may seem, yet it is true that a murderer watches to get into the
body-house; and unless it is kept out, sooner or later it will ruin the
house and kill the master. It has different names, but the most common
are Cider, Beer, Wine, Ale, Brandy, and Whisky; but its real name is
Alcohol. I have some here in this bottle.
ELMER: Why, it looks like clear water!
MOTHER: So it does. Let us see if we can find out how it is different
from water. I will pour a little into this saucer. Percy, you may light
a match and hold close to it.
AMY: Oh, it burns!
MOTHER: Will water burn?
HELEN: No, water puts out fire.
MOTHER: Here is a tester. I will pour a little whisky in it and boil it
over this spirit lamp. Now the steam comes out. Percy, you may light a
match and hold it close to the steam.
PERCY: Oh, see it burn!
MOTHER: Will steam from the teakettle burn?
AMY: No, mother.
MOTHER: So you see the American Indians gave it a very good name when
they called it “fire-water.” Another difference between water and
alcohol is that water will freeze, but alcohol never freezes. I will
show you one thing more. Here is some oil in this bottle. If I should
pour in some water, would it mix with the oil?
[Illustration Burning alcohol]
PERCY: No; the oil would stay on top.
MOTHER: But alcohol will mix with oil. Let us try again. Here is a
fresh egg broken into a glass. If I should pour some water over it and
stir them together, it would not change the looks of the egg. Instead
of water, I will pour in some alcohol. Now watch the mixture as I stir
them together.
ELMER: Why, the egg looks as though it were cooked! It is getting hard.
MOTHER: Yes, and if I should put a little piece of lean meat in
alcohol, it also would become hard. Now the reason that the egg or a
piece of meat becomes hard is because alcohol has such a liking for
water that it draws the water out, leaving the egg or meat hard and
dry. Alcohol does the very same thing in our bodies; that is, it takes
up the moisture in the nerves, muscles, and other parts; and I think
that must be why it creates such a terrible thirst, which can not be
satisfied. The poor man who drinks, thinks that he wants more alcohol,
when it is really for water, water, that every part of his body is
calling. I think you already see that alcohol is so different from
water, the drink that God made for man, that it was never intended that
we should drink it.
PERCY: But how is alcohol made?
MOTHER: Alcohol comes from death. Something must decay and die to
produce it. We do not find it in wheat or any other grain. Peaches,
plums, pears, apples, and grapes say, “It is not in me,” yet it can be
made from all of them. Do you remember when I was canning fruit how I
put it boiling hot into glass jars, and put the cover on as quickly as
I could, to keep the air out?
HELEN: But why did you do that?
[Illustration: “_Ferments._”]
MOTHER: Because there are little germs, or “ferments,” in the air, and
if they should get into the fruit, it would decay, ferment. I once had
a jar of fruit spoil, and before I noticed it, it had turned to wine.
In wine and cider the ferments are not shut out, and they make it
“work,” ferment, or turn to alcohol.
AMY: Is beer made in the same way?
MOTHER: Very much the same. When a brewer makes beer, he takes some
corn, wheat, rye, or barley, puts it in a dark place, and wets it.
Soon it begins to sprout, or grow. The grain is dead. He dries it in
an oven to stop its growing, and the grain is then called malt. After
this he mashes the malt, soaks it in water, and drains off the liquid,
boils it, and puts in some yeast, which you know is made of millions of
little ferments. They are like seed; and millions more grow from them.
A dirty scum rises to the top, and alcohol has come to stay in the
liquid. It is the alcohol that makes it taste good to those who like
beer.
ELMER: But where does alcohol like this you have shown us come from?
MOTHER: By dis-til´ling wine or beer.
AMY: What does “distil” mean?
MOTHER: To distil means to fall in drops. See the drops of water gather
and fall as I hold this glass of ice-water in the steam coming from the
teakettle. The drops are distilled water.
HELEN: Is that the way they distil wine and beer?
[Illustration: _See the drops fall._]
MOTHER: They could hardly do it in this way, but men found that by
boiling beer or any liquid having alcohol in it, and letting the steam
pass through a long tube called a “worm,” they got stronger alcohol.
You see the alcohol comes out in the steam, and as it passes through
the long tube, or coil, it is cooled, and drops into a cask. The
oftener it is distilled, the stronger it grows, that is, the more pure
alcohol there is in it.
