brate their hilarity.
They begin with mint julep sucked
through two straws on the Long Branch
piazza and end in the ditch, taking from
a jug liquid half kerosene and half
whisky. They not only like it, but it
is an all-consuming passion of body,
mind, and soul, and after awhile have
it they will, though one wine glass of
it should cost the temporal and, eter-
nal destruction of themselves, and all
their families, and the whole human
race. They would say: 81 am sorry
it is going to cost me, and my family,
and all the worlds population so very
much, but here it goes to my lips, and
now let it roll over my parched tongue
and down my heated throat, the sweet
est, the most inspiring, the most delici-
GUS draught that ever thrilled human
frame" To cure the habit before it
comes to its last stages, various plans
were tried in olden times. This
plan was recommended in the books:
When man wanted to reform he put
shot or bullets into the cup or glass of
strong drink-one additional shot or
bullet each day, that displaced so much
liquor. Bullet after bullet added day
by day, of course the liquor became
less and less until the bullets would
entirely fill up the glass, and there
was no room for the liquid, and by that
time it was said the inebriate would
be cured. Whether anyone ever was
cured in that way know not, but
by long experiment it is found that
the only way is to stop short off,
and when a man does that he needs
God to help him. And there have been
more cases than you can count when
God has so helped the man that he left
off the drink forever, and could count
score of them, some of them pillars
in the house of God.
One would suppose that men would
take warning from some of the ominous
names given to the intoxicants, and
stand off from the devastating infu-
ence. You have noticed, for instance,
that some of the restaurants are called
"The Shades" typical of the fact that
it puts mans reputation in the shade
and his morals in the shade, and his
prosperity in the shade, and his wife
and children in the shade, and his i'm
mortal destiny in the shade. This in
fatuation of strong drink is so mighty in
many man that, though his fortunes
are crashing, and his health is crash
ing, and his domestic interests are
crashing, and we hand him long
scroll containing the names of perils
that await him, he goes straight on to
physical, and mental, and moral as
sassination. In proportion as any style
of alcoholism is pleasant to your taste
and stimulating to your nerves, and
for time delightful to all your physical
and mental constitution, is the peril
awful. Remember Jonathan and the
forbidden honey in the woods at Beth
aven.
Furthermore, the gamester's indul-
gence must be put in the list of tempta-
tions delicious but destructive. You
who have crossed the ocean many
times have noticed that always one of
the best rooms has, from morning until
late at night, been given up to gam
bling practices. heard of men who
went on board with enough for Euro
pean excursion who landed without
money to get their baggage up to the
hotel or railroad station. To many
there is complete fascination in games
of hazard or the risling of money on
possibilities. 1t seems as natural for
them to bet as to eat. Indeed, the
hunger for food is often overpowered
blythe hunger for wagers. 1t is absurd
for those of us who have never felt
the fascination Of the wager to speak
'slightingly of the temptation. 1t has
slain multitude of intellectual and
moral giants, men and women stronger
than you or |. Down under it's power