Sarah F. Buckelew

“ Yes, this is only some of the mischief done by alcohol. If you could fly around the world and see everybody who has been hurt in any way by this terrible poison, what a sad, sad sight you would behold! At least half the trouble in the world comes from strong drink. ”

“ How does the tobacco poison hurt their minds?—"They cannot learn fast; they often forget what they have learned."
What often makes tobacco-chewers, snuffers, and smokers disagreeable to clean people?—"Their breath smells of tobacco; their clothes smell of tobacco; they poison the air with tobacco-fumes; some have the filthy habit of spitting tobacco-juice wherever they happen to be."
What other harm does the use of tobacco do to people?—"It makes them waste time and money; it leads some to drink alcoholic liquors and to go with bad company." ”

“ More about the Harm done by Tobacco.—Some persons who continue to use tobacco are strong enough to throw off the poison through the lungs, the skin, and in other ways; but how much better it would be if they were not obliged to employ their strength in getting rid of that which does them no good, which only gives a little pleasure to nobody but themselves, and often makes those suffer who are compelled to remain where they are having "a good smoke." Beside, their breath and clothing have the tobacco odor, which not only makes the air impure, but is disagreeable to most people. ”

“ It did nothing but mischief in its journey, which shows that it is not food, but poison. God, who created the body, has not given any part of it power to change alcohol into blood.
People sometimes take ale or wine because they think it gives them an appetite. This is a great mistake. When any alcoholic liquor goes into the stomach, there is such hard work to get it out that the pain of hunger is not felt; when it is out, the stomach is tired and does not tell the brain that it is hungry. ”

“ But why do we say such hard things against these liquors which some people love so well and think so harmless? In what way do they hurt and kill people? Let us see. Where does what we drink go after it has been put into the mouth?—"Into the stomach." If it were the right thing to go into the stomach, into what would it be changed?—"Into something which helps to make good blood." ”

“ There is great excitement when there is a mad dog around; and, if any one is bitten and dies from the dreadful hydrophobia, people are ready to destroy all the dogs of the neighborhood; but when a drunkard dies from delirium tremens or alcohol craziness, how few take any notice of the cause of his death, or do all they can to wage war against the use of alcoholic liquors. ”

“ When alcohol is poured into it, day after day, it loses its desire for good, wholesome food, and wants more and more alcoholic liquor. It has an appetite for alcohol.
Alcohol makes the stomach sore and full of disease; people who take much of it in liquors always suffer much from dyspepsia.
So, if the stomach could speak, it would say: "Don't pour any alcohol into me, though you mix it and call it ale, cider, wine, or any other name that makes folks think it will do me no harm. You cannot deceive me. I know alcohol as soon as it comes down, and it always makes me suffer." ”

“ The poor stomach could do nothing with dinner mixed with whiskey or rum, because these liquors are half alcohol.
You have already learned that the stomach hurries to drive out the alcohol into the liver; the liver sends it with the blood into the heart; the heart pours it into the lungs; the lungs breathe it out through the nose and mouth, and tell that some kind of alcoholic liquor has been taken into the stomach. ”

“ The Kidneys, which lie in the back below the waist, on each side of the spine, send off some of the poison.
Yet some of it gets into the brain, and there does very much mischief, of which you will learn more by and by. You know, if the brain is hurt, the mind cannot do its work of thinking properly; thus, alcohol does great harm to the mind through the brain.
The muscles and the bones are hurt by not being supplied with pure blood; the heart gets tired out with overwork, and the lungs become diseased through this same terrible alcohol. ”

“ Tobacco, as we have already told you, poisons more slowly. People do not swallow it purposely, yet some of it goes down, accidentally, into the stomach with the saliva, and makes trouble there, causing nausea and vomiting when taken for the first time. By and by the stomach seems to take the poison without being hurt, but it really suffers from dyspepsia or other diseases, and often loses its appetite for wholesome food. ”

