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Temperance in the Home

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 28, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 4.

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Temperance in the Home

By Augusta C. Bainbridge

AUGUSTA C. BAINBRIDGE
“Little feet, be careful Where you take me to; Anything for Jesus Only let me do.”
So sang little Agnes while she cleared the breakfast table; and her face grew thoughtful as she asked, “How do my feet know where to take me?”
“Your will tells them.”
“How, mama?”
“Your will is like a telegraph operator. Its office is the brain, and when it wants your feet to move, it sends an order along the telegraph wires, the nerves, to the muscles, and they move your limbs.”
“Then I’m like a railroad.”
“Yes, dear, somewhat. You are like a railroad that is run by telegraph. The train despatcher is all the time sending telegrams to the conductors, telling them how to run their trains.”
“Who is my train despatcher?”
“Mr. Will. He is your train despatcher, and his office is in your brain.”
“Well, Mr. Will, you must make my train go right,” said Agnes. “I don’t want any accidents like the one they had at Erie the other day. Do body-trains like me ever have accidents, mama?”
“Yes, dear. When the office, the brain, is in good order, all goes well; but ‘a bad brain makes a bad man.’”
“Tell me about the brain, mama.”
“Come and sort the handkerchiefs and hose, dear, while we talk. You know your brain is in the skull. It is a soft, jelly-like mass, made of gray and white matter, divided in two parts called hemispheres. This part—see! hold your hands as I do mine—is the cerebrum.”
“The cerebrum, yes” (following the lead of her mama).
“Here” (moving her hands to the back part of her head), said Mrs. Ayers, “is the cerebellum, or little brain, and also the medulla oblongata.”
“The cerebrum, here; the cerebellum, here,” said Agnes, moving her hands in imitation of her mother; “and that other hard word, what is that?”
“Medulla oblongata,” slowly repeated Mrs. Ayers. “That is the part of the spinal cord that is within the brain.”
“Where is the rest of it?”
“It has a little pathway of its own down the back-bone. Put your finger on my cerebellum. That’s right. Now move your finger down the center of my back. That’s right. That is the path of the spinal cord. It reaches to the end of the spine, and sends out nerves, both right and left, to every part of the body.”
“The nerves, and this cord too, are like wires, mama, are they?”
“Yes; these little nerves go to every part of the body. Some of them carry messages of feeling, heat or cold, pleasure or pain; and some carry messages of motion.”
“What would wreck my train?”
“The greatest cause of the wrecking of real railroad trains is the use of alcoholic drinks; and in very much the same way alcoholic liquors—wine, beer, whisky, or any such drinks—put the brain, and all the nerves connected with it, out of order, so that the messages do not go right. Mr. Will might want to make his train go right; but when his office is in a state of confusion, or his wires are out of order, he can not do it.”
“I see, I see,” said Agnes; and off she went to carry the clean, freshly aired clothes to their appointed places, singing, with a clearer understanding,—
“Little feet, be careful Where you take me to; Anything for Jesus Only let me do.”
San Francisco, Cal.