The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-05-18
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
WHISKY DRlNKER TO HIS SON.
Drinking Man Can Save His Own Chill
dren From Dangers Better Than
Any Other Person.

How should whisky drinker talk
to his son? If he talked as he feels, he
would hold up the fiat, brown bottle
and say:
'My boy, you know that I am a
poor man and have nothing to leave
to you or your mother.
"The difference between myself and
successful men who have passed me
is this:
II have gone through life with this
bottle in my hand or in my pocket.
They have not
A man comes into the world pre-
Jared to do his share of the worlds
work well or i'll, as his brain and his
physical strength may decide. Of all
his qualities the most important prac.
tically is balance.
The whisky in that bottle destroys
balance, both mental and physical.
1t substitutes dreaming and foolish
self-con1dence for real effort.
It presents all of life's problems and
duties in false light It makes
those things seem unimportant which
are most important.
1t dulls the conscience, which alone
can make men do their duty, in spite
of temptation, and struggle on to sue
cess in spite of exhaustion.
Keep away from this bottle, and
-
He who hands it to his fellow man is
criminal, and he who hands it to
young man is worse criminal and a
villain.
It is we'll establishment fact that
in the usual order of events drunken
ness would be handed down from ia
Their to son, and hundreds of thousands
of families would be ultimately wiped
out by whisky.
Tt is not true, fortunately, that the
son of a drunkard actually inherits
drunkenness fully developed. But a
drunkard gives to his son weakened
nerves and a diminished will power,
which tends to make him a drunkard
more easily than his father was made
a drunkard before him.
The great safeguard of a drunkard's
children undoubtedly lies in the warn
ing which they see every day in their
home and in the earnest advice which
the man who drinks will give to all
young people if he have any con-
science left.
If the man who drinks would save
his own children from the same dan
ger he can do so better than any other
He need not lose their respect by tell
ing them of his own mistakes, if these
mistakes have been hidden from them.
Let him simply tell them without per-
sonal reference what he knows about
whisky, it's effects on a mans happi-
ness, success, self-respect and physical
comfort.
Whisky gives a great many things
to men-negative gifts most of them.
Of these gifts here are few.
Lack of friends, lack of will, lack
of self-respect, lack of nervous force
lack of everything save the hideous
craving that can end only with uncon-
seriousness, and that begins again with
increased suffering when conscious
ness is restored.
With the fear of whisky, there
should be impressed upon children
sympathy and sorrow for the unfortu-
nate drunkard.
One of the ablest men, and one of
the most earnest in America, said to
his friend very recently:
81 never drink, as you know. But
when see man lying drunk in the
gutter, I know that he has probably
] made that very day a harder effort at
self-control, nobler struggle to con-
troll himself, than I ever made in my
life. He has yielded and fallen at last,
but only because all of his strength is
insufficient to overcome the disease
that possesses him."
Teach your children that drunken
ness is a horrible disease, as bad as
leprosy. Teach them that it can be
avoided; that the disease is contract
ed in youth through carelesness, and
that it is spread by those who en-
courage drinking in others. Tell them
that the avoiding of whisky is not
merely question Of morals or ODE
dience to parents, but a question in
volving mental and physical salvation,
success in life, happiness and the re-
spect of others.