The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-03-28
MRS. HoFFMANN's LECTURE.

day night, Mrs. Hoffman addressed
the largest audience the writer has
yet seen assembled to listen to a
temperance lecture in Union City.
After reading Rom. xiv. she be-
gan by saying; Nations, common
wealths and communities leave leg
acies. 1t may not be bonds, stocks
and so on, yet they are legacies.
One of THE legacies left us by our
fathers is the evil of intemperance,
and that 1t is deep-rooted evil no
one can or dare deny, and the Scrip
ture passage, Deut. v:9, is surely
being fulfilled. Sometimes we say
1t is unjust that children and
grandchildren should be punished
for the sins of their fathers, but
like begets like, A drunken father
may not dream of having a drunken
son, yet a child is not born as it
should have been, for the habit is
Unborn, as we may see in the vege-
table and mineral kingdom. IT hui
man nature does not Interfere Her
bert Spencer says: Environments
are infuentlal-they are the factors
that overcome heredity.
You in Union City are like thou
sands of others-no better, mo- worse.
You have schools and churches,
but you also have the saloon. The
preacher and teacher are the factors
to overcome the evil of the saloon,
and as the saloon and their adher-
ents are largely in the majority
the others being a small minority
we find that many business man
will bow down to the liquor evil in
silence for fear of hurting his bust
ness.
The effects of the habit on hu.
mainly from a sanitary point are
most effectively illustrated by such
men as Dr. Hurd, an eminent spe,
cialist on insanity, who for IS years
has investigated the lives of pa
TENTS, parents and grandparents.
He saws most cases of insanity and
idiocy are traceable to drink, mar
cotics and evil habits. A study OF
SO cases of organic diseases shows
over so per cent. caused by drink,
narcotics or vile habits. OF 236
families examined 1876 showed or
ganic, 100 mental deformit1es. OF
children of drinkers II per cent.
show a normal condition OF mind.
Children of total abstainers show
80 per cent. of normal condition OF
mind. In a home for feeble chill
dren out of GO patients between the
age of 5 and Is years had epilep-
tic fits. Why are they in this con-
dition? Because their parents were
morally and physically ruined.
While in New York some time ago
| visited a children's home, in which
were about 1000 from little chill
dren to early teens. When express
ing surprise at the number the doc
tor in charge said they could have
5000 it they had room for them.
When asked from whence they
came he said that 200 or more had
been found Abandoned about SOC
were taken in as incorrigibles; the
rest were rescused by the humane
society from parents who by drink
had been turned into worse than
brutes, and in their drunken fren.
zies threw their children out of win.
dows, kicked them down stairs,
scalded and burned them. One
drunken mother, in frenzy be
cause her child hadn't begged
enough money for her to get drunk
on, stripped him of his clothes
then held him to the fire till his ag
onized cries reached the officers
who came to rescue him. But
though his life was spared he viii
remain cripple. The mother was
punished with a few years impris
onment and the boy ruined for life
The DR.. Barnado Home in Londor
rescues about Is, 900 from the slumS
and sends them to respectable
homes in Canada and Australia.
All States are building homes tc
take care of this fruit of the liquor
and kindred habits at an enormous
expense for buildings and care o.
inmates, and what are we doing t.
check it? Business men are afraid
because it might hurt their bust
ness. Preachers are afraid to of
fend some member. The churches
are dead. Even d. L. Moody ad
mitted that there could be no great
revival of religion till we had a