saloons, and treating customs, combined with our trying climate and
nervous organizations, render moderate drinking practically impossible.
They must choose between the safe and sure way of total abstinence, or
the fatal plunge into drunkenness and disgrace. And if those who are
endowed with cooler heads and stronger nerves are mindful of their
social duty to these weaker brethren, among whom are some of the most
generous and noble-hearted of our acquaintances and friends, then for
the sake of these more sorely tempted ones, and for the sake of their
mothers, wives, and sisters to whom a drunken son, husband, or brother
is a sorrow worse than death, they will forego a trifling pleasure in
order to avert the ruin that their example would otherwise help to bring
on the lives, fortunes, and families of others.

+Fatal fascination of the opium habit.+--What has been said of alcoholic
drink is equally true of opium. The habit of using opium is easy to form
and almost impossible to break. The secret workings of this poison upon
the mind and will of its victim are most insidious and fatal.

+Tobacco a serious injury to growing persons.+--On this point all
teachers are unanimous. Statistics taken at the naval school at
Annapolis, at Yale College, and elsewhere, show that the use of tobacco
is the exception with scholars at the head, and the rule with scholars
at the foot of the class.

Shortly after we began to take statistics on this point in Bowdoin
College I asked the director of the gymnasium what was the result with
the Freshman class? "Oh," he said, "the list of the smokers is
substantially the same as that which was reported the other day for
deficiencies in scholarship." A prominent educator, who had given
considerable attention to this subject, after spending an hour in my
recitation room with a class of college seniors, indicated with perfect
accuracy the habitual and excessive smokers, simply by noting the eye,
manner, and complexion.

Tobacco, used in early life, tends to stunt the growth, weaken the eyes,
shatter the nervous system, and impair the powers of physical endurance
and mental application. No candidate for a college athletic team, or
contestant in a race, would think of using tobacco while in training.
Every man who wishes to keep himself in training for the highest prizes
in business and professional life must guard his early years from the
deterioration which this habit invariably brings.

THE PE