Question. Did your mother drink intoxicating liquors? If so, to what extent?
| Mothers’ habits. | Numbers. | |||
| Did not drink liquor | 875 | |||
| Drank moderately | 574 | |||
| "intemperately | 347 | |||
| Unascertained | 204 | |||
| Totals | 1125 | 875 | ||
| —— | 1125 | |||
| Aggregate | 2000 | |||
How much of the intemperate habits of these women must be traced to the influence of the parent’s example? One thousand four hundred and fifty-two fathers; one thousand one hundred and twenty-five mothers, are represented as having been addicted to the use of liquors in various degrees, the moderate in both cases exceeding the intemperate drinkers. And yet even moderate drinking, when pursued by parents in the presence of, or to the knowledge of children, is a practice open to the gravest censure. In the mind of a child any action is deemed right if performed by a father or mother. As the children advance in years parental customs are followed, and, in such a case as this, probably the single glass of beer or wine of the father lays the foundation of intemperance in the children. Without undertaking to argue the question of the absolute necessity for a total abstinence from all liquors under all circumstances, the proposition may be seriously submitted that the effect of this personal example upon children is satisfactorily ascertained, from many different sources, to be prejudicial to their best interests, and a natural deduction therefore is that it is the duty of parents to abstain.
Instances are upon record where both fathers and mothers, in the temporary insanity of intoxication, have turned their daughters from home into the streets, and that, too, in cases where not even the remotest grounds existed for any suspicion of improper conduct on the part of these children. Occurrences like this are sufficient to enforce the necessity of temperance on the part of parents, in view of the fearful responsibility which rests upon them.
Question. Were your parents Protestants, Catholics, or non-professors?
| Religion. | Numbers. | |
| Protestants | 960 | |
| Roman Catholics | 977 | |
| Non-professors | 63 | |
| Total | 2000 | |
Question. Were you trained to any religion? If so, was it Protestant or Catholic?
| Religion. | Numbers. | |
| Protestant | 972 | |
| Roman Catholic | 977 | |
| No religious training | 51 | |
| Total | 2000 | |
Question. Do you profess the same religion now?
| Profession. | Numbers. | |
| Profess religion as educated | 1909 | |
| Non-professors | 91 | |
| Total | 2000 | |