The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, March 1885Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Science
The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, March 1885
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
Pamphlets, too, may subserve an important didactic purpose, and in the
methods of their distribution we might learn a useful lesson from our
adversaries, the manufacturers of alcoholic nostrums, who introduce
their advertisements into every household, by publishing them combined
with almanacs, comic illustrations, note-books, etc., _i. e._, not only
free, but winged with extra inducements to the recipient, and often by
the special subvention of druggists and village postmasters—till quack
annuals have almost superseded the old family calendars with their
miscellanies of pious adages and useful recipes. Could we not retrieve
the lost vantage ground by the publication of temperance year-books,
compiled by a committee of our best tract societies and distributed by
agents of the W. C. T. U.—with inspiring conviction to emulate the zeal
stimulated by a bribe of gratuitous brandy bottles?
Popular books must above all be _interesting_, and with a large plurality
of readers that word is still a synonym of entertaining. A German
bookseller estimates that the romances of Louisa Mühlbach have done more
to familiarize her countrymen with the history of their fatherland than
all historical text books, annals and chronicles taken together, and we
should not despise the aid of the novelist, if he should possess the
gift of making fiction the hand-maid of truth, and the rarer talent of
awakening the reflections as well as the emotions of his readers, for all
such appeals should prepare the way for the products of the temperance
press proper, by which we should never cease to invoke the conscience and
the reason of our fellowmen.
2. PROSCRIPTION.—That union is strength is a truth which asserts itself
even at the expense of public welfare, and in favor of those who combine
to thwart the purposes of the law or prevent the progress of needed
reforms. To the cabals of such adversaries, against whom the influence
of moral suasion would be powerless, we should oppose weapons that would
strike at the foundation of their strength, namely, the most effectual
means to diminish the number of their allies. Many of those who are
callous to the stings of conscience would hesitate to defy the stigma of
public opinion; others who are proof against all other arguments would
yield if we could make it their commercial interest to withdraw their aid
from the enemies of mankind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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