“ These little bodies float in the fluid portion of the blood, and go to every part of the body to help keep it alive and healthy. When alcohol hurts them, they turn into a poor kind of fat, like suet, and cannot do any good. They stay in different parts and do much harm. Sometimes they lodge between the muscles, and make a person look strong because plump; but he is not strong, for his muscles are filled with fat.
Sometimes the liver or the heart, which are only large muscles, become so heavy and soft with fat that they cannot do their work properly ”

“ Raw alcohol does not do much harm to people because it is too strong for them to drink much of it; but the alcohol hidden in cider, ale, wine, whiskey, and other alcoholic drinks kills not less than sixty thousand persons in this country every year, besides those who die from its use in other parts of the world. ”

“ Some muscles support and move the various parts of the body, others have different work to do. The heart, the great involuntary muscle, acts like an engine to drive the blood throughout the body; the lungs draw in and throw out the air in breathing; the stomach helps to churn and change food into blood ”

“ You have been learning about the poison alcohol, and what mischief is done by it; we will now study about another poison which thousands of persons are using every day. It is rolled in cigars and cigarettes, and hidden in snuff and pieces of tobacco, and does more harm to children and young people who use these things than to grown persons. ”

“ Some of the alcohol does not get out of the lungs through the breath, but goes with the blood back to the heart, and from the heart is sent through the arteries to every part of the body. No part of the body wants it. ”

“ Alcohol can be obtained only by fermentation. By fermentation we mean the change which takes place when a juice containing sugar decays, or goes to pieces. You know decay always makes things fall to pieces.
You ask, what pieces is sugar made of? Very, very little pieces, called atoms. There are different kinds of sugar. In that made from grapes, called grape sugar, there are six atoms of carbon, twelve of hydrogen, and six of oxygen. What are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen? Oxygen is the kind of gas which keeps animals alive, and makes things burn. ”

“ If two or more liquids are mixed together, the one that boils with the least heat will be drawn off first. The alcohol of beer, cider, and wines is mixed with water; it boils at a lower heat than water, so can be drawn off from it very easily. This does not make more alcohol, it only makes the alcohol stronger by separating it from the water.
When beer or any other alcoholic liquor is to be distilled, it is poured into a large copper boiler, called a still, and boiled. A tube carries the vapor from the boiler into a cask filled with cold water. ”

“ Some one who has studied this subject, says that "nine out of ten of the boys and young men who become drunkards have first learned to smoke or chew tobacco." A New York daily paper gave a list of 294 cases of insanity caused by drinking, in 246 of which the whiskey drinking followed tobacco chewing.
Tobacco and alcohol make thousands of wretched homes, and send a great many people to prison or to the insane asylum; so we entreat you to turn from beer, wine, and all alcoholic liquors as you would from a serpent, and say No, when tempted to smoke a cigar or use tobacco in any form. ”

“ Very often the tired, overworked, weakened heart suddenly stops beating, and the person who would keep on drinking beer, wine, brandy, or rum falls down dead. "Died from heart disease," people say, when the truth is, died from drinking alcoholic liquors.
To the Lungs.—What are the lungs?—"The breathing-machines of the body." What do they throw out?—"Bad air." What do they take in?—"Fresh air." In pure air there is a good kind of gas which is necessary to keep us alive; this gas is called oxygen.
When air is taken into the lungs, the oxygen mixes with the blood in them and makes it pure. ”

“ Iron puddlers, glass blowers, and athletic trainers, all do their work now better without alcoholic liquors.
[98]
A CHANGE IN AFFAIRS.—A poor boy was once put as an apprentice to a mechanic; and, as he was the youngest, he was obliged to go for beer for the older apprentices, though he never drank it. In vain they teased and taunted him to induce him to drink; he never touched it. Now there is a great change. Every one of those older apprentices became a drunkard, while this temperance boy has become a master, and has more than a hundred men in his employ. So much for total abstinence. ”

