"European scientists have recently given much attention to the physical degradation among children which they believe to be the result of intemperance on the part of the parents. A startling example was recently published in the _London Daily News_:
"Some months ago a workman and his wife, accompanied by a small boy of four, waited on Doctor Garnier, the physician who presides over the insanity ward at the Paris Depot, or Central Police Station. The parents were in great distress, and the story they had to tell was that on two occasions the lad, their son, who was with them, had attempted to murder his baby brother. On the last occasion the mother had just arrived in time to prevent him from cutting the baby"s throat with a pair of scissors.
"Examined by Doctor Garnier, the child declared it was quite true that he wished to murder his brother, and that it was his firm intention to accomplish his purpose, sooner or later.
"Taking the parents into an adjoining room, Doctor Garnier said to the father, "Are you a drinker?"
"The man protested indignantly. He had never been drunk in his life. His wife backed up his a.s.sertion. Her husband, she said, was the most sober of men.
""Hold out your hand at arm"s length," said the doctor.
"The man obeyed. After a few seconds the hand began that devil"s dance to which alcohol fiddles the tune.
""As I thought," said the doctor. "My poor fellow, you are an _alcoholique_."
"He questioned the man, who, with tears in his eyes, related that, being a brewer"s drayman, it was his duty to deliver casks of beer to his master"s customers, carrying the casks up to various stages. A gla.s.s of wine was occasionally offered him as a _pouboire_. The total quant.i.ty so absorbed by him amounted to a liter, or a liter and a half per day. This had been going on steadily for several years.
""With the result," said the doctor, "that you, who have never been drunk, have become so completely alcoholized that you have transmitted to that unfortunate baby in the next room a form of epilepsy which has developed into homicidal mania.""
"Isn"t it awful, mamma? I should not want to marry a man who drinks."
"I sincerely hope you never will. But there are other habits that are evil in their effects. Smoking, for example."
"O, mamma, smoking isn"t inherited, is it?"
"Well, I don"t know but we might say that it is. I knew a woman who was an inveterate smoker. When her baby was born, it cried night and day until one day the mother, nearly distracted, took the pipe from her mouth and put it between the baby"s lips and it stopped crying at once, and after that she took that method to still its cries. You see, it had been under the influence of tobacco all the time before it was born, and when it no longer felt that influence it was uncomfortable until it had the tobacco again. You know how hard it is for a man to give up smoking.
All poisons by long use make such an impression on the body that it suffers when the poisons are taken away.
"Tobacco paralyzes the nerves of sensation, so that feeling is lessened.
That is why men like to use it. They think they feel better, when in reality they feel less, or not at all; and to have no feeling or power to feel is a dangerous condition. Pain, or sensation, is our great protection, and to remove sensation by paralysis is to render ourselves open to danger. This paralytic condition may become an inheritance. Many children have infantile paralysis because their fathers are users of tobacco."
"I am glad my father doesn"t use it," exclaimed Helen with emphasis.
"Indeed, you may well be glad, and you can see to it that your children have the same cause for rejoicing. The girls of to-day have a wonderful influence on all time, the present and the future. I wish they knew how to use it wisely."
"But girls think it is manly to smoke. I"ve heard lots of them say so.
Stella Wilson says she wouldn"t marry a man that didn"t smoke; and Kate Barrows said the other day that she thought girls had no right to interfere with the enjoyment of men by asking them to give up smoking.
She said she knew how nice it was, for she had tried it; and she said the most fashionable women smoke, and she means to smoke when she has a home of her own."
"All of which only proves that she is a poor, ignorant girl who does not know her own value to herself, or to the world. She may yet have cause to weep over children made weak and nervous, or who have died because of her ignorance."
"Isn"t it sad that ignorance does not save us from punishment?"
"Yes, but it does not. If you can"t swim, you may drown, even while trying to save another. G.o.d"s laws cannot vary to save us from the penalty of ignorance.
"I wonder now, dear, if you are not beginning to see the greatness of woman"s work. In her own vigor she creates health for the future of the nation. So you see whether you wear your overshoes or not, may be a question of importance to the race. By her virtue, courage, patience, purity, she is storing up those qualities for the men and women of the future. By her demanding of her future husband that he shall be without fear and without reproach, as clean in life and thought as herself, she is building up protections around the children of generations to come.
Even the young girls of to-day are creating national conditions for the future, are deciding the destiny of the nation,--yes, of the race. The great structures that men build will in time perish, but character is eternal. Is it not even a greater thing to be a woman than to be a man?"
"I begin to think so, and I think after this I"ll try to feel that even I am of importance to the world, instead of regretting that I am not a man."