LEGISLATION AGAINST THE DRINK EVIL. 441 



cion of a Ladies' Temperance Union ! But as the person converted by 

 the example would be certain not to parade the fact, no statistics 

 could even then be attainable. The case or cases, if genuine, would 

 be hidden in the consciences of the converts and beyond any mar- 

 shaling in figures. All we can do is to hope and trust that our good 

 examples may prevail, and that, like the apostle St. Paul (whom our 

 British ecclesiastic begs to differ with), there may be some among 

 us strong enough physically as well as spiritually to say, " If meat 

 make my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world 

 standeth." 



These considerations have not, however, deterred certain States 

 from ingrafting example upon the statute-book, as nearly as it could 

 be made a subject of legislation, by enacting that there shall be held 

 before the eye of the possible drinker the spectacle of his neigh- 

 bors drinking rum: trusting, doubtless, to the rum itself to work a 

 condition in the drinker to afford the example required, and so add 

 to the unestimated but hoped-for good example to bad example at 

 hand. Three States i. e., Indiana, Michigan, and Utah and the 

 city of Atlanta, Georgia, by municipal ordinance, provide that the 

 premises on which liquor is retailed by drinks shall have no screen or 

 other obstruction before its windows, so that passers-by may see the 

 drinking which goes on therein and its horrible accompanying cir- 

 cumstances. The reports from these States, however, are not such 

 as to commend this policy of example to universal acceptance. 



ILL. EDUCATION. Within the past four years several States 

 Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, Nevada have enacted statutes pro- 

 viding that pupils in the public schools should be particularly in- 

 structed in so much at least of the science of toxicology as relates 

 to the uses and abuses of alcohol, and of its effect upon the human 

 system. Such instruction, if honestly imparted by capable teachers 

 and by honest text-books, can not fail to be of the highest value. 

 Capable teachers and honest text-books could not possibly teach, for 

 example, that alcoholic liquors were an unmixed evil, could not deny 

 their medicinal value, or their stimulative aid in fortifying against 

 disease or exposure, or in supplying the waste of age; could not teach 

 (as I gave instances of of fanatical teachings) that it were better to 

 die for the need of a glass of whisky than to have one's life saved 

 by the use of it, or that the use of liquor " destroys both body and 

 soul " (in the teeth of the facts that only the most flagrant and pro- 

 tracted abuse of liquor ever, and that after a long term of years, de- 

 stroyed a human body, and that statistics as to the soul are not 

 attainable). Much is to be hoped for under this benign instruction. 

 It is not possible that our youth will not miss to acquire much im- 

 portant information, such as that "wine is a good servant if well 



