The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-01-13
BITTER WAR ON INTEMPERANCE
SOLDIERS FIGHTING THIS CURSE
GREATLY CHEERED.
What Makes Idiots?-One Eminent
Authority Says That Thirty-fve
Per Cent. of the Predetermined

Per Cent. OF the FeeDle.mlnQeu
Are the Result of Drink.
One of the saddest sights in this
world is an undeveloped, dwarfed or
sluggish intellect. Statistics have
placed the number of defective chill
dren in the United States as 10000,
enough to make a city OF nearly 20O,-
900. What is the cause OF this alarm
ing increase in idiocy? One eminent
authority says that ~thirty-fve per
cent. of the feeble-minded are the re-
suits of strong drink. What a stum-
bling block this nation Is placing be-
fore the children in the form OF the
licensed, dramshop!
o mother, you whose arms are
folded about your bright, laughing,
dimpled little ones, think Of the thou
sands of helpless infants, forced into
an almost joyless, senseless, existence
through the obnoxious rum traffic.
Each mother should say, Il am but
one-but I am one. l cannot do
much, but, I can do something, and
what I can do, by the grace OF God,
I will DO"
No matter how well directed the
effort for the idiots development, he
will always be handicapped, and
never in this world will he be what
he has a right to be.
Because of the degradation of rum
drinking parents in one large city,
100000 children, owing to their filthy
physical and moral inheritances and
bad environments, are prohibited
from attending the public schools.
Belle Kearney, in an address at Ann
Arbor, told OF one Of her experiences
while touring the South. At the
close of one lecture a little BOY came
running toward her. 20 Miss Kear-
ney," ne cried,' stretching out his
claws toward her, for his thin hands
were little more; don't you think
the boys and girls ought TO be pro-
tected from strong drink"
In a small village of Michigan
there exists a family of nine children.
The father Is a habitual drinker. His
children are dull, and some of them
have criminal tendencies. Their one
little girl was an exception. This lit
tie child was very pretty and appeared
normal up.to her second year. Later,
one afternoon her mother went away
and left her in the care of the two
younger boys. In her absence the
little girl attempted to light the gaso-
line stove. Her clothing caught fire
and she was burned beyond earthly
hope when her scream brought a
passerby to her relief. Their older
boy Is now in jail. For monthslthe
children have absented themselves
from school. The teachers say they
do not want them to attend, for their
presence always starts trouble. This
family can be multiplied many times.
The boys are growing up without
Christian training, and when they
are twenty-one their vote will count
as much as the minister's.
Physicians assert that in many
towns more than one-half of the
women to-day are incapable of nurs-
ing their children. This incapacity
is on the increase and has been found
to be hereditary. Their milk has to
be supplemented with cows milk. It
has been found that human milk, to
meet special requirements OF the
human infant, Is poorest In albumen
and richest in Tactic acid. The latter
component is the principle element
used in building up the brain. Now,
the milk of the COW is composed OF
ingredients in percentages that meet
the need Of the calf, and therefore
| cannot be considered proper substi-
tute for human milk for the infant
Over 100 eminent medical men have
been engaged in scientific research to
ascertain the reason for the failure
of so many mothers to nurse their
children. Sixteen hundred famiiles
were taken for object studies to inves-
tigate along this line. The failure
In seventy-eight out of a hundred
was found to be due to alcoholism.
Only a small percentage Of the daugh-
ters of drinking fathers were found to
be able to nurse their children. If a
child is not we'll fed, especially in in
fancy, it is in danger of becoming a
lifelong victim of mental inaptitude.
It will scarcely attain the success that
1t might have enjoyed had all OF b
conditions been favorable.
If for no other reason than love TO
these little human flowers" let us,
as mothers, wives, sisters and daugh-
tiers, do all we can to take down the
Stars and Stripes from the licensed
saloon and wrap it around the prec-
tous children.