The Iola register., 1901-06-21
THE CURSE OF DRINK

Friday at o'clock.
THE CURSE OF DRINK
(Read before the National Conference OF
Charities and Correction in Washington,
ID. O., May 1S)
When our president asked me to
write paper for this meeting he sug-
gested that it be short and | quite
agreed with him that it should be
short but calculated to provoke dis
cussion. just then, ds well as on
many occasions, l had been talking
with some of our girlsl who were clear
cases Of degeneracy, and upon inquiry
/ found that in every case at least one
parent was confirmed drunkard.
The children of drunken parents are
weak of vii prone to do wrong and
devoid of moral perception. | firmly
believe that if alcohol as a beverage
could be entirely and completely
driven from our land it would have
more to do with the upbuilding Of the
human race than anything else that
can be mentioned. If murder is
alcohol is the cause either directly or
indirectly. The saloons foster all
that is wrong and the children of
drunken parents grow up to keep ithe
saloons in a Aourishing condition.
One has but to sit in the Juvenile
Court of Chicago to realize what it is
that fills all kinds of institutions in
Illinois as we'll as in other states.
The influence of the saloon is far
reaching, and it seems to have taken
such u foothold that even good people
hesitate to take firm stand against
it. If we desire to raise fine stock we
never think Of keeping the sires or
dams drunk all, nor half, of the time,
and yet nearly all of the children who
come to us are the products OF just
such conditions. At meeting OF the
New York Academy Of Medicine, DR..
Charles L. Dana spoke Of having
studied carefully $50 cases Of alco-
holism at Bellevue Hospital, and of
this number over two-thirds had be-
gun drinking before the age of twenty,
and all before thirty years of age
OF the "a, 300 patients in Bellevue Hos
pital last year, DR.. Alexander Lam
bert reported that one-fourth of them
went through the alcoholic ward,
among them many who had taken the
various cures"
DIR. Peabody called attention to
ignorance of the effects of alcohol as
a cause of extreme cases of alcoholism
even among people who were inteli-
gent on other matters, so long as one
does not get actually drunk they think
there is no harm in drinking. Ladies',
he says, will often take sherry wine,
forgetting that It contains from 30 to
As per cent Of alcohol.
OF the misery, degradation and pau
perism produced by the use of alcohol
as beverage | have neither time nor
inclination to write at this time. You,
as we'll as |, have witnessed this in all
of It's forms, But of the children OF
drunken parents | do wish to speak
and to hear this matter thoroughly
discussed. | find in one of our in
mates an especially violent temper,
and this temper becoming aroused on
the slightest occasion or for no cause
at all. The brain seems slow to ac
and the mind at times vacant. Upor
investigation ] find that the mother
drank quite hard before this chile
,vog b,rn Thara a no two trirls i'm thf
family neither of them normal. Ii
the case OF another,who is feeblemindeC
| find that both parents were drunf
nearly all of the time and out of {
large family of children there was no
one who was not either crippled
feeble minded or in some manner
other than normal child. We haC
another girl who was made feeble
minded 10y being struck on thief head
by drunken father, and / might take
much more time and cite many more
cases, but know that you all hav,
the same experience.
We should let no Conference go by
without doing something against this
giant evil. In looking over the pro
ceedings Of the different Conference
/ could find but. little comparativel.
speaking that had direct bearing OF
the liquor question and its curse t.
humanity. All kinds of crimes follow
in its wake and something must b
done or we shall become worse than
nation of lepers. The immoral phas,
of the question (the terrible haunt
where the young are lured to their dis
grace and run through the drink tina
maddens the brains and renders ther
unable to Judge between right an
wrong) all has tendency downward