Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-08-08
SOCIAL DRINKING BY WOMEN
An Awful Charge and an Appeal by
Rev. DR.. Madison C..
Peters.

sNe"iS oSO nlS INV pdSSSu ny WlluOuL
comment. Indeed so common is the
drinking among women in our large
cities that the situation is often a
source of embarrassment to the wom-
an wao does not drink.
The disastrous results of tipping
among women are already too we'll
known to the physicians, and expe-
rience shows that while men who
drink often reform women who become
victims to drink, are more intractable
to reformation
The medical director of one of New
York's leading institutions for nervous
and mental diseases recently wrote to
me as follows: THE medical profess
sion knows only too well the increasing
tendency to tipping among society
women and it's disastrous results
FULLY 70 per cent. of the drug cases
among women come of first using al
coholic stimulants; overindulgence of
fashionable dinners, or other social
functions, creates the necessity for the
quick recovery from the induced de-
bauch; morphine or something of a
like nature is taken, the inevitable
consequences are an increased neces-
sity for stimulants and a repetition of
The drug, increased nervousness and
mental degradation follow Once a
woman acquires a taste for stimulants
she is In large degree a hopeless
wreck. Especially is this true in the
higher circles where sentiment leads
and society sanctions"
Mans ideal of what woman ought to
be is based upon his conception of
what she normally is-higher and bet
ter than himself. His own sinful and
selfish desires are the main factors in
dragging woman down from the ped
estal upon which he himself has placed
her, and yet with his strange incon-
sistency he will idolize her .if she re-
sists.
If by common consent sin seems
blacklist in woman than in man, it is
because she is by nature purer and
has farther to fall
II seem to condemn sin in the
woman more than in the man, am for
that reason paying to woman the high
est and best compliment.
Intoxicants are dangerous enough to
men, to women they are much more
so. ROmuluS sentenced women to
death for intoxication as the beginning
of unfdithfulness to the marriage
VOW.
The virtue of the woman with the
drink habit is always in danger.
The effect of alcohol upon woman's
will power and sense of moral respon-
sibility are even more marked than in
the man, woman's emotional organ
ization being so much more susceptible
than that of man.
Any ordinary observer must have
noticed in the brilliant cafes of our
cities that most women drink as free
ly ami as frequently as their male
companions.
Twenty years ago if you took a
woman to place of amusement, you
might ask her afterward if she would
have an ice cream, but now you take
her to a restaurant and before you
ask her if she wants anything to eat,
you say to the waiter: 1.-TWO Man
hattans, please
But what may be seen in festive as
sembiies in public places is nothing
in comparison with what may be seen
in private parlorS by those who mingle
freely In society. l have seen at such
times woman's eyes sparkle with an
unwonted fire and the gayest of her
merriment was something more than
the natural glow of her own spirits.
Since fashion is only another term
| for public sentiment, 1 contend that
were the higher classes of society to
discontinue the moderate use of drink,
| the effect would be to render drinking
UNREASONABLE.
| know how tyrannical fashion is.
| and that there are many persons who
would rather be out of the world than
| out of the fashion, but improbable as
may he the success in changing the
custom of society by your emphatic
protest. the improbability of your sue
cess is no reason for being silent. If
| you attempt nothing you will accom-
plish nothing.
Social uSageS can be more easily
changed than at first supposed. If only
| q small number of women in every
| community of those who are raised by
| their wealth and social standing above
the accusation of meanness, and by
their courageously standing above the
suspicion so dreadful to endure, of be-
ing unfashionable-if only one or two
families in each community were to
take such stand, there would be
many to follow, and a year would
show great improvement
1t is woman's influence to which we
must look tor the change required II
woman really wishes to change the
custcni. it viii be accomplished.
Insane in Scotland.
Mr.. Arthur Sherwell, in his "Drfnt