d good.
But I am thankful that I did not lend the weight of a straw to the
downward slide. "Woe unto him that putteth the cup to his neighbor's
lips!" says the Book of books. There might be subjoined, "Or helps to
hold it there when the neighbor's own hand has lifted it!"

Had I my way, not one drop of intoxicating liquors should be sold,
except by druggists, and then only by a physician's prescription.
For--and here comes the answer to the second part of my querist's
appeal--I hold that pure brandy, wine and whiskey are of inestimable
value as medicine. I know that the judicious use of them as
restoratives has saved many lives. I know, too, how nearly worthless
they are where the system of the patient is used to them as daily or
frequent beverages.

I hold, furthermore, that there is no sin or even danger--unless the
taste be already enkindled--in the occasional use of them in the
kitchen, as one would handle vanilla, lemon or bitter-almond flavoring
extracts. I do not believe that a single drunkard was ever made by the
tablespoonful of wine that goes into a half pint of pudding-sauce, or
the wineglassful that "brightens" a quart of jelly. Every house-mother
knows for whom she is catering. If one of her family or guests already
loves and craves the stimulant, it is prudent to omit it. The same man
would be tempted by the wine of the consecrated cup. When the disease
of inebriety has gone thus far she cannot save him, but she can look
to it that her hand does not give the final touch, which is death.

I have written frankly, and I think temperately. I am not a "crank"
upon this--I hope not upon any subject. I am a temperance woman who
does not scruple to avow what is her practice, as well as her belief.
That thousands of better people than I will think my creed goes too
far, and as many that it stops short of temporal and spiritual safety,
ought not to trouble me. Upon the individual conscience lies the
responsibility of principle and action. Yet holding as I do that each
of us is his brother's keeper, I lift my hand in protest against the
crying sin of the age, and the mistaken toleration of good people with
that which leads to it.

CHAPTER XXXII.

FAMILY MUSIC.

Our grandfathers and our grandmothers were drilled in vocal music in
the church or neighboring singing-school. In that day--and for
twenty-five years later--almost every household possessed and made
frequent use of the Boston Academy, the Carmi