ELMER: But why do you call alcohol a murderer?
MOTHER: Because it kills. Strong alcohol will kill any living thing.
Dr. Richardson, of England, has said: “There is no animal that may not
be affected by alcohol. A pigeon will take opium enough to kill several
men, and receive no harm; but alcohol will poison it. A goat can take
enough tobacco to kill several men, but it can not take alcohol.”
HELEN: I once read of a minister in Wales who was drinking in an
ale-house, and he gave some of the drink to a tame goat. The animal
drank until it became drunk and fell down. The minister, too, became
so drunk that he had to be carried to his home. He was very sick the
next day, but the third day he again went to the ale-house and began
drinking. The goat was there, and he offered it more ale, but it would
not touch it. When the minister saw that a goat was wiser than himself,
he was so ashamed that he gave up drinking.
[Illustration: _The goat would not touch it._]
MOTHER: That was a sensible goat surely. There are many stories which
might be told about animals that have drunk alcohol, but, having
learned its effect, would never touch it again. It is a pity men are
not as wise.
AMY: I do like stories, mother. Won’t you tell us one, please?
[Illustration: “_This coon is trying to get a drink of beer._”]
MOTHER: Here is a picture taken from life. This coon is trying to get
a drink of beer. A coon, like a man who gets an appetite for strong
drink, will do almost anything to satisfy his taste. I once read of a
man who had two tame coons. One, I am glad to say, was a temperance
coon, and, though his owner had barrels of beer, he never tried to get
a drink. The other by tasting learned to like beer, and he would do
many strange tricks to get it. One of his tricks was to go to a beer
barrel, and when he had partly unscrewed the tap, he would lie on his
back under it and drink till he was dead drunk.
ELMER: I should think that was bad enough for a coon; he did not have
as much sense as the goat; but I think it is very much worse when a man
fills himself with beer.
PERCY: But, mother, how do we know that alcohol is a poison?
MOTHER: By the results which come from using it. Its first effect is
to make the body feel warm, and the extra blood sent to a man’s brain
makes him sing, talk, and feel very gay. He says things he would be
ashamed to say if sober. He thinks he is rich when he is poor, and that
he is very strong when he is really weaker than before. If he drinks
still more, his feet begin to go wrong; but I need not tell you how a
drunken man walks.
AMY: He staggers.
MOTHER: Now let us see _why_ he staggers. The poison in the drink he
has taken has put his small brain and the cord in his spinal column to
sleep. As they control the legs and the feet, he stumbles along, and
wonders why the sidewalk is so narrow and crooked, and why he can not
go where he wishes to. This is the second effect.
[Illustration: Body on railway track]
If you should hold a little alcohol in your mouth a few minutes, it
would feel numb. That is because the nerves in the mouth and tongue
are put to sleep so they can not taste or feel. If the man takes still
more drink, _all_ his brain goes to sleep. When men are drunk, the
nerves all over the body are asleep, so they do not know when they are
in danger. A man may fall down on a railroad track, and he will not
hear the train coming which will crush him to death. He may walk off
into a river from a bridge; but he sees no danger in taking the step.
He does terrible things that he would never think of doing if he had
not taken this poison. He will beat his wife, kill his children, or he
may commit other crimes that will cause him to be taken to prison. When
the effect of the poison has passed, sometimes he remembers nothing
that he has done, and knows not when he came or why he is there.
ELMER: I should think men would know better than to take so much drink.
MOTHER: There is no safety in even tasting it. When once this murderer
has them in its grasp, they have no power to help themselves. One glass
calls for two; two must be followed by four. The awful craving can not
be satisfied till the man can drink no more.
HELEN: But proper food and drink do not make us feel that way. If I
eat two potatoes to-day, I don’t want six to-morrow; or if I take two
glasses of milk or water, it does not make me thirsty so I want four
more.
MOTHER: That is true; and it shows that alcohol is neither food nor
drink. It is only such poisons as alcohol, tobacco, opium, and those
related to them, that create such an appetite. Alcohol finally brings
its victim to the last stage.
AMY: What is that?
MOTHER: The man becomes “dead drunk.” He is not quite dead, but he is
next door to it. He can not feel, hear, or see. His body is cold, much
like a corpse. If it were not for his heavy breathing, we would say he
is dead. Every part of the man he himself can control, has been handed
over to the murderer, alcohol. But his faithful heart stands by him
still. It suffers, too, but with painful effort it slowly beats, and
the air comes and goes in gasps.
