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Temperance in the Home

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 1, 1908

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 40.

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Temperance in the Home

By Augusta C. Bainbridge

AUGUSTA C. BAINBRIDGE
“Who were those two gaily dressed girls you spoke to on the car, Nathan?” said Mrs. Neal, after they arrived at home. “I did not see them on the beach where we were.”
“No, they were at the fair-grounds, farther up. They go to our school, and are working at the fair this vacation. They are ‘gum girls.’ There are twenty-five of them, and they dress in various costumes. The girls we saw wore Swiss costumes. They get one dollar a day, and a commission on all sales. They work five hours after lunch, and three hours after dinner, in the evening. Minnie Cramer, the taller one, told me she made three dollars and seventy-five cents to-day.”
“Who would think twenty-five girls would find employment selling gum?” said Pearl.
“And who would want to sell it?” said Mrs. Neal.
“Why not, Hannah?” asked Mr. Neal, with a knowing look at Nathan. “It’s good to chew.”
“No doubt ‘it’s good to chew,’” repeated Mrs. Neal, “but how about the chewer?”
“Here is some; you may try it,” said Nathan, smilingly producing a dainty package.
The look on Mrs. Neal’s face was a study, and boded no good for Nathan. His father came quickly to the rescue.
“Now, Hannah, don’t look like that. Tell us why you have such an aversion to gum,” said Mr. Neal.
“It is such a reversal of things,” she said.
“How is that?” asked Nathan, who was now interested.
“The chewing produces saliva when it is not needed in the mouth, for gum is not food; and it pours the saliva into the stomach, where it is not wanted at all. Then it weakens the glands, so that they can not produce the best quality of saliva when it is needed. It causes a nervous disease that keeps the jaws in motion. This is a very serious disorder, is hard to cure, and even if it does not reach that stage, it too often leads to chewing tobacco.”
“A pretty hard character for such an innocent little package,” said Nathan, looking very serious. “Here, mother, you may have it. If it is so bad as that, I do not want it.” And he tossed it on the table.
“I wonder how this would lead to tobacco-using,” said Pearl.
“Just the chewing of it. When one has chewed gum, it is not such a long step to take up chewing tobacco, filthy as it is,” said Mr. Neal.
“Is chewing worse than smoking, father?”
“Yes; it wastes the saliva in the first place; for tobacco-chewers should spit out all the saliva that the chewing brings into the mouth. If they swallow it, the delicate surface of the stomach would be greatly irritated by the poisonous liquid. Some of it is unavoidably swallowed, and from the stomach the poison reaches every organ of the body.”
“I notice the great outcry against it, is its use by young people,” said Pearl.
“Yes, the finer the tissues, as in youth, the more serious is the injury,” added Mr. Neal.
“Now, John,” said Mrs. Neal, “before you take up your paper, tell us what are considered its most harmful effects.”
“A customer at the drug-store offered Mr. Bond’s cat, the large Maltese, a taste of a plug from which he had just gnawed a bite. Kitty ran away in haste, sneezing and coughing, after which she gave her whiskers, in fact, her whole face and paws, an extra washing,” said Mr. Neal. “This led to quite a talk on the subject. Mr. Bond said that tobacco stunts the growth of the young, in that it loads the blood with narcotic poisons. It often shatters the nerves of young people, and dulls the action of the brain. This latter fact has been noticed by educators. The school work of a tobacco-user is of such low grade that it reduces the class average, thus lowering the scholarship of the school. For that reason many of our educational institutions refuse to admit tobacco-users, particularly cigarette-smokers.”
“They are talking about that in Melton, father. I would not wonder if they came to it by the time the new high school is built,” said Nathan. “Professor Simpson says boys have no right to accept their education from the state, and then spit or blow it away.”
“But all who use tobacco do not suffer like that, do they, father?” asked Pearl.
“No; many escape these evils, only to hand them down to their children and grandchildren,” replied Mr. Neal.
“Did you know that the legislature of Germany has strictly forbidden the use of tobacco to youths under sixteen years of age?” asked Mrs. Neal. “It is declared that its use lessens their capacity of service to the state, particularly in military service.”
“That means much to Germany,” said Mr. Neal.
“In this last prison report that I received from the leader of our Young People’s Society I find that of the six hundred prisoners confined for crimes committed while under the influence of drink, five hundred of them testified that they began their intemperance by the use of tobacco,” said Pearl. “And though I would like to earn some money this vacation, I’ll not be a ‘gum girl,’”—and the little package that started the discussion was thrown into the grate.
San Francisco, Cal.