"Well, ladies, I will pour out my liquors to-morrow morning at nine o'clock, and that shall be the last of it."
The next morning the whole village was there to see; the liquors were brought out with a great flourish, poured into the gutter, and they ran down into the stream below.
Although that village was so situated as to be peculiarly exposed to the evils of intemperance, and although this happened many years ago, I believe that not one glass of strong drink has been sold within its precincts, from that day to this. Those brave women have ever stood ready to attack, with their own peculiar weapons, the enemy who would open a pitfall for their sons.
Here and there, throughout the country, earnest mothers, wives, sisters and daughters have undertaken to exterminate the neighborhood grog-shops; and while men have constantly failed, these determined women have rarely failed to achieve a complete victory.
Women rule in the social sphere, and are responsible for its vices.
In all this world, there is no other spectacle so bewildering and so sad, as this queen of the social sphere, living in the midst of drunken howls, the sickening fumes of tobacco, and in a hot-bed of licentiousness, and hiding the magic wand with which she might dispel every social iniquity, and then standing before a mirror, paint her cheeks and eyebrows, and adjust her curls, and ribbons, and flowers, and bows and jewelry.
It is no mere figure of speech, to say that God will hold her responsible for all this silly, shameless abandonment and betrayal of her high and sacred trusts!
WHAT YOU SHOULD DRINK.
I am astonished that a young woman who is ambitious of a clear, fine skin should drink tea. It is a great enemy to a fair complexion. Wine, coffee and cocoa may be used without tinging the skin; but as soon as tea drinking becomes a regular habit, the eye of the discriminating observer detects it in the skin. Tea compromises the complexion, probably, by deranging the liver.
Weak tea or coffee may be used occasionally, in moderate quantity, without harm; and those who live much in the open air, and are occupied with hard work, may drink either, in considerable quantities, without noticeable harm; but I advise all young women who would preserve a soft, clear skin and quiet nerves, to avoid all drinks but cold water.