The Somerset reporter., 1898-04-21
A Grand Meeting.

beer the most successful of the series
thus far held The hall WAS completely
filled so that it was with some difficulty
that all were seated. Rev. II. w. Kim
ball presided, Rev. Geo. E. Leighton
offered prayer, selections were sung by
the High school male quartette and Mr..
F. g. harrington, principal of Skowhe-
gan High school, delivered timely and
practical address that all the citizens of
our town could have heard with profit,
particularly parents of pupils in our
schools.
The next address will be given April
30, by l.. l.. Walton, Esq, who is ex.
pected to treat of the legal phase of
temperance.
Following are some extracts from Mr.
Farrington's address:
To say that an educator views the
question of temperance from stand
point peculiar to himself is perhaps
placing him in an unnatural position
The word temperance undoubtedly
brings up before his mind the same
general aspects that would present them
selves TO any right thinking person.
| However teacher does see certain
phases that are not generally met by all
classes of people. The school life and
associations bring pupil and teacher into
perhaps as close relations as anything
but the home is able to bring them. The
school room is In a very true sense the
training ground for character in a large
number of boys and girls. But while
the school can do, and Is doing, much
for those studying within its its walls it
cannot be held responsible for the moral
worth of all who attend its classes.
Other forces are at work, and at work
actively and constantly, to overthrow
the principles of temperance and hon
esty.
Too often can be marked that sluggish
ly working brain and inability to put at
tention on tasks at hand, a condition of
things that can very often be traced to
the door of intemperance and 1t Is mis-
take to limit the meaning of the word to
its application to strong drink or intoxi
cants. The abuse of any natural law on
the part of parents not only Injuries the
cause of temperance but also is in danger
of transmitting the tendency to pos
terity.
Then, too, how many times, the effect
OF strong drink itself shows in some of
the young men. Nothing presents a
sadder picture than to see young man,
full of the promise of youth, taking the
cup of poison thus counting danger
that may make his life living death.
Go into the public schools of the higher
grades anywhere in the land and look
into the faces you see there. You may
not be reader of faces but all too easily
you can mark In more than one young
face the presence of intemperance, not
of drink may be, but of some sort or
other, stamped in unmistakable lines on
the features before you.
The teacher, the preacher, the doctor,
the lawyer, the man of business, every
body in fact must realize that intemper-
ance in its scope should not be limited to
the effect of intoxlcants. The intern
perance that the educator meets as much
as any other is that along physical,
moral and social lines, all of which may
include or lead up to the use of strong
drink.
In the school, and above all in the
home no opportunity should be lost of
impressing on the coLsciences of the
young people thorough understanding
of the meaning of drunkenness and other
excuses. A child should be taught to
have horror for all that would destroy
his self control. A school, or
home, or church that fails to give this
sort of teaching is failing in the one
thing where the best interests of all con-
cerned demand success.
One of the greatest evils with which
the boys of our communities are brought
into contact is the smoking habit. II is
utterly useless for men to say that it is
harmless whey not in excess. The
testimony of those who should know
best the effect of tobacco-its users-is
almost unanimous in the opinion that il
is very injurious. | have had boys and
young men tell me that they knew the
habit was injurious to them but that they
could not seem to give it up. The worst
feature Of this unmanly habit is that il
leads to others worse even than itself.
We raise cry at the way our boys
are influenced to smoke and drink and
how easily they are led to do other
things which are not right-a fact that
Is truly too apparent. But how often dc
we stop to think of few things like
these. You allowed your boy, when
small, to drink coffee or tea-perhaps
even home-brewed beer-you admit that
they are artificial drinks and that il
would be better for the child not to use
them, since many excellent authorities
agree that the effect is somewhat though
in smaller degree like an intoxicant.
You allowed the child to eat more candy
than you knew he should have eaten and
and granted him other indulgences of
similar sort. Why? Simply because the
child wanted them, yes, but the boy and
young man may want his pipe and liquor
when he has grown from childhood and
has his training been such as to give him
either strength or inclination to fight
the unnatural appetite? You would not
expect an unframed army to meet and
conquer all opposing forces. Neither is
it possible for any one, child or man, to
conquer temptation without previous
training to resist it.. And yet we
wonder why we fall so easily when we
meet the arch fiend.
What the nation needs today on the
part of her citizens and especially on the
part of the young men and young
women growing up, is a clear brain, a
steady hand and the ability to decide
| temperately on all the great issues.
Temperance in thought, act and desire is
what we need.
The conditions of our beloved country,
standing as she does tonight on the verge
of war, counsels in clear and ringing
tones, the use OF temperance and modera-
ton. AS it is in the affairs of nations,
so it is in the lives of men. God has
given us talents and powers and he has
H., IT, hal 10