November, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE 



Now, here is another thing the whole wide 

 w^orld just now seems to be forgetting: 



lu olden times, Avhen tlie beer sold at 

 corner groceries did not contain very much 

 "kick," there were not only men but boys 

 who would drink a dozen glasses, one after 

 another, in order to get the "kick" they 

 wanted. I know of a man who, on a bet, 

 drank between 30 and 40 glasses of beer 

 inside of half an hour. Our churches and 

 college professors, and God-fearing men and 

 women, are rejoicing at what prohibition 

 has accomplished — more money in the bank, 

 better health, children better clothed, better 

 educated, better nourished, and a thousand 

 things going on to indicate that the time is 

 coming when God's kingdom shall come and 

 his K'ill "will be done on earth as it is in 

 heaven. ' ' 



Now, friends, with the above introduction 

 r wish to suggest to you something still more 

 appalling that comes through strong drink, 

 and this is the thing that, it seems to me, 

 our temperance periodicals and our temper- 

 ance addresses are forgetting. It is an aw- 

 ful thing for a drunken man to drive an 

 automobile through the streets of our great 

 cities while intoxicated or even partially in- 

 toxicated. Our second text refers to the 

 matter of getting married and bearing chil- 

 dren. Now, suppose a man or some crea- 

 ture in the semblance of what a man ought 

 to be, should undertake to "replenish the 

 earth ' ' with offspring while intoxicated. 

 Suppose, under the influence of liquor, he 

 should come home and abuse the poor pa- 

 tient wife and mother. I remember vividly a 

 case of this kind — in fact, it was a near 

 neighbor that I was called on to protect, a 

 poor woman, who already was the mother of 

 a large family, from the outrages of the 

 drunken husband. We put him in jail until 

 he was sobered and had promised to do bet- 

 ter; but the half-dozen little saloons in our 

 town kept right on doing business supply- 

 ing him and others of the crowd like him 

 with intoxicating drinks. 



While I write, the daily papers are all 

 discussing the matter of what we may call 

 the "carnival of criminals;" and the 

 greater part of these criminals are com- 

 paratively boys; and further investigation 

 reveals the fact that at least many of them 

 were born of a drunken parent. Very like- 

 ly the father and possibly the mother were 

 under the influence of liquor at just the crit- 

 ical time a few months before their child's 

 birth. This is in accordance with what we 

 are told in our last text, that the sins of 

 the fathers follow through coming genera- 

 tions; and it does not seem to have occurred 

 to even the good people of our land that 

 we have got to enforce our prohibition laws 

 for a generation or two before we get en- 

 tirely rid of this business of breeding crimi- 

 nals. 



Pardon me for another little digression. 

 In my boyhood I was much given to poultry 



as well as to bees; and we had so mucli 

 trouble with sitting hens that a new breed 

 calletl non-sitters was introduced. The Leg- 

 horn hens would never or but seldom sit. 

 Now, is it not quite likely that we can get 

 a better breed of humanity — that we can 

 liave some children that are not born under 

 the awful curse of strong drink? Being run 

 over with an automobile in the hands of a 

 drunken man in our cities, and maiming a 

 child for life, are awful; but is it not in- 

 comparably more awful to bring children 

 into the world, cursed (even before they are 

 born) with a tendency to crime and guilt 

 and murder? 



Now, friends, perhaps you will think that 

 my challenge in the above is enough; but 

 maybe what I am about to touch on now 

 is even worse than the above. Let me give 

 you briefly one illustration of what I have 

 in mind. The story was told me by the man 

 himself, so I think there can be no mistake 

 about it. 



Because of a real, or an imagined affront 

 from his wife he went and got drunk on 

 heer. While in that condition he visited a 

 place of ill repute where he would have 

 never gone when sober. He there contracted 

 a loatlisome disease. It is contagious, and, I 

 might almost say, incurable. Of course he 

 gave it to his poor wife; and if it was not 

 the cause of her death it was contributory. 

 A year or two afterward he married a sec- 

 ond wife, and gave her the same malady as 

 a matter of course. Years afterward the 

 children of his second wife were cursed with 

 troubles that physicians pronounced the out- 

 come of that little incident of drinking beer. 

 See our last text. Now, this contagious dis- 

 ease I am talking about was found in some 

 localities in the IJnited States in such a se- 

 vere shape that it prevented quite a large 

 percentage of the young men from being 

 taken into the army. As I said in the be- 

 ginning, I do not know that this matter has 

 been recognized as having any bearing on 

 the subject of prohibition; but statistics al- 

 ready show that such diseases are getting to 

 be largely a thing of the past; and do you 

 not agree with me that prohilntinn has al- 

 ready had a lot to do with bringing it 

 about? 



May God help us in this coming election 

 to turn in a mighty flood of righteous indig- 

 nation and stem the current of crime that 

 once more threatens us. Satan sometimes 

 gets desperate, especially when he is crowd- 

 ed into the last ditch; and may God grant 

 that this humble plea of mine for righteous- 

 ness and temperance and purity may help to 

 give tlie wets such a stiiiging rebuke that 

 they may be led to give up their case as 

 hopeless, and that peace on earth and good 

 will to man may rule for the coming ages. 

 It is my pleasure, in closing the above 

 talk, to be able to present to our readers a 

 thought expressed by that grand, good 

 woman, Miss Francis E. Willard, not long 



