Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-07-12
Women and Intenperance.

From extensive reading, observation al
experience IN my line OF work. writ
Margarita A, Stewart, NJ. D., Superi
tendent of Heredity, New York Coun
". c., T., T., l am convinced that
drink habit is rapidly on the increas
and that the ratio OF increase is create
among women. l do not conhne Il
charge to any particular locality or soci.
class. The stimulant habit is a rue,
scourge, a degenerate tendency which ]
manifesting itself to an alarming eXter
IN our present civilization.
This curse Is being handed dow
through the law of here2ity, from gener
ton to generation, aPd is gathering III
mentum as it descepds, till the whole
Chrlstendom is suffering.
a French scientist, who has studied L
history, or EuroLe for the last half &C
tury, declares that the scourge OF ale
holism threatens the civilized world. l
own nation is consuming an eXtraordina
amount yearly. He says: The cousur
tion has increased from three pints
capita in 1851 to twenty-eight ""ints !
capita in lS9S. OF this. especially in Nc
mandy, the women drink even more tn
the men,"
Other European countries show simil
alarming conditions: Lady Henry So
erset, speaking for England, says:
There can be no doubt that the gre
problem before the Temperance people
this country is how to arrest the alarm.
increase OF lnebrlety among women. We
stand III the unenviabie position OF ma
ton that has drunken womanhood.'
In our own country We find that statis-
tics show per capita increase from 3 81
gallons IN 1850 to 1883 gallons in 1880
The figures OF 1900 promise to go far be
yond that, because all observers agree
that the noticeable increase in the drink
habit among women in this country has
taken place within the last decade, par
ha Inst tN.n&
L have it upon good authority that with
IN the last five years, in the shopping
districts of this city, the demand for
liquors has caused to be fitted up in the
saloons accommodations for women al
most equal IN extent to those for men, !
learn, too, that the drug stores, with their
soda fountains, are doing quite a thriving
trade in spirituous liquors, solu to women,
as are the saloons.
A downtown business man writes me:
"All any one needs to do to verify your
statements regarding the increase of the
drink habit among women is to visit any
OF the public concert gardens any even
ing
But not only in the great centres OF
population is this conceded to be grow
ing evil. From the smaller towns has
come the same cry that the drinl, habit
IS growing upon our American woman
hood.
his condition is one for deep concern,
and one for which Tital cause exists.
believe that the strength of this curse is
revealed in the law of heredity
1t is claimed by some scientists that in
the working of this law daughters are
more prone to inherit the fathers charac-
teristics, and vice versa. If this be true,
do we not here find the scientific eXplana-
ton of the increase of the drink habit
among women?
We have to-day the most highly organ
lied physical and intellectual man the
race has ever produced, and consequently
the most sensitive to the degenerating
! poison of alcohol.
When such man gives way to drink his
child is born with lowered vital consti-
tion. which Graves the stimulant. Doublv
terrible are the results when the mother,
the source of life, has fallen under the
spell OF the deadly habit.
1t is only by the study OF the laws OF
life and the understanding of the power
of heredity that men and women can be
awakened to their responsibilities and
| check this rising tide of iptemperance
| which threatens to engulf the race and
! destroy our civilization. - New Ior,
| World.