Editorials from the Hearst NewspapersBrisbane, Arthur
Philosophy
Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers
Brisbane, Arthur
Editorials; Essays
If the man who drinks would save his own children from the same
danger, he can do so better than any other. He need not lose
their respect by telling them of his own mistakes, if these
mistakes have been hidden from them. Let him simply tell them,
without personal reference, what he knows about whiskey, its
effects on a man's happiness, success, self-respect and physical
comfort.
Whiskey gives a great many things to men. Of these gifts here
are a 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 unconsciousness, and that begins again with
increased suffering when consciousness is restored. ----
Fathers and mothers blessed with self-control and with good
children should use the picture of a drinking man as a useful,
moral lesson in talking to boys and girls from seven to twenty
years of age.
Children are impressed most easily through their imaginations.
An intelligent father or mother can produce upon a child's
receptive mind an impression that will last for years.
With the fear of whiskey there should be impressed upon children
sympathy and sorrow for the unfortunate drunkard.
One of the ablest men, and one of the most earnest in America,
said to his friends very recently:
"I never drink, as you know. But when I see a man lying drunk
in the gutter, I know that he has probably made that very day
a harder effort at self-control, a nobler struggle to control
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 drunkenness is a horrible disease, as
bad as leprosy. Teach them that it can be avoided, that the
disease is contracted in youth through carelessness, and that it
is spread by those who encourage drinking in others. Tell them
that the avoiding of whiskey is not merely a question of morals
or obedience to parents, but a question involving mental and
physical salvation, success in life, happiness, and the respect
of others.
THOSE WHO LAUGH AT A DRUNKEN MAN
How often have you seen a drunken man stagger along the street!
His clothes are soiled from falling, his face is bruised, his
eyes are dull. Sometimes he curses the boys that tease him.
Sometimes he tries to smile, in a drunken effort to placate
pitiless, childish cruelty.
His body, worn out, can stand no more, and he mumbles that he is
GOING HOME.
The children persecute him, throw things at him, laugh at him,
running ahead of him.
GROWN MEN AND WOMEN, TOO, OFTEN LAUGH WITH THE CHILDREN, nudge
each other, and actually find humor in the sight of a human being
sunk below the lowest animal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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