THE REASON WHY | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 10.

THE REASON WHY.

THE other day I saw a poor little boy looking into a baker’s store window. There were cakes and pies and bread all spread out, and he looked very hungry. A kind lady came near and asked him if he was hungry. “Oh, so hungry, ma’am!” he said. She gave him some pennies, and he went into the store and bought some rolls. He did not eat them all himself, but ran down the street to where a little barefooted girl was standing, and gave half of the rolls to her. They ate as if they were starved.

The lady asked him, “Why are you so hungry and ragged?”

“Father drinks,” said the boy, and then the lady knew all about it. She knew that liquor drinking costs money, and makes people poor. If a man should love milk and buy it for drink, it would not make him poor; oh, no! because he would only drink when he needed it. Eating beefsteak will not make a man poor, because he wants it when he is hungry. The milk and meat would do him good and make him strong. But bad liquor does not do this. It makes a man keep wanting it, and his money goes for that, instead of good food for his family. It makes him sick and lazy, and he cannot work. That is why so many children are ragged and hungry.—Christian Advocate.