AMY: And does he gets well?
MOTHER: Sometimes, and at other times he really dies. It is an awful
sight when a man by his own act brings himself so near to death. Not
long ago I read of a young man in this town who drank until he became
dead drunk. His friends who were with him put him in an old shed, and
in the morning he was found dead. This murderer alcohol had gained one
more victim. But there are other things this murderer brings to men. A
doctor was talking not long ago to a crowd of school-children, and he
asked them what would finally come to a man if he kept on drinking.
“He will have the D. T.’s,” shouted one boy.
PERCY: What did he mean by “D. T.’s,” mother?
MOTHER: He meant de-lir´i-um tre´mens.
HELEN: What is that?
MOTHER: It is a sickness caused by alcohol. You have sometimes had bad
dreams when asleep; but in this disease the man has dreadful dreams
when he is awake. He thinks snakes and other creatures are crawling
over him. I once saw a little boy, not over ten years old, the son
of a drunkard, who had had de-lir´i-um tre´mens. He had his father’s
craving for strong drink; for a boy’s head inside is often like the
father’s, just as his hair, eyes, and features are like his.
ELMER: What a dreadful thing alcohol must be!
MOTHER: But it is guilty of other wrongs than these. Nearly all the
people who go to the insane asylums are sent there by it. It fills the
prisons with men and women, because it makes them unsafe to go free. It
sends people to the poor-house, and brings poverty, sickness, distress,
and broken hearts to thousands of people. No tongue can tell the
misery, sorrow, suffering, and agony it brings.
HELEN: And isn’t more money spent for alcohol than for tobacco?
MOTHER: Yes; the flames rise higher from the money thrown into this
fire than from the other. Nine hundred million dollars, or about one
hundred and eighty-six million pounds, are spent each year for this
murderer. Twice as much money is spent for alcohol as is used to buy
bread. Just think of it! But we can not even imagine this great waste
in money alone. Then add to that the sickness, tears, broken hearts,
ruined homes, the many deaths caused by it, and we can only wonder that
alcohol has not been banished from the world, never to return. It is
such a monster of evil that we can not understand it.
PERCY: But, mother, if people only knew how much it costs, and how much
harm it does, would they not let it alone?
MOTHER: Many would, and we must do all that we can to help and teach
them. Every one who suffers from alcohol should have our pity. You have
learned in our past talks how it does harm to the stomach, the liver,
the muscles, and the lungs, and, most of all, to the brain and nerves.
Just as this alcohol hardened the meat and egg, so alcohol works in
our bodies to hurt and destroy the wonderful living rooms of which the
body-house is made.
Alcohol is a liar. Listen to what the wisest man who ever lived says
about it: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and who-so-ev´er
is deceived thereby is not wise.”
Alcohol says, “I am a food, and will make your body warm.”
Truth says: “It’s a lie. You do not feed any part of the body. It is
true that you make it feel a little warmer for a time, because all the
servants work so hard to throw you out; but the whole body is colder
afterward than at first.”
Alcohol says, “I will make your body so plump and fat that you will
look very healthy.”
Truth says: “It is true that you make the body fat. The liver ought to
weigh about four pounds, and you have made it sometimes weigh as much
as fifty. The fat you give is disease, not strength.”
Alcohol says, “I will help you digest your food.”
Truth says, “You hinder di-ges´tion, and make the food unfit to make
good blood.”
Alcohol says, “Let me come in, and I will make you merry.”
Truth says: “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath con-ten´tions? who
hath babbling [foolish talk]? who hath wounds without cause? who hath
redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek
mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth
his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. AT THE LAST IT
BITETH LIKE A SERPENT, AND STINGETH LIKE AN ADDER.”
“Take a drink? No, not I!
Reason teaches better
Than to bind my very soul
With a galling fetter.
Water, sweet and cool and free,
Has no cruel chains for me.
“Take a drink? No, not I!
I have seen too many
Foolish men by taking drinks
Stripped of every penny.
Water, sweet and cool and clear,
Costs me nothing all the year.
“Take a drink? No, never!
By God’s blessing _never_
Will I touch, or taste, or smell,
Henceforth and forever!
Water, sweet and clear and cool,
Makes no man a slave or fool.”
