The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1905-09-13
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTeMPERANcE.


Lower Glasses of Society.
Careful observers of social conditions
In both the upper and the lower classes
or society cannot fail to have noted OF
late decided increase in the addiction
to alcoholic liquors on the part of woh-
en-. Published statistics relating to the
number and ages of women convicted
OF drunkenness give one no real idea
or the extent of the evil. for only Il
very small fraction of the intemperate
fall into the hands of the police. More
over, though a woman does not become
drunk unless she has been intemper-
ate, she may easily be highly intemper-
ate without becoming drunk. II Is no.
torious that drunken woman is re-
claimed only with the greatest diff
Guilty, for she knows that she has un-
sexed herself. The inebrlated woman
Injuries her reputation; the Incorporate
woman her health.
There is no one cause in particular
which will account for this increased
and increasing intemperance among
women. The causes are many, and
vary with the various conditions of
life In which the women find them
selves. The rich woman drinks to re-
lieve the inevitable ennul of wealth,
while her poor sister drinks to be rid
OF the mental and physical depression
engendered by poverty; the former be-
come Incorporate for lack of occupa-
ton, and the latter for want of recrea-
ton. The moderately well-to-do wom-
an takes stimulants to relieve the dull
monotony of her life, or with the idea
of easing the mental strain inseparable
tla s.NH E,v
Many women take to secret drinking
the bane of womanhOOd-by reason
of the lonely lives they live, to soften
the sorrow which is the lot of so many
women, or to deaden that anxiety
about the future which is so harassing
to the timld minds of so many of the
weaker sex. 1t is surely an evil sign
Of the times when the very factory
girls, who think lightly of the present
and still less of the future form what
are called spirit clubs" into which the
girls make small payments to accumu-
late until Christmas Eve, and then TO
be spent In spirits, wine and cakes.
Since, however. the factory girls
principal diet during all the workdays
Of the year consists of picked cabbage
and tea, the craving of her system for
an occasional stimulant is small mat
ter for wonder. And. indeed through
out large section of feminine society
it Is an Unbalanced or insufficient diet
ary that is at the bottom of the craving
for stimulants. Even when the diet is
correct, the lonely woman diner may
be driven by the dyspepsia of solitude
to stimulate the digestive functions
with brandy and water, and finding
benefit from that, may be tempted to
continue the remedy indefinitely, in
gradually increasing doses.
Increased facilities for drinking are
to be numbered among the causes of
the increasing intemperance among
women. Women travel alone to far
greater extent than was formerly the
case; women's clubs afford every op-
portunity to those who wish TO indulge
in potent liquors; someof the big stores
aud mammoth drapery establishments
have licensed refreshment rooms; res
tatrants and railway buffets continue
to multiply; while the pastry cook with
a wine license is very much in evidence
in every residential district. A woman
in good position in life may be intem-
perate to degree without ever having
recourse to the ordinary public house.
1t is not pretended that all the
places enumerated above have spirit
licenses, but intemperance in port or
sherry, or even in bottle ale, is almost
equally destructive to health.
Intemperance among women is in
compatible with the welfare of the
children, who. even If they are unaf-
fected by bad heredity, must be af-
fected by evil parental example. 1t is
because of this that the drunken moth
er is regarded as curse to her family
and q menace to the State. Even the
most unprejudiced land tolerant of mod
crate drinkers on the male side look
upon a drunken woman with horror
and loathing that are almost instinct
i've.
Although medical men as body are
largely, if indirectly, responsible for
the present enormous consumption OF
whisky by the laity (they having ad-
yised 1t as being safer than adulter-
ated wines and doubtful beersl, they
can with assurance declare themselves
in no way responsible for the increased
consumption of spirits by women. For
the favorite ''pick-me-up" of the we'll
to-do woman is brandy and soda,
while in the case of the washerwoman
1t is drop of gin. Medical men,
whatever their shortcomings, never
have recommended the general con-
sumption of brandy or gin as bever-
age. Women who can afford a choice
take to brandy with fatal facility; or.
If they prefer wine to port-they seIs
dom become confirmed whisky drink
ers.
Hope for the future of our woman
kind lies in the fact that all women are
to some extent the slaves of fashion.
and once 1t becomes no longer the fash
ion for women to drink freely OF po-
tent liquors at dinners, dances and
other convivial assemblies, iatemper-
ance among them will receive check.
But against the pet vice of secret
drinking the only remedy is In the
teaching Of temperance and hygiene
London Chronicle.
Alcohol Dwarfs Dogs
The Watchman explains the Japan
ese method of breeding dwarf dogs.
They take puppies when young from
the mothers and feed them on an alco-
hollc diet instead of milk. BY inter-
breeding two or three generations the
midgets result. Cats may be dwarfed
tho sama vvav and also bows.