The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-11-23
v. c. |. j. DEPARTMENT
Mrs. T.. Van Hood, Editor
Who Are Your Daughters Friends.


contributing cause TO the downfall of
women-more often cause than an
effect, as so many sociologists have
concluded. This L do know, that many
girl, though her mind might have
been contaminated, would still have
stopped short of physical surrender
were it not that she was tempted to
drink, became emotional, careless, for
getfuI for the time being. 1t is the
one needed lever TO overthrow a girls
last shred Of resistance. If her moral
stamina be intact, she may drink and
escape; If it is not, there will be no
escape for her.
Have you ever seen a young girl so
intoxicated that she must be hailed to
a police court-a girl whose hectic
cheeks and duh eyes showed that the
curse had fixed it's tenacles about her?
You know what is going to be the end
of that girl, barring the interpOsition
of Providence. The end is there,
visualized for her, in the pen-flthy
old women, old while they are young;
human debris Of the slums; confirmed
alcoholics who find their beds in the
cutters and doorways. They have run
the scale of evil doing. They have sold
virtue, honor, honesty and every decent
attribute, first under the spur OF
drink and then in order to satisfy the
drink appetite they have created.
When you pass these harridans with
a shudder, did you ever stop TO think
that they were once pretty young
girls, innocent, virtuOus, respected?
Did you ever stop to think that there
was a first drink, and wonder how or
why they took that first drink?
You may argue that many parents
allow their children to take wine and
beer The best to say of them is that
they are playing with fire; though it
is singular accident that many child
rem thus familiar with liquor never
become habitues. But L am speaking
of young girls in whose homes-hum-
BILE or high-liquor is taboo; and also
/ have in mind the dangers of surrep-
titious drinking away from the pro-
lection Of home.
Civilization has come to a frank ac-
Acknowledgement of the evils that ac-
company the use of alcohol The
schools wage an educational cam
paign, laying particular stress upon
the hygienic and economic reasons for
abstention. At home the schoolgirl
gets additional warnings: first, last,
and all the time she must abstain from
liquor, because it Will destroy her
health and her beauty: especially she
must not touch it outside her own
home because it may cause scandal;
but in particular, she must never take
a drink with a man, because it is dan
gerous.
And rarely does young girl take
her first drink at the invitation of
placed her on her guard. When she
does start to drink it is almost always
through the influence of some girl
companion. L could give you many
examples, but one or two with suffice.
The young girl was intoxicated A
policeman had arrested her for her
own safety. She was well dressed,
and did not seem an habitual drinker;
in fact, she told me she had taken her
first drink only a couple of months
before.
The parents of that girl lived in a
suburb. They were heartbroken and
absolutely dumfounded. 1t seemed i'm
possible to them. The daughter had
never been out Of their watchful care
until six months before, when she
came to the city to take a position.
She boarded now in New York and
went home every Saturday. They
knew she had never tasted liquor
while at home; indeed she had been a
leading spirit in a local total-abstin-
ence society.
Then the girls explanation. For
the sake of economy she was rooming
with a girl friend, a girl known to the
parents and approved Of by them. This
girl had many young men friends. She
met them all. Never had one of them
committed an overt act. From time to
time they had taken the girls to table
d'hote restaurants, where wine is in
cluded with meals. At first the young
girl 1 speak OF had steadfastly refused
to touch the wine.
You're silly" was the incessant
preachment of the chum: why every
body drinks a little wine nowadays.
It's half water, anyway, and couldn't
hurt a child. Has it hurt me?"
Apparently it hadn't, as our young
girl admitted. Then went on the
tempter with more convincing argu-
ment:
Fellows don't like prudes," she
said. "It throws a damper on things.
They'll stop inviting US out to dinner"
And sure enough there had been
newer invitations. Anu Inen the novice
did drink a little of the wine. She
found, as her chum had prophesied,
that it did liven things up. She felt
more lively herself, and not at all
conscience stricken as she had feared.
From wine il is but an easy step to
cocktails and cOrdials; and when her
friend suggested cigarettes as another
harmless step in Bohemianism, our
little girl wasn't at all shocked With
the letting down of the barriers, the
true character of the chum became
gradually manifest. Since the eX-
prude was equally involved, there was
no need of discrimination. Step by step
she led her into worse evils. And thus
having started with wine our little
girl was well along the down grade
before her parents were awakened.
Railway Regulation as to Drink
On April II, 1899, the American
Railway Association adopted a set of
standard rules for operating depart