pecially the officers of the Government and the masses of the children and youth.

Whiskey rings have become notorious. The profits of the trade are so enormous and the facilities for fraud so great that few men have moral principle and stamina enough to resist the temptation to cheat the Governinent. Either bad men alone engage in the manufacture and sale of liquor, or the business makes bad all who engage in it, and in either case should be prohibited.

The depravation of character among children arises chiefly from the habit of families of sending their children to the saloons to purchase beer and liquor for the use of the parents. This makes the child not only familiar with the drinking habits of the parents and of those who frequent the saloons, but also exposes them to all the scenes of revelry and violence, and all the vile language, of those hot-beds of vice.

By this early exposure the children become corrupted and hardened in the most susceptible period of life, and so are unfitted to profit by the opportunities of education afforded to them by the State. Clearly, if the State has the right to provide the means of education for all by taxation, and then to compel the attendance of the children upon schools for a limited period, she also has the right to remove any cause which so powerfully and sadly counteracts the influence and design of the schools as the liquor-traffic does.

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And the students in our higher institutions of learning appeal for protection to the State even more powerfully, if possible, than the younger children of the common schools. These students are most of them away from home, away from itørestraints and encouragements, where neither the authority nor love of parents, nor the feelings of sisters and sweethearts, nor the public opinion of those who know them, can exert their influence upon them as they have heretofore. Under these new circumstances, the young men are often tempted to indulge in the use of strong drink by a sort of reckless curiosity to know how

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it feels to be drunk, or by a desire to stimulate themselves for some extra intellectual work, or, what is more common, by the social influences of jolly companions. It is a sad but well-known fact that two or three fast young men have more power to direct a college class into sinful and foolish indulgences than five times their number have to direct them into the practice of honorable courses and customs, or than all the rest have to resist. A fear of being thought puritanical, or of being thought to be tied to a mother's or sister's apron-strings, combined with a desire to be thought a good, generous fellow and to obtain the goodwill of all, often leads a young man to begin a course of tippling; and when once such a course has been begun, it is almost impossible to stop or retrace one's steps and regain the confidence he has forfeited.

Surely every local government where these young men may be congregated in college owes it to them and to their parents, as well as to the institution and to themselves, to protect these students from these destructive influences by stringent prohibition.

Beyond the immediate protection given by prohibitory statutes and a rigid enforcement of them, these statutes have a most important bearing upon the education of the public conscience.

There are multitudes of the people who are accustomed to look no further than State laws and established customs for the determination of moral questions. Whatever has the sanction of law and of established custom is right in their estimation, and whatever is forbidden by law they soon come to consider as wrong. They believe the liquor-traffic right because it is legalized, and then they conclude that if the traffic is right the use of liquor is right, and so they feel no struples of conscience either in selling or drinking liquors, even though fear of the physical consequences might deter them from drinking. These considerations render it very important that the Government should put itself on the,side of right by all its enactments, and should take the lead in all measures for the education of

public opinion. If men will do wrong, they should be left to do so without the sanction and shield of the Government, so that the voice of the Government should always be heard speaking with divine authority against all wrong.

In closing this paper, I venture to urge upon the boards and faculties of all our high institutions of learning that they take immediate steps to secure from their respective State legislatures laws similar to that which we had in Upper Alton, and then that they enforce them rigidly at whatever cost of time, money, and personal discomfort.

The results of this would be far-reaching, radical, and revolutionary. The young men now in those institutions of learning will control the destinies of the nation at the beginning of the next century. If they shall have in their Alma Maters a practical demonstration of the efficiency of prohibitory laws to prevent the evils of intemperance on a small scale, they will be prepared to try them on a large scale, and expand over the face of the continent the charmed circles within which their own characters have been formed and their intellects trained for the work of life. And I can assure the officers of those institutions of learning that a few brave men can execute such prohibitory laws if once obtained. One can chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.

