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Sociology

Poverty - by James Platt

tempt me to enter; and if they were all closed tomorrow, those that want drink would get it somehow. It is the individual who must be altered, must be cured of the feverish disease, that makes him or her want to be always tippling. Poor wretches! it is an awful life they lead, ever trying to satisfy the insatiable cravings of this, the most pitiable and revolting disease that human nature is subject to.

Mr. Francis Peek says : " Punish severely parents who waste in drink, the money which ought to go to provide for the maintenance of their families." What good would this do? If the study of history teaches us anything, it is that punishment has never stopped the commission of a crime. A man drinks under the influence of a desire within him that is beyond his power to control; the fear of punishment would never deter him. Drink -that plague-spot-must be, can only be, got rid of gradually. People must be gradually improved, so as to rise above its influence; men must be tempted to fit themselves for better wages, from a desire to have more comfortable homes ; they must be taught to think, to excel in their work, to choose the work for which there is a demand, to go where there is plenty of work, to knew the value of their labour, to realize that their wages can only be in accordance with what their work will realize, Gradually raise their mental and moral status ; slowly, but surely, let the human supplant the animal within them, and slowly, but surely, intemperance in drink and other things will be conquered by higher and healthier desires within. Without this elevation of the habits and thoughts of the people, no improvement in their homes will be of much avail. Read the most harrowing