Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/241

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THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL.
231

or more, with women than with men, inasmuch as we have all the power we need to remedy the wrongs complained of, and yet we do not use it for that end. It is my deep conviction that all reasonable and conscientious men of our age, and especially of our country, are not only willing but anxious to provide for the good of our sex. They will gladly bestow all that is just, reasonable, and kind, whenever we unite in asking in the proper spirit and manner. In the half a century since I began to work for the education and relief of my sex, I have succeeded so largely by first convincing intelligent and benevolent women that what I aimed at was right and desirable, and then securing their influence with their fathers, brothers, and husbands, and always with success."

Miss Beecher, like Mrs. Willard and Mrs. Phelps, made textbooks for the use of her own seminaries, and her Arithmetic, and Mental and Moral Philosophy, and Applied Theology were among the educational forces of her day. It is one of the significant signs of the times that science and education, as well as philanthropy, are occupying themselves just now with childhood and motherhood and housewifery. Mrs. Willard's high ideal of womanliness is beginning to be set forth by the electric light of modern thought.

THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL.

By Dr. CHARLES ERNEST PELLEW.

I.

IN studying the history of alcoholic beverages we are at once brought face to face with the fact that there has hardly been a nation on the face of the globe which has not used some variety of stimulant or narcotic. In almost every instance this has been some form of alcohol, and in a few cases where alcohol has been unknown, and tobacco, opium, hemp, or some other drug used in its stead, the introduction of alcohol has been followed at once by its use and, alas! its abuse. A curious example of this is given in the account of Henry Hudson's famous voyage in 1609, when he discovered the Hudson River. The Indian chief and warriors waited for him on the shore of Manhattan Island, prepared to sacrifice to the great "manito in red." He landed, with a few of his crew, and pouring out some rum into a glass, drank it to their health, and then passed a cupful round to the Indians. One after another they shrank from it, evidently fearing that it contained a deadly poison. At last one, bolder than the rest, drank it down, and soon began to reel and stagger, and finally fell. His companions were horror-struck. But soon he recovered