The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-11-28

water.
(5) am sorry that / cannot exclude
the not infrequent carelessness of our
too apt, should they deem it neces-
sary to prescribe alcohol, to say: "Oh,
take little wine," leaving it to the pa
tient to determine the dose; whereas,
did they realize that alcohol was so
insidious a poison as it is, possessing
as it does the seductive power of in
ducing the exhibition of larger doses,
they might hesitate before they placed
without limit such a dangerous drug
in the hands of their patients, and
prescribe it in more accurate doses,
and wrapped, perhaps, on some less
pleasant taste.
(6) Among the well to do the habit
of drinking champagne and other
wines at dinner, fosters a taste that
tends to enthral rather than to leave
the partaker free agent. So-called
moderate drinking is a snare, as few
have sufficient self-control to deter
mine what moderate drinking is.
Among men some of the causes of
inebriety are the temptations arising
from boon companions; there exist
ing sort of idea that to refuse to drink
[ when invited is a kind of insult or
want of good-fellowship Again, how
often business transactions are sealed
by drink, though happily this is not
so frequent a habit as formerly. To
these causes must be added business
and domestic troubles, and but too
often a careless, untidy, or nagging
wife drives the man to his only club,
| the public house.
Men drink in company, women too
often in secret, making the detection
of the early stages difficult or almost
impossible.
We will now just see how this evil
of drinking affects men and women.
| l. When a man comes home drunk
he comes as a terror to his children,
who shrink on hearing his footsteps;
| he quarrels with his wife, as to his
food, it may be; he may be violent
and smash up his little furniture, and
with the broken pieces assault his
long-suffering partner. But when g
woman drinks she neglects her chill
dren, pawns their clothes, leaving
them exposed to cold and disease; she
neglects her home and her husband,
| driving him probably also to drink,
and so leading to assault and perhaps
murder.
2. Again, when a man is imprisoned
for some consequence of his drunken
ness, the family is indeed deprived
of the chief bread-winner, and they
are exposed to want and privation,
which may, however, be mitigated by
the industry of the wife; but when
the wife is shut up the family is de-
prived of the mainstay, the husband
is left without anyone to care for him
or provide his food, the children are
left to run about uncared for and ex-
posed to all sorts of dangers, and on
her coming out of prison her drink
ing habits are as bad as ever, and
the house has ultimately gone to wrack
and ruin.
| I have hitherto referred only to
wives, but woe betide that solitary
woman, whether the unmarried or
the childless widow, who, companion
less and despairing in her very soil
tude, has recourse to drink in order
to infuse, if possible, some measure
of so-called happiness or oblivion into
her probably objectless life. For
these sad and unhappy cases, the vic
tins of a veritable disease, measures
must be taken (D to prevent them
having access to the poison that is de-
stroying their existence, (2) to help
! them in their fight against the ter
rible onsets of the drink-crave, and
| (3) to build up their health during the
! process, which, in most cases, is as
ISOLATED with a deeper despair and
hopelessness. And in our dealing with
these suffering sisters of ours let us
ever remember that tender and hui
man sympathy will do more to wear
them from the habit than any meas
ure of forcible coercion.
Among the well to do, facilities for
women obtaining drink are beingsmul-
tiplied. The granting of licenses to
groeers is one of the chief of these.
The housekeeper has no necessity to
enter a public house, she has only
to go to her grocer and have the bot
tie of wine put down as candies or
raisins or some other commodity, and
even the lady in her carriage can there
obtain all she needs without even en-
tering wine merchants establish
ment. And to those who have no
shrinking from entering a public
house there are now being fitted up la
dies bars, comfortably furnished, and
in some cases, with a separate, unob-
trusive door, where the enemy lies in
wait to compass their destruction.
The drink habit lays hold of women
insidiously, and of it's effects one of
the most frequent is the habit of ~
ing-a pretty constant symptom of
the disease; then comes untidiness,
poverty, dirt, ruin and death.
But before death closes the sad
scene there is another effect that is
becoming deplorably frequent, and
that is insanity; the proportion being
of two women to one man, and the
seeds of insanity once sown bring
forth fruit in succeeding generations.