“ Thus the blood in the lungs cannot be properly purified, and goes back to the heart impure blood which is unfit to be used.
The lungs are also obliged to work faster when alcohol is in them, because with the heart they are striving to drive out the enemy. This makes the lungs tired, sore, and inflamed. They are not as strong to do their work, and are more likely to breathe in any contagious disease than are the lungs of people who do not drink alcoholic liquors. ”

“ The spinal cord is a bundle of nerves extending from the base of my brain, down through the whole length of my spine, or backbone. It is the largest nerve in my body.
10. From the spine, thirty-one pairs of nerves, called spinal nerves, pass to different parts of my body; some to the lungs, some to the heart, some to the stomach, some to the bones, and some to the muscles and skin.
11. If a nerve be destroyed it cannot carry messages to and from the brain. Before filling a tooth, the dentist sometimes destroys its nerve.
12. If a nerve be pressed upon too long it cannot perform its duty. ”

“ Since all this is true, wise children will let cider, lager, ale, wine, and every other kind of alcoholic drink alone, and never, NEVER,
"Put an enemy into their mouths,
To steal away their brains."
MORE ABOUT THE HARM DONE BY ALCOHOL.
In the lessons you have learned you have been taught about the harm done by alcohol to the body and the mind; can you tell, from what you have seen of drunken people, in what other way alcoholic liquors hurt them?—"They make people waste their money; they make them waste their time; they make them cross; they make them fight ”

“ Why must you live in the sunlight?—"Because the sunlight helps to purify the blood and strengthen the body."
Why must you wear loose clothing?—"Because tight clothing stops the circulation of the blood."
Why must you avoid tight-lacing?—"Because tight-lacing crowds the ribs against the lungs, so that the lungs cannot move freely."
Why should you wear clean clothing?—"That nothing impure may pass into the body through the pores of the skin."
Why should you keep the body clean?—"That the pores of the skin may not be closed, but remain open to let the perspiration pass through." ”

“ You say "the inner membrane is a net-work of blood-vessels." If these are blood-vessels in the membranes, what fills them?—"Blood." Do you think alcohol can get into the brain?—"Yes." How can it get there?—"It goes there with the blood." How can we know that alcohol does mischief in the brain? You cannot answer? Did you never see a drunken man? Now tell me how you might know his brain has been hurt by alcohol.—"He talks funny; he acts strangely; he is very cross; he does not know what he is doing; he walks crookedly; he falls down; sometimes he falls asleep, and is almost like a dead man ”

“ Liquors made from grain are called malt liquors. Lager beer, and all kinds of ales and porters, are malt liquors. They make people dull, sluggish, and stupid who drink much of them. They do much mischief in the body, though it takes a larger quantity of any one of them to make a person drunk than it does of whiskey or brandy.
SUB-FERMENTED GRAPE SUGAR MAKES 2 atoms of carbonic acid gas and 2 atoms of alcohol. ”

“ As the vapor passes through the tube, it cools and drops out at the end into the worm-tub, changed into a liquid stronger in alcohol than that from which it was drawn or distilled.
In this way gin is made from beer, brandy from wine, and rum from fermented molasses. These are very strong drinks, and only hard drinkers like them. But very few people begin by taking these; they first learn to like alcohol by drinking cider, beer, or wine, and end with gin, whiskey, or rum when they have become drunkards. ”

“ If alcohol is in the lungs, it hardens the walls of their air-cells, and keeps out the oxygen or good gas; at the same time it keeps in the impure gas, called nitrogen, which ought to come out through the nose and mouth into the air. ”

“ The waist was too small for a grown person, and could only have been made so by tight-lacing. The child had been taught that dresses, corsets, coats, vests, bands, or anything fastened tightly around the waist, press upon the ribs and crowd them out of place, preventing the heart, lungs, and other inside organs from working as they should, causing headache, dyspepsia, shortness of breath, and often ending in some incurable disease, so she knew that tight clothing means trouble to the wearer. ”