The angel of the Lord-before whose presence, as he came from heaven to roll away the stone from the sepulchre of Jesus, the Roman guard fell down as dead men-will be with them, and before his refulgent and august presence the motley hosts of intemperance-maker, vender, and drinker, and their abettors-will fall as dead men, and the temperance reform, inspired by the risen, living Christ, and depending for success on his Gospel of love and his Spirit of power, shall rise from the tomb and go forth with Christ to the conquest of the world.

The BUELL FAMILY sang a temperance rallying song.

Discussion on the paper read was postponed in order to hear a paper on "Drinking among Women and in Families," by Mrs. HELEN E. BROWN, President of the Woman's Chris

tian Temperance Union, New York; read by Mrs. SUSANNAH EVANS PECK of New York, who was under the necessity of leaving before the close of the session.

DRINKING AMONG WOMEN AND IN FAMILIES.

THE assertion that drunkenness prevails to an alarming extent among women is usually repelled with horror, and the cry of falsity and exaggeration for a time throws the temperance work and workers into disrepute. But observation and practical experience in the temperance field will carry conviction of the fact; and it is certainly the duty of every one to examine candidly the evidence presented, and accept such as can be substantiated, however humiliating or distasteful.

In the early days of the Crusade, after an urgent appeal to our brothers in a crowded assembly in behalf of total abstinence, we were met with the startling question: "Why do you always address men? There is a saloon, not two blocks from here, kept and patronized entirely by women." Twice was the remark made in our hearing by persons of a social position which gave them opportunities for knowledge," Half the ladies of wealth and fashion in New York City are unable to receive their friends after lunch." The repetition of the expression led us to enquire into the matter, and though we are constrained to believe this an over-statement, we are assured by physicians that it approximates the truth.

That inebriety among women is very common in all classes of society, is beyond doubt, but yet it is not obvious, for several reasons. The quantity of liquor taken may not be great; for it takes far less usually to intoxicate a woman than a man. The woman, when she perceives the effect of the poison draught, may retire to her couch and sleep it off; and, if disease is induced by its habitual use, there are numerous technical terms and names under which the true nature of her malady may be disguised.

Nor are the victims of this sin alone to be found, as many suppose, among the dwellers in the tenement-houses and purlieus of the city. We discover them among the educated and cultured, amid all the appliances of wealth. It is by no means an unusual occurrence to see ladies intoxicated in the streets and stores, sometimes with the pitiable addition to the scene of a little child, trying, with manifest distress, to get the sick mamma to a place of safety. We have but to live awhile in our fashionable boarding-houses' and hotels, and we shall find facts enough to corroborate the statement we have advanced. The keepers of our popular restaurants declare that they cannot maintain their business if they do not provide liquors for their lady customers. Even school-girls must have a stimulant with their noonday repast; and a private governess affirms that she can do nothing with the little pupils after lunch. Numerous and most thrilling incidents could be given and verified to confirm these statements; but similar cases are manifest to every one who has an eye open to observe.

That these habits prevail more in city than in country is also apparent. Our large cities present more inducements and more opportunities for the indulgence of this vitiated appetite. Life in the city is a perpetual whirl. Its excitements exhaust, while the so-called claims of society press, and stimulants are resorted to as a necessity to keep up the matron's strength for the busy round of duty at home and abroad. On the other hand, the daughters, unoccupied except with selfish pleasure, complain of ennui and depression which useful work would wholly dispel, and eagerly accept the cordial or tonic. The agreeable remedy in both cases is repeated as the symptoms return, until the appetite is confirmed, and Satan has wound around his victim the iron chain of habit. Then follows the rapid deterioration of body, mind, and soul, and ere long the sad finale. By solitary confinement in her own house, commitment to a lunatic or inebriate asylum, the victim is screened from public exposure, and at length the grave hides all. "I have a relative," said a lady not long since, "who is never accessible to her friends. They believe her to be a suffer