—_S. S. Times._
CHARACTER OF THE MASTER
MOTHER: We have now taken a hasty look at the larger rooms in the
body-house. I hope that the short visit we have made to each will
create in you all a wish to know more about them. Do not think you
have learned it all; for we have only begun to study its beauties and
wonders.
HELEN: But why do we need to know so much about it?
MOTHER: That you may be able to care for it properly, and “glorify God
in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” We are not our own,
and some day we must give account for the way in which we have treated
this holy temple given into our care. “Whether therefore ye eat, or
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
The house we live in was not made for us simply to look at and admire
its beauty. It was made to be useful, as well as beautiful. We have
brains, to think and plan. We have eyes, to see what needs to be done,
and ears, to hear what we are told to do. We have two hands, with ten
fingers, which makes it easy for us to handle different objects; and
they must be taught to be skilful. We also have two feet, to carry us
wherever work needs to be done. A doll may be pretty, but it is not
very useful, for it can not do anything.
PERCY: And there seems to be plenty of work to be done everywhere.
MOTHER: There certainly is! Just think of how many houses must be
built, how many clothes must be made, how many breakfasts and dinners
must be cooked, how many schools there are to teach, how many fields to
plow, sow, and reap, how many books and papers to be made that we may
have something to read, and ever so many other kinds of work to be done
to make ourselves and others comfortable and happy.
AMY: Can we children help?
MOTHER: Yes, indeed; there is something for every boy and girl to do in
lifting burdens, and making the world better and brighter because they
have lived in it.
ELMER: What can boys do?
MOTHER: One of the best things which can be said of any boy is that
he is a real help at home. Of course he should go to school and learn
many things there; but he should also learn to work. A boy can learn
to drive a team, plow, hoe, plant, rake, and do the different kinds
of work to be done on a farm or in a shop. He should learn how to use
tools, the hammer, saw, plane, and others; for almost every man at some
time in his life needs to have knowledge of this kind.
PERCY: Should boys ever do housework, mother?
MOTHER: It is no disgrace to them to know how to wash dishes, make a
bed, sweep a floor, or to set the table. If they can do such things
they will be a help to mother as well as to father. They may bring
in the wood and coal, and so save many steps for mother and sister.
Nothing that a boy can do in the house makes him unmanly. It rather
marks as a true gentleman one who is able and willing to do whatever
needs to be done, no matter what it is. There is one other thing that
he should not fail to learn.
HELEN: What is that?
MOTHER: To keep his own room in order. He should hang up his clothes,
and have a place in which to keep his things, and see that they are
kept there. There is no reason why a boy’s sister should hang up his
coat and hat, put away his books, or keep his room in order. He can do
all these things for himself. I once went into a boy’s room after he
had dressed to go for a visit. It looked as though a small cyclone had
passed through it. Soiled clothes were on the table and under the bed.
A muddy boot was on a chair, and his jacket and trousers were thrown
in a heap in a corner. The bed was unmade. Dirty water stood in the
wash-basin. The comb was on the floor. All was confusion and disorder.
A dis-or´der-ly boy makes a dis-or´der-ly man.
ELMER: But you haven’t told us what the girls should do.
MOTHER: Some girls seem to think that if they can have a pale face,
white hands, and a slender form, this makes them ladies. But a girl
can be healthy, strong, and useful without being rough, coarse, or
unladylike. Perhaps you have seen girls who thought it was all right
for their mothers to cook, wash, scrub, and do all that must be done in
a home, but who seemed to think that their own hands were too pretty
and were not made to do that kind of work. Some one ought to whisper
to such girls that their hands are no better than their mother’s. Their
hands have ten fingers, just as hers have. They were made to work, just
as hers were; and they should be trained to be so loving and helpful
that those persons for whom they care most will not stop to ask if they
are white or brown.
[Illustration: _Learning to sew._]
HELEN: I am not afraid to use my hands, mother. What shall they be
taught to do?
MOTHER: How to wash, to sweep, scrub, cook, and sew; how to make a bed,
and sweep in the very best way; how to wash and iron well. It may be
that girls who do this kind of work will get tired, and their backs and
arms will ache, but it will not hurt them. A night’s sleep will rest
the muscles and make them ready for another day’s work. It is right for
girls to excel at school; but while studying their books, they should
learn to be useful and lighten the burdens at home.
AMY: But should girls work out-of-doors, mother?
MOTHER: If they live where they can, it is well for them to do so, at
least to learn how to do some of the lighter work that comes to father
and brothers. They should be able to milk a cow, harness a horse, make
a garden, and do some of the lighter kinds of farm-work. Miss Frances
Willard was taught this when a girl, and it proved to be a lifelong
blessing. But in this, our last talk, we will take just a peep at the
rooms in which the master of the body-house lives. In these rooms no
one may enter but the master himself.
PERCY: But where shall we find these rooms?
MOTHER: They are in the _mind_. I must tell you before we go further
that they are our _thoughts_. I can not tell what you think about, and
you can not tell what is in my mind, only as we put our thoughts into
words. I wish I could help every boy and girl to feel how important it
is to have clean, good thoughts. “As he _thinketh_ in his heart, so
_is_ he;” that is, a person is no better than his thoughts are, and he
is just as good. If the thoughts are wrong, the person is all wrong, no
matter how good he may appear to be.
HELEN: I found a little poem about our thoughts and put it in my
scrap-book. May I read it, mother?
MOTHER: Please do; I know we all want to hear it.
HELEN: Here it is:—
“There were idle thoughts came in at the door,
And warmed their little toes,
And did more mischief about the house
Than any one living knows.
“They scratched the tables and broke the chairs,
And soiled the floor and wall;
For a motto was written above the door,
‘There’s a welcome here for all.’
“When the master saw the mischief done,
He closed it with hope and fear,
And he wrote above, ‘Let none
Save good thoughts enter here.’
“And the good little thoughts came trooping in,
When he drove the others out;
They cleaned the walls, they swept the floor,
And sang as they moved about.
“And last of all an angel came,
With a kindly, shining face,
And above the door he wrote, ‘Here
Love has found a dwelling-place.’”
MOTHER: That is very good. Let us all take for our motto, “Let none
save good thoughts enter here.” Now I think you understand that as we
are talking of passing through different rooms, we mean that we are in
the “chambers of the mind,” and we imagine that we are looking at a
person’s thoughts. We will look inside of just a few rooms, and from
them we can form an idea of the rest.
ELMER: Where shall we go first?
MOTHER: I think you will like to look in here, where the master keeps
his pets. He is fond of birds, cats, dogs, and all kinds of animals;
and where this room is large in the mind, you will find the master kind
to them all. He will not give them pain if he can help it, and takes
pleasure in making them happy.
AMY: I think I should like to visit this room often.
MOTHER: In this smaller room he keeps his money. Sometimes this room is
so small, and he cares for it so poorly, that he wastes about all that
he gets, and keeps very little. In some houses this room is very large,
and the master lives here nearly all the time. His greatest delight
is to shut himself in and count his money over and over. He becomes
very selfish by doing in this way, and he will not part with what he
has either for his own comfort or that of others. People who have such
large rooms, and use them in this way, are called misers.
PERCY: I don’t want to be one.
MOTHER: I am glad you do not. It is best to have only a medium-sized
room of this kind. Here is the room where Taste sends his messages.
If the room is very large, you may be sure that the master enjoys
nothing so much as something good to eat. This is not a good room in
which to spend much of one’s time, though every one should visit it
several times each day. There are quite a number of small rooms not
far from this one. In one the master goes to study his a-rith´me-tic.
In another, he measures things. In another, he has a pair of scales to
weigh them. In another, he keeps samples of all shades of colors. But
we can not stop in these small rooms.
Ah, here is Memory Hall! Many persons like to spend most of their time
here. See what a great number of pictures are hanging on the wall.
HELEN: O mother, let us stop and look at some of them!
MOTHER: Perhaps I should first tell you that the master of every house
is all the time making pictures, whether he is an artist or not. His
acts, good and bad, make pictures in the mind. When they are finished,
he hangs them in this hall. Some are in dark corners, and he hardly
ever looks at them after they are made; he even forgets that he made
them. The masters of some houses spend many happy hours in this hall.
Others do not like to go near it. Their pain or pleasure depends on the
kind of pictures they have made. I have seen some who would weep in
sorrow of heart as they looked over the different pictures that they
had hung there, and some they would not for anything have any one see.
There is only One who can take away these sinful pictures, but He can
make them white as snow.
ELMER: Then we ought to have all our actions such that pleasant
pictures will be hung in our hall of memory.